WORTHINGTON -- Teachers, staff and students invite everyone in the community, not just parents, to visit the school for Worthington Middle School Showcase Night, an open house from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Visitors will experience an abbreviated version of a day in the life at the middle school, including a music practice, cooking, student art, physical education and technical education demonstrations and teacher demonstrations of classroom technology.
"Rather than just parents, we'd like it to be for all community members," said Ken Henkels, WMS technical education teacher.
Henkels and other teachers saw the need for a showcase night while going door-to-door asking community members to vote in favor of District 518's operating levy. They found many people had never set foot in any of the district's schools and had no idea what the money would go toward.
"And we want to show our school off," Henkels said. "It's an awesome school to teach in, and I like being here."
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Henkels' students will be in the tech ed rooms, working with electronics, robotics and the more traditional "shop" projects such as woodworking.
"It's a great opportunity for people to come into our school," said WMS science teacher Tim Doeden, who will demonstrate the use of his Classroom Response System, a new tool students can use to interact with lecture material.
Each student receives a "clicker," which looks like a remote control. When Doeden asks a question, it comes up on a screen in front of the class. Each student then uses the remote control to select an answer.
The beauty of the system, Doeden said, is that it allows all students to participate and gives both the students and the teacher instant feedback. If most kids don't understand something, the teacher will know immediately and will be able to go back and explain it again -- instead of not finding out until the test.
Doeden likes the system so much he even uses it to administer tests and quizzes.
Teacher Laurie Pass will demonstrate the use of Smart Boards, a system that ties a whiteboard with a computer, allowing teachers to mix media and keep students involved.
Students and student organizations will offer demonstrations, too, in such areas as cooking and art. Instead of a concert, community members will have the opportunity to come in and see how a musical practice session -- just like the ones that occur in WMS every day -- works.
"We don't want it to be something they prepare for, just something they normally do in class," Doeden said.
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Communications and social studies classes will display many of the projects they've been working on throughout the school year, in the form of slideshows, papers and displays.
The Showcase Night takes the place of a parent night that used to be every fall, about five days after school started. Offering it then meant everyone was busy getting settled into WMS, and few student projects or works would be started, let alone finished.
Parent Night was also limited to parents, which the showcase definitely will not be. Everyone is invited to come.
"It would be nice for them to come in and take a look at what kids do," said WMS teacher Jody Madsen.
