Musings on the Frisch Fashion Show

As part of their end-of-year requirements, a group of seniors chose to blog about their experience planning, organizing and/or helping out with the Frisch RealSchool Fashion Show and Dance Performance. Here is a selection of their thoughts:

Here is Danit's post. Danit was one of three students last year who came up with the idea of having a fashion show at Frisch. This year, she once again was one of the organizers of the show:

A fashion show is such an easy thing to say you're going to plan. People think it's an easy process, but really it is one of the most stressful and difficult things to organize. For the past two years I have organized a fashion show in my school. I worked with my classmates and two amazing teachers. My experience was unique and enlightening.

To be honest, I have usually been the type of person to give up or quit or wait for my parents to help me when I have something I need to do. The fashion show was one thing I did all by myself -- well, along with the help of all the other great people involved, but you know what I mean -- and got done successfully. 

My desire to create a fashion show started last year when my best friends and I became obsessed with a fashion blogger named Man Repeller. We started to dress like her, and we wanted the Frisch community to be influenced by her as well, so we decided to create a fashion show that would have clothing combinations Man Repeller would be proud of. The uniqueness of the fashion show for me was doing something I was passionate about, with my best friends, and being able to mix and match all different styles of clothing the way Man Repeller did!

Some crazy Man Repller outfits that inspired the look
of last year's fashion show!

Creating a fashion show was enlightening for me as well, because I learned so much in the process. For instance, I learned how to speak to high-end companies, to organize and plan events, and to try my hardest! This show brought out the best of my abilities, and I was so happy to have shared it with fellow Frisch faculty, students, and community!

One of the things I enjoyed the most about being one of the organizers of the show was knowing about everything going on in it, from beginning to end. Even though it sometimes felt overwhelming to have people coming to me and asking me what to do, where to go, how to do something, etc., I truly felt like a leader. I'm the youngest in my family and am usually the one asking for help and looking up to everyone else; it was great to take on a leadership role in the fashion show and have people be able to depend on me to help them!

My fashion show experience was an experience I wouldn't trade for anything, and I hope some day other Frisch students will get to experience the same feelings I did! 

And here is Jojo's post about his role helping out for this all-female event:

As my senior year of high school was ending, I decided to do something that I never would have ever thought about doing in four years of high school: I decided to help my English teacher Mrs. Wiener and other fellow classmates with the 2013 Frisch Fashion Show. I, along with seven other classmates, was asked if we wanted to participate as part of the requirements of completing my senior year. When I first heard about the project, I was skeptical about it and thought I would accomplish nothing and just follow orders. I did not want to be part of the show and was even thinking about taking a classic English final in order to finish my course requirements. Then it occurred to me that I always wanted to be a helpful person and writing a traditional English class essay would prevent me from doing that. So I decided to help with the fashion show as my final assignment.

Women helped by Somaly Mam!

The Fashion Show was raising money for Somaly Mam, a foundation that works to stop female slavery in Southeast Asia. How did this show raise the money? Well, that’s where my classmates and I came in. Part of our job was to get the merchandise that would be sold by the fashion show in order to raise the money. A classmate and I had to scour Bergen County in order to locate and buy kosher fair trade coffee and chocolate to sell at the show. If you enjoyed any of the fair trade food at the show, you have us to thank! Our efforts helped Frisch raise awareness of and money for Somaly Mam, and for that I feel like I accomplished a great deal at the end of my Frisch career.

Self-Directed Learning in Senior English Elective

For the last part of the senior year in Hot Topics, the Frisch twelfth-grade English elective course, students are completing a self-designed project. Here are the questions they answered recently about their choice of topic:

Setting up the Project

1) What do you want to learn or produce?

2) How will you go about learning or creating your project?

3) Are you going to work alone or with someone?

4) How much time do you think your learning process or project will take?

5) What will the presentation of your learning or project be?


At the end of each period, students describe what they accomplished over the course of the period. Sometimes they share aloud, sometimes in posts to the class GoogleDoc about the project, and sometimes in an app. Here are some written responses:

Sample Student Projects

J.A.'s topic is extreme sports:

Today we researched the topic extreme sports. We have discovered new and exciting extreme sports, such as Snowscootering, sand boarding, and even kayak jumping. Each of these sports requires courage and the willpower to overcome the fear of death. Our presentation will include many of these death-defying sports that will blow your mind.

O.B. is working on a presentation about exercise:

It is important to exercise because being active will prevent your muscles from becoming weak and flabby, your heart and lungs from not working effectively, and your joints from becoming stiff and prone to injury. Exercising reduces the chances of getting high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, & other diseases. Exercise also helps improves stamina by training your body to be more efficient and use less energy to do the same amount of work as you did previously. Using weights and other forms of resistance training develops your muscles, bones, and ligaments for increased strength and endurance. Stretching exercises are important for good posture, which will keep your body limber so that you can bend, reach, and twist. Improving your flexibility will reduce the chance of injury and improve balance and coordination. Exercise is important for weight loss as well. If you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. Exercises will also improve the quality of your life, because it helps you reduce stress, lift moods, and sleep better. Exercise will keep you looking younger and healthier throughout your life.

Three students are working on a project about drugs. Here's R.A. on his portion of the project:

My segment of the lesson on different kinds of drugs will be devoted to “hallucinogens,” “entheogens,” in other words, the “psychedelic” side of drugs. These drugs are known to create hallucinations or visions that are not real or can never be possible. Some of these drugs include LSD or “acid,” psilocybin mushrooms, Spice, and JWH018. First I would like to talk about the names of the category. For example, entheogen means literally: “creating divine within.” These drugs are often used in religious practices in order to experience prophecies and to get closer to the deity. Other times these drugs are used recreationally or to treat depression.

Apps in Self-Directed Learning

This past week students used Educreation to record their progress on their projects:

These students are gathering images about their topics and
then narrating how their projects are progressing.