Category: by Neha M ’14

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by Neha M '14

Crunching Numbers in Math Club

On October 21st, one of BSGE’s longest-running organizations, the Math Club, was started up once again.  In the first meeting attended by around fifteen people from the 9th through 12th grade, each member grew acquainted with how the organization would run, when future meetings would be held, and what being in the club entailed. Following this briefing, individuals who showed interest were nominated for  various positions in the club including president, outreach vice-presidents and challenge masters. At the subsequent council, Neha Mehta ’14 was elected club president, Ognila Biswas ‘14 & Mohammad Sadeghi were selected as Challenge Masters, while members chose Claudia Yan ’14 and Onkona Biswas ’16 as Outreach Vice Presidents.

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by Lydia S '15 by Neha M '14

Class of 2013 Receives Thirty IB Diplomas

This past year, BSGE’s class of 2013  was the recipient of thirty IB Diplomas. In a class of fifty-two students, forty-four candidates were qualified to receive the diploma, however ten students did not obtain the diploma due to an ongoing conflict relating to their Visual Arts HL grades. A few students did not receive the diploma solely because of their Art HL grades. If a student receives a 2 in any HL class then he or she will not receive the diploma. Out of the graduating class of 2013, six students had enough points to receive the diploma but because of their 2 in Art HL class they were not eligible for the diploma. Before, IB Art artwork finals were graded from outside IB teachers that came into the school, but now the IB uses a system where artwork is posted online and from there graders evaluate the work. The school has fired a complaint against the IB to re-asses and reevaluate these student’s final marks in hopes that they may be revised so that students could indeed receive the Diploma. Thirty out of the forty-four IB candidates completed all the requirements which is the highest percentage diploma recipients in BSGE history.

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by Ana M '14 by Neha M '14

Tips for 11th Graders

1) Sleep until noon on the weekends to conserve energy.

2) Do all your preliminary Extended Essay work really well (so you can copy-paste everything when the time comes to actually write it).

3) Find creative places and times to do your homework.

4) The Google Drive app is your best friend.

5) Always underestimate the amount of work you’ll get done in a day so you won’t be too disappointed when you only accomplish a fraction of it.

6) Your teachers are the bomb diggity. Love them with every fiber of your being.

7) Try not to contract premature senioritis.

8) Don’t avoid Peter. He’ll find you eventually.

9) If you get’cha head in the game, your junior year can be as beautiful as High School Musical. It could be the start of something new.

10) Always have caffeine on hand. The deli across the street has A+ iced coffee.

11) Remember: You is kind. You is smart. You is important.

12) Let’s be honest, the SAT is a load of hoopla but make time to study and cry over how much it blows.

13) Laugh things off. Two hours of sleep? HA. Don’t want to do anything? HA.

14) It’ll be over in 0.3 seconds so make the most of it.

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by Ana M '14 by Neha M '14

10 Tips for New Bees

1.) Be polite. Stay to the right.

2.) Master the art of printing out your homework in the library a minute before class starts.

3.) Writing Etiquette: Number your pages. Always double-space. Staple papers. Times New Roman, 12 point font.

4.) Keep it moving in the hallways to avoid getting smacked or shoved into walls.

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by Neha M '14

Regents Preppin’ – BSGE Students to Start Regents Prep

As the school year comes to an end, students from the 8th through 12th grade have been attending Regents Prep classes during eighth period to  get ready for the NYS examinations. These sessions are held to guarantee that students succeed in taking the Regents though with only a short period of time spent practicing and studying; classes in BSGE rarely focus on topics discussed on the actual test. Students are often required to take a math and science Regents every year in addition to various history and language Regents, administered in the 10th and 11th grade. This year, Regents week begins on Tuesday, June 11th and ends on Friday, June 21st; although middle school students do not get the week off, high-schoolers are not mandated to come to class during that time.

