11/15/24 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: 92 Year Old Korean War Veteran “Curly” Fries

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,

Did you know that in the middle school here at Our Lady of Peace students can choose elective options in addition to their core courses of math, science, religion, English and social studies?

As our first trimester concludes this week, our seventh and eighth graders have selected electives for our next grading period after successfully completing them from the first trimester (Yes, along with other elementary schools we have moved to trimesters away from quarters). 

It begins in the summer with students and their parents, along with teachers’ recommendations, signing up for their courses. In sixth grade, students are selected for an upper track math class which leads to an eighth-grade algebra course. They also select either Spanish or Latin. 

The seventh and eighth grade students have ten periods a week of electives from which to choose. In the first trimester those courses included keyboarding, ukulele, choir, church choir, music history, general music, dance & drums. Art offerings were ceramics, mini art, drawing, fiber arts, book and print making. Boys and girls’ gym, basketball and team sports along with free choice fitness were the physical education offerings. There was also a computer tech class and independent study in computers. Students may also take a study hall for some of those periods. They can also continue with the next level of Latin or Spanish. 

There are new courses for the second trimester including the next level of ceramics and fiber arts, theatre tech and acting in the spring musical. One course I am excited about is documentary film making. Students will be producing a documentary of the history of Our Lady of Peace Parish and school, and will be interviewing parish and alumni. Stay tuned for the premiere! 

Interest and enthusiasm have been great for both the teachers as well as the students. Students get to delve into specialized topics in their areas of interest and the class sizes are generally smaller. We hope that it helps students to explore what options might be available for them in high school and beyond. 

For the eighth graders one of the ten elective periods is set aside this week for what we call Crew. Our eighth graders are divided into five days of the week and each is assigned a job during that period one day a week. They either work in the kitchen, assist in the office, or supervise the younger students in the cafeteria and out at recess. This has become one of the highlights of being an eighth grader here at Our Lady of Peace, particularly in the daily interaction between them and our younger students. Our eighth graders have learned patience and compassion and have become experts on opening milk, putting straws in capri suns and determining how long to microwave the various items the younger students bring in to have heated. To our younger students, the older students are like rock stars. When they see the eighth graders in the hall, they enthusiastically greet them, and that greeting is warmly reciprocated. It is one of the highlights of a K-8 building that cannot be done in middle schools that are separated from elementary buildings. 

My understanding is that this program of both electives and in school service where students are not pulled out of class to assist but have time carved out of their day, is unique to Our Lady of Peace. We are proud of this program and how it is helping to shape our middle school students to become future adults.

To see the fruits of this program look for an evening with the arts early next year during Catholic Schools week, the unveiling of our documentary, and the spring musical, Hard Days Knight in May. Good things are happening at Our Lady of Peace School! 

Jim Silcott