Pearson College, Pearson College, hmm..
So all the time you guys hear me talking about Pearson College. But what exactly is Pearson College about and how is Pearson life???
I think I ought to start with the academical part.
The Lester B. Pearson College, United World College of the Pacific is one of the currently 12 United World College's around the world, situated in Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It follows the International Baccalaureate programm (IB) and so there are 6 subjects which one chooses out of 6 subject pools. My subjects are:
A1 language: German, Foreign Language: French B Higher, Arts: Music, Social Studies: Philosophy, Science: Environmental Systems and Maths: Maths Standard.
I'm really passionate about my subjects, especially Music and Philosophy which I will be taking both on Higher Level next year (in the second year, students choose which subjects are to be taken on Higher or Standard Level and one must take at least 3 higher levels).
My day pretty much always starts at about 6:30 am. I have half an hour time to take a shower, dress up etc. and then go for breakfast at 7:00 am. We have stuff like toast, jam, brown sugar, various cerials, porrige and Oranges for breakfast. (Breakfast is my personal favourite meal.. hehe)
Then I work out for a while until classes begin, so for about 20-25 minutes.
We usually have 5 classes every day at the highest. It really sounds like little (compared to my 10 hours every day in Austria for example), but the day isn't stressless since activities and things like National Day practices pile up on the time schedule.
And something which contributes to Pearson life... the cookie break!! :D After the first 2 classes, there's 15 minutes of COOKÎE BREAK!! It's what makes Pearsonites.. Pearsonites! ^^ The cafeteria staff cooks lots of cookies or also muffins and the students can then take up to 2 cookies (so that there's enough for everyone else) and especially on chocolate chip cookie day, students turn into zombies screaming: "COOKIE BREEEEAK!!!" :)
Aaaanyhow.. After the next 2 lessons we have lunch break for an hour and then the last lesson.
Students usually have activities after that. The activities are divided into 3 groups: Social activities, outdoor leadership activities and creative activities. Students must take at least one from each group within the 2 years at Pearson College and so most students take 3 activities within one year (2 are the minimum).
I have 5 activities and they are: Ukranian Dance, Special Needs Teens, Choir, Singers and Martial Arts. Sounds like a lot? It is.. ^^ And nevertheless I seem to manage my time well..
Ukranian Dance is a lot of fun, but to be honest.. it's REALLY tiring!! We practice for the big Ukranian Dance act for the One World show in February and the dance is 12 minutes long. If ever you happen to try out Ukranian Dance for the first time, you'll realise that 5 minutes can already be tiring..
Special Needs Teens is a social activity in which we go to Metchosin and do games or activities with teens with special needs. We haven't started this activity yet (looong story.. ^^ has to do with teachers lucking their driving licence.. hehe) but we are supposed to start it this coming 2nd term after the winter break.
The choir is also called the 100 voice choir and is a lot of fun. I especially love the voice practices we do before we start singing our songs. The choir also performs on special events such as Metchosin day, Metchosin Christmas concert or the One World festival.
Singers is similar to choir; it's a smaller choir with about 17-19 people who go through an auditioning. About 50 auditioned this year.
I must say that Singers is a lot of fun, since it's really professional singing and not every voice would be able to sing the songs we sing, but choir and singers are both fun - just in different ways.
My last activity is Martial Arts. It's a student run activity and they teach us the martial arts of Tae Kwon Do. It's a lot of fun, also tiring at times, but the real Tae Kwon Do in a dojo surely is a lot more strict and more tiring.
Activities mostly go till about 4:00-4:30 pm and then there's time for random stuff or academics. Dinner starts at 5:00 pm and is available till 6:30 pm. Basically, there are no obligations after activities, so this 'random stuff' I was talking about earlier could include things like working on academics, socialising with other Pearsonites, checking ones mails or surfing the net, doing sports, going to Metchosin for a coffee or so, etc. etc.
I personally often either socialise with people, but often also go to the Maxbell (our theatre) and play on the grand piano, working on my concert, playing songs I usually like to play or just simply composing.
Apart from activities, every student must also have a 'student job'. These 'jobs' can be carrying compost from the cafetaria to the compost area, tutoring other students in eg. English or being one of the fire fighters. I have 3 student jobs (not different ones though); I tutor students in playing the piano. All three of them have never played the piano before and I must say, they're really into it and can already play stuff like Für Elise or Ballade Pour Adeline.. :) I'm really proud of them, and having half on hour with them once a week is really a lot of fun.
Other than our usual classes, we have special blocks in which we gather in the Maxbell and have mostly 2 people present interesting and important issues. We call this block International Affairs and mostly students do this presentation and after that there's time for questions and discussions. These topics range from economics and poverty in (eg) Latin America up to political issues in Africa for example. Depending on which was the last National Day (currently, the last one was Afro-Caribean National Day), we have people talk about issues from this region.
Also peculiar is our timetable. Other than most timetables people are familar with, we at Pearson have a 11 Day timetable. 'Huh?' Well, let me explain! ;) We start the first (academical) day of the year with Day 1 and so the next day would be Day 2 regardless whether it would be a Tuesday or perhaps even a Wednesday, Thursday, etc.
So when Day 11 arrives, the whole thing starts again from Day 1. I think this is a great idea, since this timetable prevents the feeling of daily routine which does make life seem dull sometimes (in my opinion anyhow)..
