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This year, eighth graders in the middle school have the option to take six of nine new clubs during the course of the academic year. Clubs include the “School of Rock,” engineering classes, automotive mechanics, digital photography, public speaking, debate and sports broadcasting.
When outlining the advisory clubs, Middle School Principal Thomas Wilson noted that they offer an opportunity for students to receive additional education.
“Beginning this year, students will elect to take six clubs during the course of the year, each with a different teacher who is offering content that is outside of the norm for their discipline in order to give our oldest middle school students an invitation to learning more about what passions are held by our staff as they enter into new and innovative activity,” he said.
Each club is led by teachers hoping to help students hone in on new interests and skills. Mary Schenck, who is advising the public speaking and debate club, said that this offers students opportunities to develop skills that would not be otherwise available.
“It’s an opportunity for students to learn how to argue and get comfortable speaking in front of a group of people,” she said. “We’ve done all sorts of debates, including cake versus pie, whether rats are our friends or foes and whether or not Jack of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ is guilty of murder.
“The students have a lot of fun exercising their speaking skills. These are skills they’ll use not only in class, but later in life as well.”
During their time with the advisory clubs, students designed their own music and songs for classmates, built catapults out of popsicle sticks, learned how to utilize spreadsheets and learned key leadership skills that will translate later in life.
“We made catapults out of popsicles and hot glue,” Eighth grade student Jacoby Goodson, a member of the Engineering Challenges Club, said. “The best part about it is working with the teacher and having him show us what to do. It’s just fun putting it all together, and when it comes out, it fires pretty far – I’ve seen (the teacher) do it.”
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