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Activities ©facebook.com

IB Column©ibo.org

AAS Mic-Night© StuCo page

Introducing Musical Notes©

Mr.AAS- Lola Borissenko

Wednesday , February 28th, 2013

Winner of the Mr.AAS Title, Boris Bota © AAS Yearbook Dropbox

Special thanks to super-visor Francy Johnson

Valentine’s Day - what better way to cel-ebrate this lovely holi-day than by attending a show? Five contestants all equally talented, bold and entertaining gathered in the Maly Theatre on Thursday to compete for the title of Mr. AAS. George Cum-mins was this year’s grade nine debutant in the high school’s per-formances. Taemin Kim was the tenth grader competing for the title. Liam Van Son and Yo-natan Haviv were oppo-nents, both representing grade eleven. And as for this year’s senior class, Boris Botachev was the only grade twelve con-testant performing this year.

As the show progressed, the audience witnessed one and a half minute videos, all depicting the creative nature of the five contestants. We got a tour of George’s house and even met his cat; we had a chance to see a few of Taemin’s

adorable baby videos; we looked at Yonatan as quite a competitor; Liam demonstrated his amiable relationship with his girlfriend and finally Boris appeared to be quite the man of his team.

For the first part of the show, the audience wit-nessed some interest-ing costume choices regarding swimwear. Taemin appeared to be quite the scuba diver and Liam represented the heroic profession of a life guard. When the contestants were faced with the ‘surprise’ com-petition, each one had to give a makeover to a young lady in only one minute. Boris was quite successful at this task, brightening the lady’s cheeks and lips; Yonatan, on the other hand, was a little bit more creative with his lady, giving her an ab-stract make over. The judges were fairly strict on our contestants so far… the talent com-pletion was a decisive

battle for the title of Mr. AAS, in which the contestants had to dem-onstrate us their most spectacular abilities that they are proud of. The first contestant George was eager to demon-strate his athletic abili-ties to the judges. He performed a short, yet quite impressive skill with the soccer ball. Taemin’s wild dancing abilities and the popu-larity of the Korean song ‘Gangnam Style’ motivated him to dem-onstrate his best moves with this tune. With the applause of the audi-ence, Yonatan might originate a new kind of Olympic Games, known as ‘grape mouth catch-ing’. Liam was quite a surprise, presenting himself as the finest finger painter at AAS creating the images of a rose, a puppy and popcorn only in three minutes time. With his good friends and team mates Boris recreated the finest battles of the acclaimed film ‘The Matrix’ and shocking

the audience with mad fighting skills.

Although Mr. Khan made sure that the con-testants looked up the word ‘talent’ in the dictionary, the judges and the audience were thrilled to watch all five performances with a great laugh. With the talents concluded, the famous Q and A ses-sions began. All the contestants are eager to make the world a bet-ter pace, take their girl to the most perfect date and certainly win the title of Mr. AAS. With their lovely escorts be-sides them each con-testant was awarded a title based on his per-formance, but only one became Mr. AAS. Con-gratulations to Boris Botachev, contestant of the senior class of 2013! A round of applause to all the contestants and to the members of the National Honor society who have made this joy-ous event, yet another AAS tradition.

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Knowledge Bowl - Julia Montieth

Math Counts Results- Xenia Rakovshik

The annual CEESA knowledge bowl tourna-ment took place at AAS on February 8th and 9th. The visiting schools came from Vienna, Kra-kow, Kiev, Tirana, and Sofia. From AAS, three teams participated in the tournament, and all performed extremely well overall with a final placement of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. The Moscow team members were Anna-Lisa Lundberg,

Sean Brame, Iordan Ko-hut, Ramona Popescu, Laurens Riedler, Kelly Descamps, Steven Bredin, Sun Jin Kim, Rob Wilkie, and Tu-dor Stoain. Alongside coaches Mr. Khan and Ms. Hogwood the team trained twice a week, by practicing questions in the style of the tour-nament. The tourna-ment itself involved a multiple-choice written individual round, a writ-ten group round, and a

final competition round. The competition round involved two teams competing against each other answering ques-tions. Whichever team pressed the buzzer first had a chance to answer the question. If they an-swered correctly they earned a point, and if they answered incor-rectly the question was passed onto the oppos-ing team. At the end of the round the team with the most points won.

