Once monthly MOSAIC classes attempt to create community, tackle vital issues

Photo by Isabelle Wang

Students learn how to maintain their sleep schedule in the second MOSAIC of the school year.

MOSAIC, short for “making our school an inclusive community,” has replaced last year’s advisory sessions for the  2022-23 school year both at Saratoga and Los Gatos High, making it a district wide effort. Advisory included lessons on topics such as bullying, mental health and consent. 

MOSAIC occurs less regularly than the advisory units that began during the online year in 2020-2021. Taking place once a month with the same assigned room and teacher, it occupies the entirety of tutorial instead of 30 minutes. MOSAIC now involves more student-to-student interaction, allocating more of its curriculum time for students to get familiar with each other before diving into presentation topics.

The MOSAIC team, including history teacher Bismah Siddiqi, principal Greg Louie, special education teacher Lauren Taylor and assistant principal Brian Safine, works together to create lessons that are relevant to the students. 

Early in the year, students and teachers filled out a form about the topics they wanted to be covered in MOSAIC. The team looked through these responses and created the lessons accordingly to try to ensure the lessons would engage students.

This emphasis is an attempt to bring students closer to each other and make them more comfortable to open up and talk about the lessons as a class.

Previously, advisory only took up part of tutorial, and students were allowed to work on homework or ask their teacher questions after the lesson was over.

Junior Taylor Chu thinks the 50-minute duration is too long because students, especially upperclassmen, need tutorial time to communicate with teachers and clarify concepts. 

“I don’t think MOSAIC should take up the whole period. After a brief lesson is done, students should be allowed to spend the remainder of the time as a regular tutorial,” Chu said. “However, it still is an improvement from having advisory only on Wednesdays.”

The first MOSAIC on Aug. 29 began  with introductions of what students did over summer, which helped generate small discussions. The second MOSAIC on Sept. 29 talked about the importance of prioritizing sleep and managing schoolwork. Students discussed barriers preventing them from sleeping, such as after school extracurriculars and phone distractions. They also learned from examples on how to organize their schedule to be productive without losing sleep hours. 

SStudents interviewed by The Falcon felt that the activities incorporated within the lessons, such as meditation and sharing emotions, created an awkward atmosphere.

Chu also said the MOSAIC lessons were uneventful as her peers seemed uninterested and didn’t take the first August lesson seriously, making it difficult for the lessons to have any impact. 

“I think everyone was joking around about it because the questions were things like ‘What’s your name?’” Chu said. “But everyone mostly knew each other.” 

Similarly, sophomore Audrey Wong said students felt  awkward and uncomfortable due to people’s unwillingness to answer questions during the lesson. 

But Wong said that one improvement from last year’s lessons was the graphics. She said they seemed more positive and collaborative, and was glad that the lessons were being introduced in a more engaging manner. 

“The slideshows are similar to advisory but have happier graphics,” Wong said. “I think the games seem fun as well.”

Although MOSAIC’s purpose is to give students a support system if they are feeling stressed or overwhelmed, Spanish 2 and 3 teacher Claudia Zambon noticed that at first, students’ general reluctance to talk about their emotions led to feelings of awkwardness.

“The students weren’t very happy to be in MOSAIC because they weren’t too fond of opening up and sharing things about themselves which is normal,” she said. “I think opening up your feelings is really important because if we can’t express them we lash out in different ways.”

Soon, as the class progressed, students got more comfortable as they became more familiar with each other.

“As time went by, students started to open up and we kind of were able to talk,” Zambon said. “I think in the end, it was a positive experience.”