Nm. This ended up genuinely terrible. Don't writr when tired, I guess?




Hi, Everyone! These are just some scribbles of what's to come.
https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=102565&page=2#11
https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=102565&page=2#11



















Welcome to the Gallagher Academy Early Recruitment Program/Early Admission Program.

If you were able to access this page, you have been invited to a preparation program for the Gallagher Academy!

The purpose of this program is to allow students to take advanced classes before moving to the Gallagher Academy. We hope to encourage students to learn independently so that they can make the most of their time when here.

This is the first year that we have initiated this program, so you're our first class!

Good Luck!
-Headmistress


Alternate Introduction:
Welcome to Gallagher Academy's first remote-learning program. In light of current global events we have decided to broaden admission to all interested students around the world. We will also allow you to learn remotely while remaining under cover in your current life.


Entry 2
Day 2

Work hard. Anything you learn here could make the difference between helping your team and classmates catch an enemy or letting your team get caught. You may be asked to do "side projects," both now and on campus. You won't need this "someday," you need it today.

At a minumum, please read one "entry" each day until you begin your assignments. On Monday of each week read 1 "Assignment" and do the associated work during the course of that week. This isn't a geniuses' school for nothing, though. Students are encouraged to work ahead. As soon as you finish one assignment, you may proceed to the next.

You will find your assignments listed by subject. In this program, we will heavily emphasize foreign language and individual study plans.

Throughout this program you will complete and keep your work. At the end of your studies you will present your work as a portfolio for review. (A Porfolio is a folder of completed work, like a binder of completed assignments.) We will use your work to decide whether or not to grant you admission to Gallagher Academy's main program.

There are threads for students to interact, announce academic challenges (A Learning Competition, etc).

Because you are working indepdently, you might have to change your plans or adjust assignments to make them doable. (Ex. You might have to change your project requirements from:
-"read one Portuguese News Article a day "
to
-"read one chapter of a french book each day"
if your access to the internet changes. The same can be done for special accommodations. Do you what you need to do to learn effectively.


Entry 3
Day 3
Choose your Classes!

Binder.
We Suggest gathering your work into a binder with dividers or computer folder so that it is organized by subject and so that your work is prepared for review by the end of the program.

Subjects.
Your Subjects are:


Advanced Foreign Languages
Collegiate Science
Covert Operations Prep
Indepdent Studies (ex. Math, Calculus, Science, Computers)

Optional Subjects
P&E. (optional)
English (optional)


Entry 4
Day 4
Be sure to plan ahead. If you have an assignment that you said would be done on Thursday and will be busy Thursday, do it Tuesday or Wedneaday. We like Creative problem solvers here. Whether you work in a lab creating the latest gadgets or tracking down arms dealers, you need to stay on your toes. Anticitpate challenges and plan around them.

Although students are permitted to take up to 25 school days to complete this, it is unlikely to take this long. It is set up so that students can work 5 days a week for 5 weeks. Each assignment lists a day. If you start on a Monday, for example:

Day 1 is Monday
Day 2 is Tuesday
Day 3 is Wednesday
.....
Day 6 is the following Monday


However you can continue any time after the assignment for the day is completed. If an assignment says that you should read 10 pages of the science text by Tuesday and another 10 by Thursday, you can read 20 on Monday. It can be overwhelming though, so take every assignment one step at a time.

(One exception is that you cannot complete all physical education assignments in one day as that could lead to injury. Check with your parents/teachers/guardians for guidance on physical acitivity requirements.)



Entry 5
Day 5
Please list the courses you plan to take on a piece of paper in the front of your binder or write them in your computer file that you will use as your portfolio. The admission review board will use this and the carbon dating/ edit date of your submission to see how well you follow through on your plans when you work independently.

Please also write today's date, so you can see how much progress you've made per day.


Proceed to the Course assignments for each class.
If you are an ESL student you can begin at "ESL," other students wishing to take English, proceed to "English-general."
New foreign language students can click on "Foreign Language- No experience." Everyone else can start with "Foreign Language- Moderate or Farther," which skips over a couple of assignments.

Fieldwork Preparation


The purpose of this course is to prepare you for your work in the intelligence services.