While Iordan Kohut said “the tournament was a bit stressful”, he also described the overall experience as enjoyable, and a great opportunity to meet new people. While the Vienna A team placed first both days, Mos-cow B was the only team to beat Vienna A throughoutthe entire tournament. Overall, the tournament was an opportunity for students to exercise their brains

and simultaneously meet people from the other schools. One par-ticipant, Sean Brame, described that “the com-petition and atmosphere was really great.” He explained that “it was tiring on the brain and such but we got to meet some really cool peo-ple. Basically everyone was really friendly and sociable.” Congratula-tions to all knowledge bowl participants!

The 2013 CEESA Math Counts compe-tition took place in Skopje, Macedonia on February 08-09, from which the AAS high-school team returned laden with numerous

victories.

During the Senior Team Round of the competi-tion high-school seniros Jason Cho, Haezy Kim, and Tetsuya Yamada came in first place while later during the Indi-

vidual Senior Rounds, Jason came in first with Haezy a close third.

Younger particpants such as sophomore

Open Mic-Night- Annie May

On a Thursday afternoon, after the school day finally ends, there is nothing more that students want to do than to go home and finally get some rest. But why not do that in school? Student Council came up with an excellent idea that would allow students to relax, socialize, and eat some food all while listening to great music performed by other students. Open Mic Night took place on

February 7th and was a great success among students. Couches were set up in the green room so that everyone could get comfortable. Some snacks were provided for students as well which made the event even better. There was a variety of performers who demonstrated their skill with both instruments and vocals. There were performances from students from different grades and the overall reviews of the

night are positive.The performers included Lincoln Pigman, Camilla Simmons, Andrew Mishin, Ellena Soule, Jinhee Kim, and The Killjoys which consist of Robert Stiglitz, Marko Krunic, and Colin Eversdijk. Lincoln’s performed multiple songs such as “At the Bottom of Everything” and “First day of My Life” both by Bright Eyes. Jinhee sang “The Cave” by Mumford and Sons beautifully,

and audience responded positively to all of the other performers as well. Robert Stiglitz played a song on the piano and told the audience that “It’s simple to play, but you have to put imagination into it, thats what makes it beautiful”. Overall, Open Mic Night can be considered a great success. Instead of going home like any other day, students got a chance to break out of their usual routine and have some fun on

a thursday instead of waiting for friday to do it. Open Mic Night also allowed the students that performed to feel more calm by holding the event in a casual environment so that no one would even think about being nervous or uncomfortable. The event received praise from many students and Student Council should definitely consider having another Open Mic Night some time this year.

CEESA 2013 Math Counts “First Place” trophy and three bronze medals.©AAS Yearbook Dropbox

AAS Math Counts Team©AAS Yearbook Dropbox

IB Column - Juniors, Welcome to TOK- Xenia Rakovshik

©IBO

The IB Column is a section that has been created as a response to a growing demand for clarification amongst students about a myriad of academic subjects. By adressing some frequently asked questions we hope to create a forum where students can voice concerns or give advice to one another to help facilitate a more cohesive and supportive learning environment. If you have any questions, concerns, or correc-tions, please write to us at aas.point@gmail.com.

With seniors an-nouncing with great en-thusiasm the conclusion of their TOK classes, and juniors preparing for the beginning of their own, this particu-lar IB course has been getting a lot of atten-tion. But then, what exactly is Theory of Knowledge? Ironically these kinds of nebulous inquiries are charac-teristic of the class, however whether there will ever be a definite answer to such ponder-ings is rather doubtful.According to the IB Curriculum outline: “The IB theory of knowledge (TOK) requirement is central to the educational philosophy of the Diploma Programme. It offers students and their teachers the opportu-nity to: reflect critically on diverse ways of know- ing and on areas of knowledge, con-sider Arts the role and

nature of knowledge in their own culture, in the cultures of oth-ers and in the wider world. In addition, it prompts students to: Be aware of themselves as thinkers, encouraging them to become more acquainted with the complexity of knowl-edge, and recognize the need to act responsibly in an increasingly inter-connected but uncertain world.”“As a thoughtful and purposeful inquiry into different ways of know- ing, and into different kinds of knowledge, TOK is composed al- most entirely of ques-tions. The most central of these is ‘How do we know?’”Understanding the ways in which one comprehends the world around them is undeni-ably a fascinating topic of discussion, a catalyst if you will, for reflec-tion and newfound insight

into how it is that indi-viduals perceive their day-today experiences.But then again, the means by which one person may interpret say a colour, tex-ture, or smell, could vary vastly from the sensory experience of another. Theory of Knowledge highlights the dangers of bias, making students aware of the interpretative nature of knowledge, including personal ideological tendencies, regardless of whether, ultimately, these biases are retained, revised or rejected. `` “TOK also has an important role to play in providing coher-ence for the student as it transcends and links academic areas thus demonstrating the way in which students can apply their knowledge with greater awareness and credibility” (IB

Curriculum Outline).