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by Neha M '14

DOE Changes How Regents Exams are Graded

new yorkFor decades, New York State Regents exams have been graded within the high school they are administered, where teachers are responsible for grading their students’s exams. However, the DOE has recently instituted a change regarding how the Regents will be graded starting with the June 2013 exams to reduce opportunities and incentives for teachers to raise their students’ scores, schools will not be able to grade Regents from their own students and educators will have to score Regents from students in other schools. Because of a sharp increase in the number of students who barely pass the exam with a 65%, the DOE believes that teachers may have been influenced and enticed by personal motives in order to ensure that their students pass the Regents, an important credential often associated with graduation. Data seem to indicate that many teachers grade with two related biases. One is to inflate scores to guarantee that their own students are able to just barely pass the exams. The other motive they are influenced by is safeguarding their own reputation because if more students pass teachers and schools can shore up their credentials.  The DOE established a new grading system in hopes that scores would more accurately reflect a student’s performance and ability not only to pass but also to exceed state requirements;

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by Neha M '14

Teachers Should Not be Allowed to Carry Guns

Educators should not be allowed to carry guns because although their job may be to secure their children, carrying a gun is not the most efficient and effective way to accomplish this. When asked about her opinion towards this topic, Lauren Ouaknine’ 14 said, “Teachers shouldn’t carry guns because their job is not to shoot potential intruders. They don’t have any experience to do so and would be more harmful than useful.”  Without any training, the aftermath of any incident could actually be detrimental to the students. As well as this, another danger in mandating teachers to carry weapons is monitoring and regulating their usage. How would the government ensure that teachers would not use the guns for other purposes? If they happened to be extremely aggravated and acted rashly, what would truly prevent them from using their guns and shooting someone? After all, teachers are humans and no feasible approach would be able to stop them from abusing this privilege.

What if all BSGE teachers were required to possess guns and had the right to shoot any potential intruder?  With the increasing number of

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by Neha M '14

IB Tired!

When was the last time that you slept at 10pm on a school night? Studies show that students and teachers need about 9 hours of sleep to properly function. However, the BSGE community knows that this statistic is ridiculous and doesn’t apply to the school.
Sleep not only plays an important factor in how engaged and focused a student is, but also affects the quality of their work. When asked about how much sleep high school kids need compared to how much they get, BSGE students had different responses. Ricardo Aguayo ’13 believes that students should be getting seven hours of sleep. He stated, “Seven hours is the minimum amount of

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by Neha M '14

IB Changing

As the BSGE community embraced a new and better school year, the new juniors and their teachers welcomed a changes to the IB curriculum for certain courses.   With the introduction of such modifications, teachers and students alike have been adjusting to accommodate for the new assessments, topics and focuses.

The subject with the biggest changes in its curriculum was IB Math SL. The IB organization

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by Ana M '14 by Neha M '14

Ten Tips for New Bees

1. Be polite, stay to the right.
2. Ask yourself: Can I fit a person in my bag? If yes, get a smaller one.
3. You can get action hours by swimming in the fifth floor pool. Yes, the fifth floor.
4. Procrastination is inevitable. Shh, just go with it.
5. Don’t stand in the middle of the hallway unless you want to get body-slammed.
6. Thirsty? Fourth floor water fountains are the best!
7. Don’t PANIC about your work. Save that for later.
8. Learn what IB stands for. And learn how to s-p-e-l-l it.
9. Go to the dances. We need your $$$ money $$$.
10. Donate your locker to a junior 🙂

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by Neha M '14

IB Sisters

It seems that every time “IB” or “International Baccalaureate” is mentioned in a conversation, the following remarks tend to be ones of confusion. The IB program is one that is not very common in high schools around the United States; It offers an extensive and very rigor- ous curriculum that covers a wide range of subjects. Out of more than 20,000 schools in the only about

1, 300 offer an IB curriculum. 295 offer the “Primary Years” program, 444 offer the

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by Neha M '14

Debate Team Revived

Earlier in the year it was announced that BSGE’s policy debate team was canceled after several successful years.  Although avidly supported by students, due to a lack of funds, it could not continue. BSGE students already face a limited number of after-school activities and removing debate, one of the students’ favorite, was devastating. However, this past December the Debate Team was bought back.    Open to all, the debate team is now coached by Lenny Herrera and supervised by Ms. Matani, BSGE humanities teacher.  Ms. Matani said, “I think it’s great it’s starting up again and being a supervisor not a coach, I’m learning a lot.” The PTA set funding aside for the team to go to competitions.  The debate team hopes

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