Anne Duncan / The Spectator
Alicia Chen / The Spectator Chemistry teachers Ms. Pluchino and Dr. O’Malley. *See page 10 for the pieces on Ms. Pluchino and Dr. O’Malley.
Math teacher Ms. Avigdor.
Ms.Avigdor An A for Avigdor By Ariella Kahan
In eighth grade, math homework being organized meant that I would leave the smallest possible amount of empty space on my sheet of graph paper. Checking over my work meant that my eyes would flit over my homework while my mind was elsewhere. Copying problems word for word onto my homework was a waste of time, and studying only happened on the night before a test. Now, it would be a lie to say that my whole work ethic changed on the day I stepped into Deena Avigdor’s Enriched Geometry class, as though her handout, a sheet of paper detailing the school supplies we needed (only see-through pencil cases would be allowed during tests) and exactly how our homework should be laid out, sprouted a lightning bolt that hit my head and changed my life. Rather, it was a gradual shift that took place as I noticed and embraced the various nuances of how Avigdor ran her class. My transformation began on the first day when she spent two full minutes figuring out how to correctly pronounce Krzysztof Hochlewicz’s first name (it is something like “Shush-toff” for all of those who didn’t know), and continued throughout the year as she used oversized rulers to draw accurate diagrams on the board and brought in her own colored chalk to mark congruencies. Avigdor was stern, sometimes fussing over seemingly small details and taking off points on a test for incorrectly wording the definition of a line segment, but each student knew that it was for his or her own good. Avigdor’s style was not that of a teacher going through the motions of teaching geometry, but rather was of a teacher that never cut the corners and always went the extra mile, cramming an hour’s worth of work into our forty-one minute periods. Throughout the ten months I spent in Avigdor’s class I came to love and adopt her whole outlook on working neatly and carefully. I began to carry around a ruler so that I could draw neat diagrams in my Geometry notes, but I soon found myself pulling out my ruler in the middle of Physics so that those diagrams too would be drawn nicely. In writing down assignments for all subjects in my planner I abandoned the typical “page 100 problems 1, 2, and 3” for the way Avigdor wrote down our homework on her portable white board: “100/1, 2, 3”. I was focused while double-checking each of my two column proofs to make sure every definition was worded perfectly and with this, my susceptibility to careless mistakes decreased. For the first time in years my parents came home from parent teacher conferences without saying, “Well, [insert teacher’s name here] says you’re good at [insert subject] but you’d do a whole lot better if you stopped making careless mistakes.” But my work ethic was not the only thing Avigdor had an affect on. She instilled in me a newfound love for geometry. Math became my favorite 41 minutes of the day, as while solving geometry problems I was never a robot, working mechanically without ever really thinking. Instead, I was solving a riddle. In each proof, the “givens” were my starting point, and the congruency I was attempting to verify was my ending point. And, as I went through each possible path from start to end, I never felt like I was simply following an instruction booklet, but rather, I felt as if I were solving a miniature mathematical mystery. In June, after a year’s worth of riddling and smiling, my summer excitement dulled by the reluctance to leave behind my beloved trapezoids and two column proofs.
TIMELINE: 100 Years of The Spectator, Stuyvesant, and the World More than 100 faculty and students enter into service 1920 1924 during World War I, many of them from the Training Corps Club, which was initiated and officially recognized by the U.S. War Department; 19 die.
1917
After strengthening math and science courses offered at the school, admissions to Stuyvesant become restricted based on elementary school performance. To accommodate a large student population, classes are given in two sessions, each consisting of six periods; classes run from 8:00 a.m. to 12:35 p.m. or 12:40 p.m. to 5:20 p.m.
1920
American Women gain the right to vote thanks to the 19th Amendment.
The Spectator Centennial Magazine
Francis Hussey, the track team captain, is a member of the record-breaking Olympic Gold Medal Relay Team.
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