Jungwoo Kang won second place in the Ju-nior Individual events. Team coaches were Mr Jerace and Ms Rogers,the traveling team:

AAS Happy Counters ©AAS Yearbook Dropbox

Jason Cho, Tetsuya Ya-mada, Eric Song Hae-sung Rhim and Jung-woo Kang.

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High School Stockholm Syndrome - Cynthia Hogwood

- Xenia Rakovshik

AdvertisementsTEDx AAS is Back! If you are interested in being part of the TEDxAAS team for the re-turning event taking place in December 2013, please collect an appli-cation form outside the High School Office or speak to Camilla Sim-mons, Kirill Mazurin, Moa Schafer or Daniel Galperin. Application forms must be turned in to one of the aforementioned stu-dents by the the 01st of March. Find out more about TED and TEDx events at: www.ted.com For more information about TEDxAAS, visit our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/TEDxAAS

© courtesy of Cynthia Hogwood

Penguin PressWant to submit an editorial piece? An advertise-ment? Suggestions, comments or concerns? Send us an e-mail at aas.point@gmail.com

Where did you attend high school and what were your favourite/least favourite and subjects?

I went to two high schools. For 9th and 10th grade I went to Langham Creek High School in Houston, which I later taught at for six years. During that time, my favorite subjects were Grade 9 English with Ms. Carpenter and my debate class. Then, I moved to Memorial High School, also in Houston, for 11th and 12th grade. I loved my AP Literature course with Ms. Rajabi; she is the reason I became an English teacher.

Did you enjoy read-ing? What were your favourite books or authors back in high school?

I did… I was totally

that person. Ms. Ra-jabi used to give me books to read that were extensions on what we were doing in class. So, when we read 1984 for class, she gave me The Handmaid’s Tale because she knew I would enjoy it. I also read everything by Ayn Rand-wrote my junior research paper on Anthem and The Fountainhead. I even started reading Shake-speare as I wrote my senior English paper on Much Ado About Nothing.

How do you think your teachers would have described you as a student during your high-school career?

I know this will come as a shock, but talk-ative. Depending on the subject, my English and History/Govern-ment/Economics teach-ers would have said

dedicated and high-achieving. My math teachers, well at least until grade 12, would have said “struggling”.

What was your Eng-lish teacher like in high-school (or if you had several, which one was the most help-ful)?

I already talked about Ms. Rajabi and Ms. Carpenter. I had the opportunity to work with Ms. Carpen-ter after graduating from university, and I learned quite a bit from her. The one who I despised, Ms. Belk, is probably the one from whom I learned the most. She took an es-say, drew a red “X” on it and said start over. We worked on that essay with her teaching all the grammar that I had not learned along the way. Intense, but so necessary.

What were your main hobbies or interests during your years in high school, or uni-versity for that matter? Favourite bands, music, etc?

I debated (cross-ex-amination) for all four years in high school; my last two years, I travelled pretty exten-sively in the US and competed at a national level, qualifying for the National Foren-sic League National Tournament and the Tournament of Cham-pions in Kentucky. It was my life, and I loved every minute of it. Many of my friends from back then are still friends, at least on Facebook. I loved U2, the Dave Matthews Band, Tori Amos, and Sarah MacLachlan—saw them all many times through high school and university.

How many places have you taught? Which has been your favourite.

AAS is only my third school to teach at in my whole career…I tend to stay places that I like. I liked differ-ent things about all the schools; I don’t know if there is a favorite. Langham Creek was easy. I had been a student there. Swit-zerland was different because it was a board-ing school; but the days the administration would cancel school and send us to ski were some of my favorite days. Here, it’s never the same day; I like the variety. Moscow is also a cool city to live in.

What is your favourite piece of literature to teach amongst your classes at the mo-ment?

