Junior Advisory Day: What Do Students Think?
December 19, 2022
Article by Natali Sulukhia
Edited by Nitsa Saakashvili
Source GZAAT Gazette
Before the pandemic, advisories played a significant role in the school's spirit; they were like a small family you could trust and talk to if you needed help or had any problems. Unfortunately, the safe space that the advisories were meant to represent was slowly lost during the pandemic, but now the school is trying its best to bring it back.
On November 30th, there was a so-called advisory day at GZAAT for the first time in years. Even if advisory meetings were held occasionally, due to the pandemic, classes could not organize going out together and doing something productive and fun. This year, the
tradition is returning, and everyone is glad to be a part of it since the advisory day helps to bring everyone together. There were many options teachers, and students could choose from to spend their time together as they wanted. They could either go somewhere alone or join someone else's advisory group and do something together. Interestingly, everyone chose a different path and way to spend their time; some groups went to museums, some to movie theaters, some went outside to eat Georgian food, and some even stayed on the school's territory, watching movies and ordering food. Regardless of what they did, it's safe to say that everyone had fun and enjoyed their day.
Barbare Motsonelidze, an 11th grader, was asked to describe what their advisory chose to do together. She answered: "Since many students aren't with their closest friends during these sessions, I think the advisory days help them get closer to other people in their class. These days also provide many additional benefits: for example, it gives us an opportunity to discuss any issues we might have with our advisors and ask them for advice. Since our group wasn't in a school setting as we decided to go to a Museum and afterward to a Georgian restaurant, it made us feel even more comfortable to discuss our issues with our advisor. To conclude, I like the idea of the advisory day, and I hope to have them again".
Another 11th grader from a different group, Anano Kirvalidze, was also questioned to hear others' opinions. She concluded: "doing something outside the school with friends is always fun. Naturally, this advisory day was interesting and exciting for me and my classmates since some of the activities we participated in were something we wouldn't normally do on our own. For example, by going to a public library with my advisory, we were able to see some of the oldest books in Georgia. Since advisory groups are small, I was able to get to know my classmates and my teacher better. Something I would like to change, more specifically add to advisory days, is to make them more frequent and sometimes to combine them with 1 or 2 other advisories."
The advisory day worked out well for Juniors. Since everything went smoothly and there weren't any significant problems during this activity, it's safe to conclude that this won't be the last advisory day they will have, so let's hope everyone enjoyed the time they had with their advisors and classmates as these type of activities will get more frequent in the future:)