Assignment One
Day 7
Write at least one paragraph about what motivates you to excel. What do you hope to accomplish by the time you complete this program? Read 5 languages? Learn 2nd year college chmistry?
This is the time to dream big.


Assignment 2
Day 8-10
Stealth and balance are very important in this line of work. Become very aware of every noise you make. Does your chair creak every time you lean forward? Do you let heavy doors slam behind you?

Over the next week learn to anticipate every noise that you make in your environment. Control the noise you make. (It may not be practical to avoid motorized vehicles, or indoor plumbing. When you can't avoid making the noise, at least be aware that it will happen BEFORE it happens.

When you need to break into a stronghold you should know what noise you're making BEFORE it happens.

By Friday, be able to keep completely silent on any task not considered "unavoidable." Texting? You can turn off the clicking noise for the day.

Just don't do anything that's going to get you into trouble. (Ex. You still have to participate normally in class and karate practice or people will get suspicious that you're training to become a spy.)

At the end of the day on Friday, write a 1 paragraph report about what you did to go undetected. Have it ready before Monday morning.


Assignment 6
Day 11
List people and works that inspire you. Olympic athletes, famous scientists? Even if you're inspired by fictional like Hermione Granger, Star Trek, Girls Who Code, Matilda, Big Bang Theory, Star Wars, or our old Academy files.

Re-reading those items can keep you motivated during this grueling study program.


Go above and beyond today. This isn't a field where you can slide by when doing the minimum amount of work.

Pick one subject and:
work substantially ahead.
Or
study for two hours
show us that you are the best of the best.

Day 12
There are no limits to what could be helpful in your work as a spy. If you plan to go undercover in a baking competiton, you had best know something about baking.

There's also a difference between knowing about something and doing it. DO something new today. Bake. Rock climb. Try zumba. Play basketball. Try a puzzle or a musical instrument. (But only with your parent's/guardian's permission for any of those.)

Just do something that you don't usually do.

Day 13
Please list the time slots that you would be available for fieldwork today tomorrow and the next day. Post these under the "portfolio" submissions page. Name today as A, tomorrow as B etc. That will allow us to set times and dates for assigments without outsiders understanding it.
[Don't need info buy role play?]


Day 14
No assignment today.

Day 15
No assignment today.

Day 16
This week we will focus on random knowledge and skills that could be helpful.

Do you know how to read an agarose gel in genetics. Research it for 30 minutes or less. Write one paragraph summarizing your understanding of the process.

If you've truly learned something, you should be able to explain it to someone else. If you can't explain it, you don't fully understand it.

Day 17
Why is the air thinner at a higher altitude. Find out and tell someone you know or write a paragraph about it in your portfolio.

Day 18
Are water molecules closer in ice or water?
What about with molten (melted) iron?
(Do not melt iron to find out.)
(Spend 1-30 minutes researching it.)

Day 19
What does "hepatic" mean? Write the answer in your portfolio. (It will be a quick answer.)


Day 20
No assignment today.


Day 21
This week we will focus on problem solving.
Dichotomy
Too often people argue needlessly because they debate which of two problematic options is the best.
Think of a time when people you know or society have made this mistake.

Day 22
Solve a 15 puzzle.

You can solve it by accident, but notice the strategy and the way that groups of tiles move. Note your strategy for your portfolio.

How to play:
Look up a picture of the puzzle if necessary.
There should be 15 tiles and one square-shaped gap. Any tile adjacent to the gap may be slid into the gap.
Repeat the process until the numbers are in order with 1 in the upper left hand corner, and 2 beside it.


Resources.
Some people may already have this toy. This site has an online version, but if you'd prefer to make one, instructions are below.
https://15puzzle.netlify.app/
If you've already found a 15 puzzle, you can stop reading.


To make a make-shift 15 puzzle.
This explanation makes it sound a lot more complicated than it is, but if it's the only option you have:

Cut out 1 by 1 inch squares of paper. Label them with the numbers 1 to 15.
Cut out a larger square that is 4 by 4 inches. The 4 inch square will be the playing board that the numbered squares move around on.
Shuffle the numbered tile squares and arrange the end to end and side to side on the playing board so that only one area of the playing board is uncovered. It should be a square-shaped gap.


