Taking a break from grading papers, the English Department went on a retreat to bond and revamp the curriculum.

Led by Department Chair Keren Robertson, the English teachers left on Friday, September 11 went to a campground at Asilomar Monterey.

The department goes on the retreat with two major goals. First, the teachers set the curriculum for the upcoming school year so that all students get the same learning expirience.

Second, with the hope of improving their teaching abilities, English teacher Ryan Ikeda assigned a writing prompt for all of the teachers and had them complete the assignment over the summer.

“They wanted us to experience what our students experience,” English teacher Arantxa Arriada said. “A lot of time in class we assign these students open ended assignments that ask students to share things about themselves that they normally don’t and they might not always feel comfortable. It was really about turning it around so that we would know what it’s like.”

Ranging from poetry to movies, the teachers were able to share and discuss their work with their peers. The variety of the projects allowed the teachers to turn the table on themselves and help the department discover information that wouldn’t have necessarily been shared.

Many of the English teachers, wrote poetry. But some teachers took a unique approach. For example English teacher Galen Rosenberg compiled a list of six songs and wrote a piece on each song and how they related to his life.

“Mr. Rosenberg’s [project] was hilarious,” Arriada said. “It was funny to hear about him being in high school, and his girlfriend’s dad hated him—to think of Mr. Rosenberg as this teenager that the dad hates.”

For her project, Arriada performed a dance and a made a movie that showed the department about her culture in the Basque country.

“[The retreat] was full of laughing, hanging out and having a lot of bonding time,” Robertson said. “The people teaching at this school are so talented, it’s really amazing.”