Andrews – Andrews Middle School held its Winter Arts Showcase on Dec. 10 to highlight the latest academic and artistic projects from grades 6-8.
Featured in the festive hallways full of staff wearing elf ears along with reindeer antlers, as well as plenty of ugly sweaters, families strolled the main entrance decorated with giant Christmas trees and wrapped presents.
There was also free hot chocolate and popcorn as well as the adorning works along the walkways of the various grades, including activities for Writing Across the Curriculum directives, eighth-grade math classes writing newspaper articles, seventh-grade science classes plotting the possible genetics of celebrities using Punnett squares and sixth-grade English language arts utilizing their reading project for literary analysis.
Principal Joslyn Parker-Booth emphasized her commitment to “writing, writing and more writing, across every subject” in showcasing the students’ work, which includes sharing it with family and friends.
“It’s important we share student work with the families, and it gives the students a sense of accomplishment to show their work, to take pride in it,” Parker-Booth said.
Many of the works were crafted after “Crossover Projects,” which implement writing and feature its importance in each subject of study along with certain district initiatives to incorporate a balanced educational experience within each grade level and subject matter. Artistic representations included a variety of media, including everything from poetry to poster boards to pottery.
Bethany Clark, the seventh- and eighth-grade science teacher, said the students were utilizing science to determine possible hereditary genetic traits of celebrities’ offspring to mesh both pop culture with the study of genetic selection, with the approach dating from Reginald Punnett’s 1905 work.
Clark said students could choose from either a list of potential celebrities or choose their own stars to determine a list of potential traits that would follow in future generations.
Jenni Cable’s eighth-grade math class, along with the others in that grade, participated in a newspaper article writing with the printed format as the “Cable Chronicles,” providing information for understanding such geometrical quandaries as same-side exterior angles and supplementary angles.
The other classes’ newspapers were titled “Daily Dose of Math” and “The Mathematical Wonders,” delving into both the news format along with such headlines as “Inequalities with Positive Coefficient” and “Local Boy Gets Help With Understanding One Solution Problems,” respectively.
Sixth-graders, fresh off their letter-writing campaign to Owen Middle School in Swannanoa, utilized a reading assignment of the book Bud, Not Buddy to both “summarize the work so far as well as predict outcomes of the story,” teacher Nicole Phelps said.
In these missives, the students made postcards of sorts which relayed both visual and written information to help discern the essences of literature as it relates to our everyday lives, Phelps said.
In another use of illustration and analysis classes used the classic Robert Frost poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” to provide insights into the figurative language used in the poem taking particular care with both the title and the line, “So Eden sank to grief.”
Art teacher Parris Annas had tables full of both pottery and artwork from students, and spoke of how students are able to draw from this area’s rich history of pottery by making both pinch bowls alongside other works, including an interpretive study of Salvador Dali’s “The Elephants.”
The evening culminated with both a poetry reading and the reading of The Night Before Christmas by former librarian Erla Jones.
The first of the poetry readers was Luke Clark, who claimed his poem was about “basketball,” which turned into an ode to loving sports and athleticism. Next was Levi Clark, who also claimed his poem was about “basketball,” which turned into a treatise on the warmth of the season, focusing on the true meaning of Christmas and our celebrations of it.
Rounding out the poetry portion of the evening and introduced by Parker-Booth as “the unofficial poet laureate of AMS,” Caitlyn Gaskins read her poem “The Joy of Winter” as a meditation of how winter brings cold weather but the simplicity of the season brings much-needed happiness for its allotted time.
Many families remembered hearing “Miss Erla” read to them throughout their own tenure in Andrews’ schools. The backdrop of the crackling fire on the big-screen television seemed to warm the gymnasium as she bade all both a “Happy Christmas and a good night.”
Details: Visit ams.cherokee.k12.nc.us.