Wrapping up Interim

Interim is a short grading period between Thanksgiving and the Holiday Break. During this short time period, we try to offer a wide variety of fun classes to bring out some of the natural gifts and talents of our students. We also bring in community experts and guests to share their knowledge with the school. 
One such guest this Interim was a former student of Loring Nicollet;

Susan and Jake

Susan graduated from Loring Nicollet in the year 2000. The radical knowledge she attained at LNAS put her on a path to earning a degree from the University Of Minnesota in Cultural studies and Comparative Literature, Gender Studies, and Media Studies, all with a focus on the representation of women in international media. She's also an internationally certified Yoga instructor. It was always her intention to return to Loring Nicollet to put back in -even a fraction of what she got out, and has felt very lucky to teach Yoga and Punk feminism to these awesome, whip smart students.

Another guest Teacher was Jake, who helped out with a spoken word class.When Jake was asked about his experience here at LNAS he said 
"I love to write poems and ask questions. I have really appreciated the opportunity I have gotten to build/develop a relationship with the students of LNAS."





Many of our topics during Interim are "Spiritually" focused (spiritual defined as the relationships one has with their self, other people and a higher power or value in which they believe).  For instance, students learned about the spiritual connection some people have with nature, and also visited a wild life retreat center. 

Michelle

Students also worked with Michelle on their physical fitness (Thai Boxing) and on learning film production skills. 






Another enjoyable piece of Interim was to have so many guests stop by and share their unique skills.  Community members spoke on various topics such as survival skills, community organizing and activism, acupressure, physical fitness and more. Students also visited the local Zen Center, and learned about meditation and the importance of silence.  We even had a special guest come in to talk about being a spoken word poet and rapper in the Twin Cities. Check out some of Gaunte's inspiring work.  Thanks to all the speakers who stopped by and made this an unforgettable interim.

"All of my classes kept me open minded, they were all interesting keeping my mind on the lesson. Every topic I had made me think hard, but I always recieved the message from it. Some of the subjects that were taught influenced my life in some way, a positive way to be exact. Overall the interim schedule was laid back but still major. In other words, it was relaxing but at the same time, you had responsibilities with schoolwork. Every bit of it."- Brian


"One thing I liked about interim is that I met new people and I really liked the classes. My favortite class was "People United" because the subject we talked about was really realistic and I had no idea all those things were happening. The classes I disliked more were Dreams and Spirits." - Leo


"This interim I liked the good discussions in "People United," and "What a Riot" classes. They actually had to do with real situations that are happening in your everyday society. Situations like the relationship between masculinity and the recent school shooting, or learning about people who step up and try to educate people about human trafficking" - Marissa


The best thing about Interim is that the classes are more fun (What a Riot, People United, and Signs and Stones) and we also enjoyed creating the school website in our class Showing your Lizard Face. The classes relate to our lives more, have less work, and taught us valuable life lessons we wouldn't learn in regular high school. We look forward to graduating from Loring Nicollet this year!
-Seniors Summer and Ariana