THIS YEAR’S EDITION of Agora Days — that annual weeklong break from regular classes — began Tuesday, and all went well according to French teacher John Garvey, the event’s faculty sponsor and main organizer.

“Most of the time the first day of Agora Days for me is very, very hectic,” said Garvey. “Today it was not, which either tells me people are more satisfied or they don’t want to complain, or something. But I didn’t have to fix that many problems today.” (For more comments from Garvey, click the audio box at right.)

Agora Days is a Uni tradition in which the regular curriculum is set aside during a four-day week, and in its place students take classes chosen from more than 100 mini-courses. The twist is that most of the courses are proposed, planned, and taught by Uni students themselves.

In all, students, faculty, parents, alums, and friends of the school are teaching 113 courses this year. Click here to see the full schedule.

The classes range from academic (47) to fine arts (12) to cooking (six) to games (13) to movies (16) to sports (11) to “other” (eight). Uni's regular schedule will resume on Monday.

In addition, 17 students are spending this week in Clarksdale, Miss., as part of the school's annual Habitat for Humanity trip to the Mississippi Delta. History teacher Bill Sutton founded the trip in 1996. Joining Sutton as a chaperone is PE teacher Doug Mynatt. The students will help the local Habitat chapter build housing for low-income residents.

Photographer Sindha Agha visited several Agora classes on Tuesday, and here a few examples of what she found. Editor Alex Zhai also chipped in with photos of 80 Points, a class devoted to the Chinese card game.

Typical Cooking Class is taught by Elizabeth Allen, Amy Ding, and Rachel Harmon; Introduction to Brazilian Portuguese by Janet Morford; Basic Tae Kwon Do by Paul Dampier and Natsuki Nakamura; Rubik's Cube 101 & 102 by Youyang Gu and Kevin Li; Rock Band I & II by Jake Seeley and Mike Renner; and 80 Points by Ranny Ma, Alan Liang, and Charlie Wan.

All photos are by Sindha Agha except the final three (80 Points), which are by Alex Zhai. Click photos to enlarge.

TYPICAL COOKING CLASS

CLICK ANY PHOTO to start your own slideshow — then keep clicking.

INTRODUCTION TO BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE

BASIC TAE KWON DO

RUBIK'S CUBE 101 & 102

MORE OF TYPICAL COOKING CLASS

ROCK BAND I & II

80 POINTS