Day 23
Have you ever seen a show where characters could have saved themselves from trouble if they would have planned ahead?
For example in the show Charmed, there are three witches who are sisters. They have all sorts of monsters that come after them. They often find a potion in their magic book. The potion is then used to defeat the monsters.

Why don't they just sit down one day and make the most important potions then the next?

What are somethings you need to do to prepare yourself from professional problems that you can already forsee?
Write a paragraph.


Day 24
Create a list of your skillsets that will help you and your team in the intelligence services.

Do you know foreign languages?
Do you know martial arts?
Are you good at predicting people?
Do you know a lot of random information?
Can you find information quickly?

Have you taken higher level math or science or done particularly well in any other subject area.

Add this to your portfolio.

Day 25

Add any additional information that you would like us to known while reviewing your portfolio.

Do you want to tell us about your motivation to go into the field or why you would be an asset?

Course Pages

State your Level
Foreign Language
Foreign Language- No experience.

Assignement 1:
Day 6
Read the Information Below:

Learn this well. Imagine you're on a mission, you're the person laying in the air duct above the meeting table where your partner is undercover talking to an arms dealer. You'd better know the difference between.
"I know you're a spy, you'll never escape."
And
"I know you don't like lions, it'll never escape."

Sending in backup at the wrong time would be disastrous.





You might be suprised how similar some foreign languages are to English. However, there are a few things you might want to know

-some langugages have verbs that need to be "conjugated" in order to say who is doing the action and when they did it. (You can't neceasarily add -ed to the end of the verbs in other languages to make them past tense.)

-not all languages use the same word order

-some languages can put multiple words together without a space in between.

If you have limited access to the internet/library, languages like Spanish, French, and Italian might be easy to find resources on.


Assignment 2
Day 7
You learned in the previous assignment that just learning vocabulary isn't enough to be fluent in another language.

English has phrases like "caught red-handed." This will sound silly but hear me out:

Think about the most common meaning of each word for a moment. Caught can mean "grasped with the hand," such as when you catch a ball. It can also mean "noticed." You could have "caught"/noticed your brother sneaking into your room!

Red, obviously refers to the color and "hand" refers to the area that connects off a wrist and is often used to grasp or move things.

The phrase, however, means to notice someone when they are doing something that proves their guilt. It doesn't necessarily involve the color red at all.

Other languages have phrases like this, too. Be on the look-out for groups of words that don't seem to make sense in the sentence. It may be a phrase.



Assignment 3
Day 8
Proceed to "Foreign Language-Moderate or Farther" and continue the assignments there.



Foreign Language- Moderate or Farther

Assignment 3:
Day 6/9
Choose what language you are going to learn. You can look through library books or the internet to decide. Note any books, websites or other resources that you want to use for your assignements.

If you are a beginner, a textbook in the foreign language is a good way to make sure that you are learning grammar along with vocabulary.

Spend no more than 30 minutes on this search. Because you, our students, are unusually bright, you sometimes get lost soaking up data.

It's helpful to decided how much time you want to spend on searches like that before you start.


Assignment 4
Day 7/10
Get access to the items you need by checking them out from the library. (Check the assignments for other classes to see if you need any resources for those classes as well.)

You have up to one week to get the necessary materials.

Assignment 5
Day 6/11
Make your own goals. You must have at least two foreign language tasks a week.
Here are two examples, if you can't think of anything else:

Example 1:
Spanish:
Make 5 new Spanish vocabulary cards by each Tuesday and Thursday
Also by Tuesday and Thuesday go through the new stack at least three times and
-review at least five cards from prior days.

Example 2:
French:
Any two times per week, read 2 pages in a french fiction book I found in the library.

You can of course study MORE than that. It's best though, to get the small goal done for the day before deciding to do more.



Assignment 6
Day 9/13 to 25
Make a sticker chart like this on which you can track your progress towards your goals:
https://safetytrendz.com/behavioral-chart-printable-pdf/arthurseguin/
You can keep it on your refrigerator or in your portfolio.

