Fun Classes and Projects

Did you know that 56.7 million Americans have special needs? Out of the 56.7 million 10% of our school kids has special needs. That's about 120 students. About half of those students are in Husky Wellness. You're probably wondering what Husky Wellness is. Husky Wellness is a class where students with disabilities work with 8th grade mentors who help advocate for them. Advocate means they teach without doing it for them. Also this class helps the mentees by teaching them the skills they need for phy ed. We interviewed some of the mentees, mentors, and the teacher Mrs. Bauman. We asked both the mentees and the mentors, what their favorite part of Husky Wellness was. Some of the mentors said "The friendship and connections they make, the way we help them makes them feel better but it also makes us feel better in the process, and we like that it makes the mentees feel confident". Some of the mentees said "It's fun, get to see friends, play basketball and soccer, and they all think Mrs. Bauman is the best". The co teacher Mrs. Bauman says how incredible it is to see the improvement that the mentees make. Husky Wellness is a great elective choice for anyone going into 8th grade. If you want to learn how to join, talk to Mrs. Bauman.

Do you ever wonder if teachers ever feel unappreciated? With teacher of the week that all changed. We interviewed Mrs. Maragos, the 7th grade communications lab teacher and person who started this idea. She said " originally, it was to get teachers to hand out husky high fives ". She thought if the teachers got those yellow handout/cards filled with compliments, then the teacher would feel like they would need to hand out high fives. It was nice to get feedback while giving feedback out to students. By now your probably wondering well how do teachers get nominated, or you really don't care. Well to nominate a teacher there are three tubs in the school, one in the library, one in the office and one in the student service area. Kids nominate teachers by complimenting them on a yellow card and throw it in the tub after they are done, then at the end of the week the committee put all the nominations in a bucket and pull out one then that's the teacher of the week. Any kind of teacher can be nominated whether it's special aids, core teachers, secretary, kitchen workers, and even janitors.

When We interviewed Mrs. Maragos we were surprised to find out that this whole entire thing is ran by a committee of 7th graders. They meet every Friday during home base in Maragos room, they gather the three tubs put all the nominations in an orange bucket and pull one nomination out. After, the committee hands out a certificate to the teacher that won, and you can also view who won teacher of the week by looking at your team's T.V. So far this year we have had at least four teachers win, Mrs. Tufte (8th grade science teacher), Mr. Wright (6th grade digital literacy teacher), Mrs. Emerson (6th grade reading teacher), and Mrs. Kuhn (A sub for all grades). In the end this is just a great way to thank our teachers for what they do and help us...so get on out there and nominate our AWESOME teachers! Maybe yours can be next.