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Over the first two weeks after Christmas Break, students participated in Malvern’s inaugural J-Term. The J-Term featured two distinct tracks—one for Advanced Placement students, and one for students not enrolled in APs.

Students not enrolled in AP classes participated in courses like “Culture and Cooking,” “Futurism,” and “A Sporting Difference,” while AP students took two-hour sessions of their regular AP classes on a two-day cycle.

Prior to the J-Term, Assistant Head of School Mr. Patrick Sillup predicted that the J-Term would be “a chance for guys to dig into into something that they otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to do.”

On Friday January 19 at grade-level blocks during lunchtime, Sillup invited students to complete a survey evaluating the J-Term. Look for a more extended report on the J-Term in our January issue.

Below are narratives written by Journalism J-Term students who visited classes, as well as some photographs highlighting the experience. 

[learn_more caption=”A visit to ‘Mind Games and Movies'”]

Devon Greaves ’20

On Wednesday morning after coming to school late due to a 2-hour delay, students were chatting quietly, in person and on their phones, waiting for their activity to begin in the “Mind Games and Movies” J-Term class.

Students waited for instructor Ms.Kelly Bittner to share the agenda of what they were going to do that day. They had already started to watch a movie, and when they finished they would discuss it.

The movie—”It’s Kind of a Funny Story”— began to play, the lights went out, and the room went silent. Besides the soundtrack, there was the occasional squeak of students’ shoes sliding on the floor, tapping of student’s fingers on their desks, whispering, and laughter during comedic parts.

As co-instructor Ms. Laurie Peslak pauses the movie and skips ahead a few minutes, students let out a large groan of disappointment.

“Why did you skip ahead? It was just starting to get interesting?” one student asked.

“You guys can go back to this scene when you’re all 18,” Peslak said. “Yeah,” Bittner adds with a slight chuckle.

After a few more giggles, the room returns to silence while the movie returned to be the primary focus. Slowly students began to sneak glimpses at their phones and lay their heads on their desks as they had done previously before the skip.

“We were worried about making it fun for you guys, because it’s not supposed to be a regular class,” Bittner tells the class later. “Bringing you guys back from break—having it be fun, having it be educational, but making sure you guys enjoy it.”

The movie ended and then the students began to separate into groups determined by their seating in the room. They then began to talk about the movie. The theme of the discussion was how characters in the movie depicted symptoms of anxiety and depression

Bittner said that the idea for the class came from discussions of mental health in the counseling classes

“We know you guys all like movies, we could pick kind of fun movies and bring a little levity to what generally is a heavy topic” Bittner said about why she wanted to teach this class.

Peslak says she has enjoyed starting the new semester off with J-Term.

“As a teacher it’s actually been a nice transition coming back from break and then being able to teach this class and have some time to prep for the second semester.” she said.

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[learn_more caption=”A visit to ‘Cooking and Culture'”]

Charlie Fish ’20

“Unsweetened chocolate is not the best tasting chocolate, but it’s definitely not the worst,” J-Term Cooking and Culture co-teacher Mr. Jason Sammartino says as he takes a bite out of the excess chocolate bars.  

A pause. A scowl.

“I was wrong, that was a mistake,” he says, as the taste of the chocolate lingers and he takes a swig from his water bottle.

In the small, back kitchen of St. Ritas, the J-Term cooking class flourishes.  On Wednesday, January 17th, Sammartino and three additional students from the cooking class gather their bowls, eggs, and chocolate, and go to work.  

“Baking is basically chemistry,” Sammartino says as the students crack eggs over a bowl.  Over by the stove, the temperature begins to rise in the kitchen as a student mixes the melted butter and chocolate.

Although the 35 minute baking time may seem like a drag, it is relaxed by Sammartino’s extensive stories as an assistant to various bands.  

“Fleetwood Mac had some, um, strange requests,” he says as the cake bakes in the oven.  “They asked for me to bring them six old bowling trophies, and, well, that was how I spent the next few hours of my life.”

As the cake is taken out of the oven, the smell strikes the room before the cake can even emerge.  The room smelled like a Hershey Chocolate Factory tour, but not in a good way.  

When many students imagine a normal Wednesday class at Malvern, they picture a teacher droning on about previous homeworks or phospholipid bilayers.  However, the J-Term provides a fresh take on school.  Sophomore Matthew DiGregorio, a cooking J-Term student, feels that the J-Term offers different experiences that can’t be had at everyday Malvern classes.

