Don’t call it T.E.L.L. Day.
Student Alliance is adamantly advertising New Trier ETC Day as a day not equal to that of last year’s failed attempt.
When asked to describe the ETC Day, senior Student Alliance President Jeff Salvadore said, “I can tell you one thing it’s not; it’s not T.E.L.L. Day.”
T.E.L.L. Day, short for Teach Experience Live Learn, first happened in 2009 and was well received. Last year, Student Alliance proposed a repeat of the day calling in W.Y.D.E. (What You Don’t Know) but because of conflicts with securing a date for the proposed day, it was cancelled. According to Student Alliance, the difference between this upcoming day and its previous incarnation is that this year the day will be more planned and constructed.
“T.E.L.L. Day was much more open-ended,” explained Ahmed. It was supposed to focus on experimental teaching with activity based classes, she explained.
“T.E.L.L. Day was basically a giant cornucopia,” explained junior Noor Qasim, who’s heading the day. ETC will be focused on “expanding our circle” of learning said Qasim. “It’s not just a bunch of random classes.”
Budget Subcommittee Head Ozakh Ahmed explained, “On a day-to-day basis we learn things and we experience things that are specific to the North Shore or New Trier. So with the speakers that we bring in and the subjects that hopefully get taught, we are trying to promote a broader sense of thinking.”
More specifically, ETC day will be a school-wide alternate learning day on Feb. 12. It will be a combination of student taught classes, teacher taught classes, and keynote speaker sessions. Qasim said the most important part of the day will be the student-taught classes.
“I feel like there is a lot of knowledge here at New Trier regarding a lot of different things. And we don’t really get to talk about that knowledge and explore that knowledge. It gives students an opportunity to share it.”
Student Alliance is asking for applications for these student taught classes. The classes can be about anything from figure skating to comedy improv to the history of video games as long as the focus is on expanding the circle of learning.
Applications for student taught courses are due Nov. 13.
Senior Maggie Noren said she is proposing to teach an improvisation class with two of her friends. “Some of my friends said they’d always wanted to learn how to do improv and I thought it would be fun to teach it after taking classes at Second City. There are a lot of funny kids at New Trier and I think some of them could be really awesome improvisers.”
Regarding the keynote speakers, Student Alliance is trying to lure some big names like Mike Ditka and Rainn Wilson. They are currently in communication with Wilson.
Aside from these well-known figures, Richard Wu, the day’s Speakers Subcommittee head said that they are looking at getting Julie Stamos, the Assistant Director in Pediatrics-Infectious Diseases at Northwestern. “I’m hoping for a really wide variety of speakers because the day is geared toward learning things you wouldn’t normally learn in a classroom environment.”
Senior Kelsey Murray is most excited for the big name speakers. “This day is a once in a lifetime opportunity to listen to some famous people talk. I’m really excited, especially after last year’s day didn’t work out.”