If you have a busy day coming up. Do your assignment BEFORE the day you were supposed to, so you don't have to stay up late or fall behind.



Advanced Learners
Switch up your approach:
If you usually study vocabulary, look into a little bit of the grammar.

Watch youtube videos in the foreign language without captioning.

What you probably shouldn't post:
Grab a notebook and write what you've done in the last 24 hours in your foreign language. If that's too easy, write an entire fan fiction in your new language.

Make a video in the foreign language reviewing a favorite show or movie.

Independent Study
Assignment 1:
Day 6
Read the Info Below:


"Independent Study" means learning on your own. Some schools allow students to work independently to learn a topic that the school doesn't provide. Consider what topics you would like to study as an independent study project.

Your independent study project may not involve firearms, chemicals, sharp objects, or biohazard, unless you are working under an approved organization, such as taking a supervised chemistry class at a local university. Don't do anything dangerous (ex. Don't climb buildings).

It cannot involve any activity that you are required to pass a certification test for like dentistry, or medicine (working as a doctor).

It cannot involve any illegal activity.


You can skip down to assignment 2 if you already know what you want to study.



Indepdendent Studies
Prior projects:

Although this online offering is new, we will list some prior independent study projects from online students.











Assignment 2
Day 7
Develop your list of homework assignments. At this stage, general assignments such as
"read two chapters and be able to explain the content"
may be more practical because you don't know the content.
Assign at least two tasks per week for this week and the three after.


Here are some Independent Study Project Ideas:

Math
-probability and statistics class
-geometry
-calculus
-

History
(You can have a lot of freedom with this, by focusing on this history of fashion or the history of Egypt.)

Computer Sciences/Technology
-learn to make your own website

Psychology
Even though psychology is often taught as an upper level high school course, you may be able to understand the material far before that. Vocabulary might be a challenge, so you might have to look some words up.

Sociology
Sociology is similar to psychology, but studies groups of people.



Day 8-25
Follow the lesson plan you assigned for yourself.

P&E
Day 6
Our P&E program is 100% optional. You don't have to enroll in the class to be accepted into the high school. Here at the Gallagher Academy we don't care one wit about your weight.
What we DO care about is encouraging our students to ADD healthy foods into their meal plans so that injuries (such as a twisted ankle) don't take a long time to heal. Such injuries could limit a student's involvement in our other activities.
We also encourage strength training (like push-ups) and endurance (ex. Jogging) because both qualities can be enormously helpful for those interesred in fieldwork.

Next Entry. Or General Disclaimer

Health Prep
Only make changes your parents are okay with. Don't stop eating. Don't workout hard all day everyday.

Next Entry
Day 7
Even if you plan to work in a lab or behind a computer, physical fittness is important. When your location is compromised and you have to run 2 miles toting a laptop, you'll be glad it wasn't the first time you've run in years.

Make a plan for fittness goals this week. Mark the specific start time for any workouts and be dressed and at the location by that time. Have any videos selected and equipment ready to use before the assigned time.

Choose how many days you have to do each activity and which days those will be.

List all of these rules and add them to your Binder.



Next Entry
Day 11-25
Continue making weekly goal sheets and pursuing your goals until your final week of the program.

English
ESL
Assignment 1:
Read the information below:

ESL learners do have a special challenge. In the US, the SATs are a advanced level test that is taken near the end of high school. It tests skills such as English, math, and logic.

Our students typically take the SATs at the end of their first year (7th grade), to get it out of the way. The GRE is a similar test which is used to gauge if students should continue with college after their fourth year/graduation year is complete.

You have the choice of simply working on SAT/GRE vocabulary with the rest of the students or adding a reading requirement.

Reading Requirement:
Week 1
Day 6-10
We caution ESL students against reading from online sources. The quality of online English has plummeted and is far below that of published works. When possible, read from books first printed recently (at least since 1950) as a resource for formal English. Even online "articles" and news articles are riddled with grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.


Read for 5 minutes a day. If you run into 5 or more words you don't know, look up at least 1 of them. If there were four or fewer unknown words, you don't have to add any to the list, but you can.

Start a log of "new vocabulary" and write the definition to the new words.

If you don't have a dictionary,
tends to be a trustworthy site.