Well that's about enough for the academical part I suppose. Next up.. Pearson life! ;)
I think I ought to start with the academical part.
The Lester B. Pearson College, United World College of the Pacific is one of the currently 12 United World College's around the world, situated in Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It follows the International Baccalaureate programm (IB) and so there are 6 subjects which one chooses out of 6 subject pools. My subjects are:
A1 language: German, Foreign Language: French B Higher, Arts: Music, Social Studies: Philosophy, Science: Environmental Systems and Maths: Maths Standard.
I'm really passionate about my subjects, especially Music and Philosophy which I will be taking both on Higher Level next year (in the second year, students choose which subjects are to be taken on Higher or Standard Level and one must take at least 3 higher levels).
My day pretty much always starts at about 6:30 am. I have half an hour time to take a shower, dress up etc. and then go for breakfast at 7:00 am. We have stuff like toast, jam, brown sugar, various cerials, porrige and Oranges for breakfast. (Breakfast is my personal favourite meal.. hehe)
Then I work out for a while until classes begin, so for about 20-25 minutes.
We usually have 5 classes every day at the highest. It really sounds like little (compared to my 10 hours every day in Austria for example), but the day isn't stressless since activities and things like National Day practices pile up on the time schedule.
And something which contributes to Pearson life... the cookie break!! :D After the first 2 classes, there's 15 minutes of COOKÎE BREAK!! It's what makes Pearsonites.. Pearsonites! ^^ The cafeteria staff cooks lots of cookies or also muffins and the students can then take up to 2 cookies (so that there's enough for everyone else) and especially on chocolate chip cookie day, students turn into zombies screaming: "COOKIE BREEEEAK!!!" :)
Aaaanyhow.. After the next 2 lessons we have lunch break for an hour and then the last lesson.
Students usually have activities after that. The activities are divided into 3 groups: Social activities, outdoor leadership activities and creative activities. Students must take at least one from each group within the 2 years at Pearson College and so most students take 3 activities within one year (2 are the minimum).
I have 5 activities and they are: Ukranian Dance, Special Needs Teens, Choir, Singers and Martial Arts. Sounds like a lot? It is.. ^^ And nevertheless I seem to manage my time well..
Ukranian Dance is a lot of fun, but to be honest.. it's REALLY tiring!! We practice for the big Ukranian Dance act for the One World show in February and the dance is 12 minutes long. If ever you happen to try out Ukranian Dance for the first time, you'll realise that 5 minutes can already be tiring..
Special Needs Teens is a social activity in which we go to Metchosin and do games or activities with teens with special needs. We haven't started this activity yet (looong story.. ^^ has to do with teachers lucking their driving licence.. hehe) but we are supposed to start it this coming 2nd term after the winter break.
The choir is also called the 100 voice choir and is a lot of fun. I especially love the voice practices we do before we start singing our songs. The choir also performs on special events such as Metchosin day, Metchosin Christmas concert or the One World festival.
Singers is similar to choir; it's a smaller choir with about 17-19 people who go through an auditioning. About 50 auditioned this year.
I must say that Singers is a lot of fun, since it's really professional singing and not every voice would be able to sing the songs we sing, but choir and singers are both fun - just in different ways.
My last activity is Martial Arts. It's a student run activity and they teach us the martial arts of Tae Kwon Do. It's a lot of fun, also tiring at times, but the real Tae Kwon Do in a dojo surely is a lot more strict and more tiring.
Activities mostly go till about 4:00-4:30 pm and then there's time for random stuff or academics. Dinner starts at 5:00 pm and is available till 6:30 pm. Basically, there are no obligations after activities, so this 'random stuff' I was talking about earlier could include things like working on academics, socialising with other Pearsonites, checking ones mails or surfing the net, doing sports, going to Metchosin for a coffee or so, etc. etc.
I personally often either socialise with people, but often also go to the Maxbell (our theatre) and play on the grand piano, working on my concert, playing songs I usually like to play or just simply composing.
Apart from activities, every student must also have a 'student job'. These 'jobs' can be carrying compost from the cafetaria to the compost area, tutoring other students in eg. English or being one of the fire fighters. I have 3 student jobs (not different ones though); I tutor students in playing the piano. All three of them have never played the piano before and I must say, they're really into it and can already play stuff like Für Elise or Ballade Pour Adeline.. :) I'm really proud of them, and having half on hour with them once a week is really a lot of fun.
Other than our usual classes, we have special blocks in which we gather in the Maxbell and have mostly 2 people present interesting and important issues. We call this block International Affairs and mostly students do this presentation and after that there's time for questions and discussions. These topics range from economics and poverty in (eg) Latin America up to political issues in Africa for example. Depending on which was the last National Day (currently, the last one was Afro-Caribean National Day), we have people talk about issues from this region.
Also peculiar is our timetable. Other than most timetables people are familar with, we at Pearson have a 11 Day timetable. 'Huh?' Well, let me explain! ;) We start the first (academical) day of the year with Day 1 and so the next day would be Day 2 regardless whether it would be a Tuesday or perhaps even a Wednesday, Thursday, etc.
So when Day 11 arrives, the whole thing starts again from Day 1. I think this is a great idea, since this timetable prevents the feeling of daily routine which does make life seem dull sometimes (in my opinion anyhow)..
Well that's about enough for the academical part I suppose. Next up.. Pearson life! ;)
posted by Chris in Canada! at 10:00 am
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