Seriously…I choose my syllabus for the most part, so I like everything I teach, just for different reasons. I love dystopic fiction, and I am lucky because this year I get to teach it in some form in all my classes.

Why do you keep peanut butter in your cupboard? (student question)

I try not to snack be-tween classes because I tend to buy things look cookies and food that is generally not healthy. So, the peanut butter is close at hand and is generally healthy. I also tend not to eat protein at break-fast and usually need some by mid-morning with all the tea I drink.

If you could change one thing about the high school what would it be and why?

I would wave my mag-ic wand and create the opportunity for more electives in English: courses like Dystopic Fiction, Beat Poetry, the novels of Margaret Atwood, etc.

If you could choose to be any writer or liter-ary character for a day who would it be, on what day and why?

Really…Elizabeth Bennet, for whatever day, hello Mr. Darcy.

Technology Update - OUYA Console - Alexander Rakovshik

There are many things that gamers search for in an indeal virtual experience.First ly, a game that doesn’t “by accident” have you stuck in the wall and unable to finish an ob-jective. Secondly, de-velopers who actually care about the gaming experience and put the enjoyment of playing above the most profit and thirdly a console where hacking is open and you are allowed to freely manipulate data and games within it.Though often the three may not always go hand in hand (in

hand) I have some heartening news: at least one of these things is finally coming true. I present to you... the OUYA!!!

“The O in OUYA stands for Open. The rest? We just liked how it sounded. Maybe down the road we can flesh out the rest of the ac-ronym, or perhaps one of our fans will. Would you like to take a stab Julia Uhrman - OUYA Founder? The premise is simple enough, it’s a TV console like Xbox 360 or PS3, except for one fundamental dif-ference, the ability to

hack and mess around with the innards of the console. The console will operate on Android (you know, the little green robot dude that looks like he’s some kind of cookie jar with legs? Yeah, that one). This will come with a custom user-interface and game store. For you enthusiasts out there, this baby comes with a quad-core pro-cessor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, and then your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connector, and if you don’t like the Wi-Fi option, you can plug in using an Ether-net cable. Just plug in the console into the TV

and start working on it. You got your standard controller, along with a touchpad on the top part for mobile gam-ing (so you can basi-cally play Angry Birds on it whenever!). Also, for all you hackers out there who are planning to dig in, both the con-sole and the controller can be opened up by removing the standard screws, so then you can just plug right in!

The OUYA is just three things: easy, open, and cheap. The price for the console is set for $99.00, which is a STEAL compared to $249.99 for the PS3

(Amazon.com), and the founder sees no intend-ed increase in the price of this console, that is for now in any case. Although I do have to mention that games re-leased on this console by big-brand compa-nies such as NAMCO Bandai will mostly re-lease free demos, not the game itself. But other than that, this console seems to have a good future ahead of it, and most likely I will come back on this again once it has been released and reviews start to come out. Also, before you ask, yes, it does come with batter-ies.

Console© http://www.ouya.tv/

Controller© http://www.ouya.tv/

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Musical Notes- Lincoln Pigman

Welcome, loyal reader. You’ve just be-gun perusing Penguin Press’ first music article of 2013. Each month, we’ll do our best to cover the music events of the past month, make mention of albums de-serving of your atten-tion, and let you know about upcoming gigs in Moscow.

First, February’s news and happenings: Jus-tin Timberlake has an-nounced a new album, entitled The 20/20 Ex-perience, set for a March 15th release. It is his first full-length album since his 2006 hit record FutureSex/LoveSounds, which featured chart-toppers such as “Sexy-Back”, “My Love”, and “What Goes Around… Comes Around”. Jay-Z guests on lead single “Suit & Tie”, which hit

YouTube January 14th. On February 21st, Los Angeles-based thrash metal band Slayer (part of the prolific Big Four, also featuring Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax) announced that drum-mer Dave Lombardo will be absent from the band’s Australian tour at the end of the month; on his Facebook page, Lombardo stated that a feud between him and guitarist Kerry King over his pay was the cause of the temporary split. Although it is un-known whether Lom-bardo will continue to be a member of Slayer outside of the tour, it would not be his first ejection from the world-famous metal quartet; Lombardo has left Slay-er twice, once for a year in 1986 and a second time in 1992, the latter of which had him away from the band for a de-

cade. Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor returns to the stage in April with his side-proj-ect How to Destroy An-gels, which also features his wife Mariqueen Maandig as well as At-ticus Ross, with whom Reznor composed the soundtracks of films The Social Network and The Girl with the Drag-on Tattoo, garnering an Oscar for Best Original Score for the former. It will be his first time performing live since Nine Inch Nails’ fare-well tour in 2010. The Postal Service – elec-tronic side-project of Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie – has announced its reunion tour, which will visit locations throughout the world in 2013. Along with the reunion, the band released their first track in ten years, enti-tled “A Tattered Line of