“It’s nice.  It’s very different from what Malvern is,” DiGregorio says.  “I mean you look at Malvern classes—there’s math, there’s english—but we’re sitting here making chocolate cake.”

This first J-Term at Malvern Prep was a brand-new experience for both teachers and students alike, and is still a learning experience for many.

“Originally, I hoped for a lot more research coming from the guys in the course, whether they were exploring new cultures or cultures they were connected to,” Sammartino says.  “If we had more time it would have happened, but as a result we’re working more as a whole group rather than as individuals.”

Although the unsweetened chocolate left a foul taste to some, the cooking J-Term undeniably contributed a fresh taste to the standard Malvern school day.

[/learn_more][learn_more caption=”A visit to AP Environmental Science”]

Louis Franzone ’19

On Wednesday morning, AP Environmental Science students sit around the table, leaning back in their chairs and slouching over with expressionless looks on their faces as their two hour J-Term class begins.

“I can tell by the blank stares, that we need a review,” AP Environmental Teacher Matthew Boccuti says as he enters the room.

Some students are taking notes, while a few others are occupied with the turtles swimming in the tank only a few inches in front of them.

Boccuti begins to review some old material. The response? Silence from the lifeless class.

That lifelessness, however,quickly changes to excitement when they break into groups to play a game—and then to confusion while the rules are explained.

“Seems like a lot of rules,” junior Colin Wolfe says.

The students, now crowded around a single table, begin their first turns with help from Boccuti, as people pass by outside and sunshine reflects off the snow into the room.

A few turns in, it seems that the students might have the hang of it, until the next team’s turn. “Boccuti, you’ve gotta explain to me what this means,” says one of the team members as he receives a card from the game board.

Now well into the game, students begin to form alliances to beat other teams, as a turtle makes its way onto a floating island in the tank.

“Uh-oh,” Team Egypt Member Sean Oates says, as two other teams, Team Rome and Team America, team up against him.

Students laugh and cheer over the rush of water from the fish tanks when the first battle of the game breaks out.

“We are going to destroy Egypt,” Team Rome says, before abruptly being defeated by Team Egypt in battle.

With five minutes remaining in class, the game comes to an end with no definitive victor, disappointing the once lifeless class that is now excited to continue playing.

“You all played to your advantages. I want you to think about that in relation to the whole world,” Boccuti says, explaining the rationale for a board game during an Advanced Placement class to the students.

“I think if you do the traditional lecture for that two hours it’d be pretty brutal, but with the problem with AP is we have a lot of content we need to cover. With losing that time there’s a big balancing act of how we should be spending our time in class to accomplish those things,” he said. “So that’s why for today I came up with the idea of a game to add a little bit of context to what we’ve been learning.”

[/learn_more][learn_more caption=”A visit to ‘Leadership'”]

Jarod Wade ’21

Students in the Leadership J-Term class munch on Mojo Bars and listen to guest speaker on Wednesday morning.

Guest speaker Mr. Joe McManus begins a presentation on how to become a better leader as he tosses Clif Mojo Bars around the squash courts to the students.

“That was actually really good,” sophomore Josh Paulina said after he ate the Clif Bar. “I’m going to ask for another one.”

McManus, who serves as Executive Vice President of CBRE, a large commercial real estate services and investment firm, begins to speak again after he made sure that everybody in the room recieved a bar.

“You need teammates to be a good leader,” he said. “Don’t judge and don’t discriminate.”

The student audience gives their undivided attention to Mr. McManus as he scrolls through his powerpoint to cover different topics.

“Everybody has setbacks,” McManus says. “In order to be a great leader you need to put in the work and the time.”

McManus preaches hardwork and the ability to remain focused.

Class instructor Mr. Michael Riordan is positive about the Leadership J-Term experience. “I love the students, they have great questions,” he said. “They are incorporating what they’ve learned.”

Mr. Riordan loves how engaged the students have been so far, but sees some room for improvement in future classes.

“I would’ve liked to have a woman speaker, and a person of color” Riordan said. ”Because we needed more diversity. Because we live in a diverse world.”

Other than that, Riordan is pleased with how the class has gone.

“Today was actually a really fun class,” sophomore Jaden Vogelman says, as he stuffs two more Mojo Bars into his bookbag.

Most students seem to agree with Vogelman’s statement.

When McManus’s presentation is finished, students disperse in groups of four throughout the squash courts to work on their leadership projects.

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