Hope Harrington Oakes
Staff Writer
hopeharringtonoakes@gmail.com
Last Friday, March 10th, Caledonia Middle School held a few fun activities to kick off Spring Break, as well as the completion of a nine-week geography project. Caledonia Middle School teacher, Allison Barnette, is known for the unique projects she has her students participate in. This year, her 8th grade students presented a Cultural Tour of the World. Barnette stated, “This is all problem-based. I give them a very simple thing. Each class has a different country. They are to be the curators, the docents, for each of the museums they do: art, architecture, religion, food, music, government, economics, current events, geography, and environment. They should be able to explain it and tell you about it. I wanted it to be open to all the senses, so you have a lot of interactive features. We left it wide open so they could make mistakes and fix them, learn how to communicate. We are opening it up for the whole school to come in at different times to tour. It is great to see them succeed. It’s a confidence they build, it’s a resilience they build, in doing it this way. This has taken several weeks to do, and counts as their 9-week’s grade. It keeps them engaged in learning. It’s something they’ll take with them. They love doing it. It’s gratifying when teenagers come up to ask if they could work after school. In asking for permission to do that, I told Mr. Pittman, ‘You never wake a sleeping baby, and you never stop a teenager from working’. That’s the thing!”
Other activities included a Talent Show. Winners are: 3rd Place – Alex Harris and Daria Lathan; 2nd Place – Ty Jernigan, Kayla Jernigan and Taylor Dodson; 1st Place – Andrew Foreman and Jacob Lott. Also, throughout the day, Bubble Soccer was played in the gymnasium. Over 60 students signed up to be on teams of three to play soccer while wearing inflatable bubble suits. It was a great way to burn through some energy while watching the clock tick away until the official arrival of Spring Break.