String”, featuring Jenny Lewis, former singer of Rilo Kiney. Occult rock band Ghost is now ob-ligated to perform un-der the name of Ghost B.C. for “legal reasons” as stated by the band. The Swedish group of masked musicians is to release their sophomore album Infestissumam on April 9th via Loma Vista Recordings; for-mer Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters front-man Dave Grohl guests on the B-side to their new lead single “Secu-lar Haze”. Slayer is not the only Big Four band to lose a member: New York thrashers Anthrax announced the permanent departure of guitarist Rob Caggia-no earlier this month; Caggiano cited a lack of input and creativ-ity as his reasons for leaving the band, who are to embark on the

Metal Alliance tour next month along with bands Exodus, High On Fire, Municipal Waste and others. Lady Gaga has cancelled the remainder of her US tour due to a labral tear of her right hip, an injury for which she has undergone sur-gery. Gaga thanked her fans for their patience and support in a Face-book post on Wednes-day. According to Colin Greenwood, bassist of Radiohead, the band is to begin recording their new album in Sep-tember. Until then, the members of the band are “doing some other stuff, doing their own things”; “the plan is to get back together” at the end of the summer to record the band’s ninth album, Greenwood ex-plained in an interview with BBC.

Albums to Listen to From February 2013

7th – Jay-Jay Johanson at KKZ Moskva (1,000r), 8th – The KVB & Die Jungen at Artplay (600r), 9th – Kreator at Milk (1,200r), 14th – Matisyahu at Arena Moscow (1,500r), 17th – Hatebreed at KKZ Moskva (1,100r), 18th – Swans at KKZ Moskva (1,800r), 20th – Funeral for a Friend at KKZ Moskva (900r), 22nd – Heaven Shall Burn at KKZ Moskva (1,200r), 23rd – Anaal Nathrakh at KKZ Moskva (900r), 23rd – Reel Big Fish at Samolet Live (1,000r), 25th – Terror at Plan B (800r)

Upcoming Gigs for March

Culture Corner- Sasha Parodi

© zastavki.com

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Spirit WeekThe high school student coun-cil is hosting a spirit week from Monday, 11th of March to the 15th.

As always Moscow is buzzing with inter-esting activities for ev-eryone to participate in. In this city of millions you can be sure to find something for everyone. Here are a few options which may satisfy your tastes:

In the Moscow Mul-timedia Art Museum you can find a number

of photo exhibits of photographers from all over the world. With its wonderful modern style and breathtaking pho-tographs, this museum is a must-visit for art and culture aficionados. And, a huge plus, for the price of one ticket, you can view every exhibit and explore the entire museum top-to-bottom. Enjoy! Address: Mos-cow, Ostojenka st. (met-

ro stations Kropotkin-skaya or Park Kulturi). The museum is open every day aside from Mondays, from 12:00 – 21:00;

Looking to satisfy that sweet tooth? Then the Museum of the His-tory of Chocolate and Cocoa is the place for you! From learning about the Cocoa tree, to American and Eu-

ropean history – here you are bound to dis-cover something new (and tasty!). So come have a look at Malaya Krasnosel’skaya street, building 7.

Want to delve deeper into Soviet history? The Gulag museum has a fascinating project revolving around fal-sification in the Soviet era. Check out the pho-

tographs and artifacts ranging from the early 1900s to the 1950s and go deeper into Rus-sian history than ever before! Be sure to stop by, it’s showing until the 15th April. Entrance fee is 150 rubles. Address: Petrovka, building 16.

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Word Search - Economics

Sudoku Puzzles

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Easy Difficult

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“ Lighthouse”, by Hakon Bard (Grade 12)

AAS empowers each student to: Respect Self & Others, Love Learning, and Contribute as a Globally Aware Citizen in order to achieve individual academic and holistic excellence.