By Maggie Blackwell
news@salisburypost.com
Students at West Rowan Middle School did not have a snow makeup day on Monday ó they had Sunshine Day.
Snow makeup days are often poorly attended. On Sunshine Day, class sizes were nearly normal.
Sunshine Day, an intensive day of hands-on activities, was the brainchild of principal Nancy Barkemeyer. It marks the beginning of a season of high stakes learning and accountability for the students.
“So often, students think the year is over when they return from spring break. The exercises today have served to get the kids looking forward to the learning that will follow,” Barkemeyer said.
“We are facing the end of the year with a sense of urgency. Every minute of every day must be used wisely. We want to think of coming to school as fun.”
The students definitely seemed to enjoy Sunshine Day. They were excused from wearing uniforms for the day, and every grade offered spirited, interactive exercises.
Jane Beaver’s sixth grade class gathered in the media center to hold videoconferences with fifth graders from Ms. Shadroui’s AIG class at Mt. Ulla Elementary, who will attend West Middle next year. Students approached the camera to ask questions about life in middle school. Is the homework hard? How much homework do you have? What kind of behavior do the teachers expect? Were you nervous? How did you cope?
The sixth-graders, old hands at middle school by now, patiently approached the webcam and gave answers: Homework isn’t hard if you pay attention in class. Homework varies from a few minutes to a couple of hours a night. Teachers expect respect, have your materials, and don’t talk without permission. Yes, we were nervous, but we did not need to be. Try to relax and be friendly and you’ll be fine.
After talking with Mt. Ulla, the students were scheduled to talk with Woodleaf, Cleveland and Hurley.
“They have really looked forward to this,” Beaver said. “I had a student who asked me to ask his father to cancel a spring trip to Kentucky, so he could be here.”
Seventh graders in Henley’s math class were asked to wear flip flops to school for Sunshine Day. In preparation for learning how to calculate area of polygons, they traced their feet on a piece on graph paper. They traced their flip flops on a piece of graph paper. Then they calculated the area of their feet, and of their shoes. They compared the area of their shoes to the area of other students’ shoes who wore the same size. The class buzzed as students padded around, looking for someone else who wore the same size.
Teresa Weddington’s seventh grade science class studied DNA. After creating an origami helix, they busied themselves with creating DNA necklaces. They swished their mouths with Gatorade and put it in test tubes, added cell lysis, then slid in refrigerated ethanol. Somewhere between the pink Gatorade solution and the clear layer of ethanol, a cloudy spiral began to appear.
“I see it! I see it!”
They were less clear on exactly what DNA is. Dalvin McNeely guessed it was the bacteria from his mouth. Other students answered with questions of their own. You get it from your parents? It’s your genes?
Finally, Mackenzie Dixon answered definitely. “It’s what you are.”
As the students busied themselves with sucking the spiral out of the test tube with an eye dropper, and putting it in the tiny cylinder for the necklace, Sarah Allison declared, “This is the funnest day of the year.”
Barkemeyer smiled. That was the plan all along.