By Kate Taylor ’11 and Kathryn Black ’11, The Lens Section Editors
1. Mrs. Dunn’s Honors English 10
From the moment you step into Honors English 10, you know that Mrs. Dunn’s sarcastic wit is either going to impale you or rip you to shreds. No armored shield can withstand it, as Amanda Young ’11 found out when Mrs. Dunn offered a few choice comments about the artwork she was busily creating while not even pretending to listen to the NPR broadcast Mrs. Dunn was playing. NPR is just one of Mrs. Dunn’s many sources of “educational” tangents. Others include The New Yorker, The New York Times, and one particularly disturbing article about a new breakfast food involving at least five pounds of different types of sausage meat. The best part is that, somehow, Mrs. Dunn will be able to connect this seemingly arbitrary article to the sixty pages of reading you did last night, whether it’s the ambition of Macbeth or the woes of Tess of the d’Urbervilles. And finally, it wouldn’t be Honors English 10 without Mrs. Dunn’s infamous reading quizzes. You hate them every time they come back covered in red marks reading “huh?” and “yuk!” until the one where you managed to get that bonus question that everyone else missed. Or maybe you didn’t and there is a big “ouch!” waiting for you because your guess wasn’t “logical”. If you can read her handwriting that is. In some cases, oblivion is best and you shouldn’t ask Mrs. Dunn to decipher what she wrote. Your writing will improve, though, if you can make it through all the red.
2. Mr. Black’s Honors Modern European History
Honors Modern European History was a particularly memorable class for me because I was finally taking my father’s tenth grade course which I had heard about for years. I immediately realized I was at a distinct advantage to my peers in the course’s infamous “super duper matching tests”. Understanding how my dad’s brain worked, I could match “0” (a zero) to “Giotto” knowing that my dad would believe the computer generated symbol for zero a perfect circle. My peers remained baffled as I effortlessly linked “My wife started crying and I realized I would lay my life down for it” to “The David.” But my favorite part of the course wasn’t acing super duper matching tests. I loved watching “The Prisoner” and hearing all of my dad’s life stories. While some tales of my dad’s early love-life I could have gone without, I will never forget his story of steeling the lion statue of the biggest fraternity on campus, wetting his pants because he was too embarrassed to tell the teacher he needed to go to the bathroom, and his tenure as president of WTTT club (Waste the Teacher’s Time).
3. Ms. Robitaille’s AP Spanish Language
AP Spanish Language is perhaps the only class at CCDS from which the squeals of gatitas can be heard. These gatitas occupy Room 212 only when the AP Spanish Language class is in session, so opportunities to observe these sassy creatures are few and far between. Their caretaker is, of course, Señora Robitaille, who loves to reminisce about her life in Boston and Nashville. This, as well as her many stories and photo albums of her treasured nieces and nephews who inspired her fond nickname, Doña Tía Trish de Nashvegas. If you choose to embark on the path that leads to AP Spanish Language, you will listen to Ben y Marina ponder the cultural implications of the siesta on Notes-In-Spanish.com, follow the lives of Fatima, Ángel y Prisciliano in “Al Otro Lado”, and wonder what exactly can be found “on the other side”.
4. Mr. Dunn’s AP Biology
From being forced to decapitate goldfish to handling cow brains, AP Biology is not a class I will soon forget. Even though the AP exam is daunting, Mr. Dunn ensures that students remember to not take themselves too seriously. Meticulous labs such as observing and recording the flow of blood in a gold fish’s tail are made fun by Mr. Dunn’s tradition of leaving a few live goldfish in the toilettes to scare unsuspecting freshmen. But AP Bio wasn’t all fun and games; I have never worked so hard in a class as I did in AP Bio in tenth grade. At the end of the year post-AP waffle party, I was dumbfounded at how much I had learned in just a few short months. And I, along with everyone else in my class, absolutely dominated on our AP exams.
Photo courtesy of Ilana Habib ’11