Week 2
Day 11-15
Read for 7 minutes each day this time and follow the rules above for continuing the "new vocabulary" list.

Week 3
Day 16-20
Read for 10 minutes a day. You no longer have to add to the "new vocabulary" list of you don't want to.

Week 4
Day 21-25
Read for 15 minutes a day.


English- general
Day 6

Can you define "antithesis?"

Can you use " gourmand " in a sentence?



Some people advise reading a lot in order to amass new vocabulary. Sometimes the meanings of rare words aren't obvious. If I'm going to read anyway, I find it helpful to learn the word while I'm seeing it in context rather than just memorizing new vocabulary or just reading without looking words up. Get into the habit of learning.

On the other hand, when you have a decent vocabulary, the words that you learn through reading become few and far between. We will therefore focus on vocabulary acquisition in this course. (Forcing you to read enough books to learn this amount of vocabulary would be impractical.)

Obtain a list of SAT or GRE vocabulary words through the internet or library. (Ex. )
Note: the above site does lead to a document download. You may find your own list if you prefer.

Day 7-25
Learn 10 new words each week. Be prepared for a test when you come in to discuss your portfolio.

Next course

Additional Pages

Gallagher Academy Lounge Room
Introduce yourselves, relax or, Compete against other students. What ouyrageous goals do you have for yourselves?






Academic Lounge?

Portfolio Submission

Questions for the School
Please understand that all of our faculty are often working in the field (out doing spy work) and may be unable to respond for long periods of time. We don't anticipate answering questions until we meet to discuss your portfolio. You may attempt to contact us through this forum thread, however.
If the question is urgent, please ask an adult within 30 minutes of you (your parents, teachers, neighbors, etc.)
















Out of Character Entries

None of these "missions" involve actual intelligence services work. They're just to keep it interesting.

Links. I have not added any links I know to be harmful, but can't guarantee that they won't be taken over by malicious programs in the future. Please click with caution.

This isn't exclusively based on Gallagher Academy. It's kind of based on the general theme of the Specialists/ the Squad/elite Universities/Spy Schools/ Mrs... Spy School for Girls/Starfleet Academy. Only the introductions should name names. You can pretend it's whatever school you'd like, but mentioning the name to other players might get confusing if everyone is calling it something different.

Age
If you're under 18, or your country's age for legal adulthood, don't do anything your parents aren't okay with. Please keep up with your school/work/other responsibilities.
Age Part 2
You can definitely use this thread if you are over the age of high school admission. This site was really made for older students, but the storyline works out better if you imagine yourself to be working from home because you're doing preparatory work.

NPC
There may be un-announced NPCs playing to add variation, plot, and competition.

SAFETY
Tracking
This thread is actually visible by everyone. We're not actually tracking people down and changing their ability to access this page. It just wouldn't make sense in the storyline for a spy school to be open to the public.

Portfolio/Binder
There won't be anyone to check your Portfolio at the end of the role play, but if your not keeping records of what you do, you might be less likely to do it.
If you want to create your own thread and post your portfolio check it carefully to make sure that you don't give out your address or other confidential information.

Copied from other pages
If [a] question is urgent, please ask an adult within 30 minutes of you (your parents, teachers, neighbors, etc.)


Projects
Your independent study project may not involve firearms, chemicals, sharp objects, or biohazard, unless you are working under an approved organization, such as taking a supervised chemistry class at a local university. Don't do anything dangerous (ex. Don't climb buildings).

It cannot involve any activity that you are required to pass a certification test for like dentistry, or medicine (working as a doctor).

It cannot involve any illegal activity.

More out-of-character notes for EDITING.

EDIT NOTES:

Maybe rename the program.
Maybe mention the b's in brackets.
Need to update Assignment's Names. Maybe called it Day 2-5, not Assignment 2-5?

Add a way to navigate more easily

Check for GA references.

Add more subject specific questions.
Does English general need it's own section?
Add info about impact of contributions and opportunities of particular assignments.



Notes to the public: this forum is not complete: sorry that it's hard to navigate right now.

Home page with links?
https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=102311&page=5&ping_type=1&ping_id=260#42