Dollars and Heroes Ruled the Day at Merrill Middle School
Life-size recreations of historical figures formed the Hall of Heroes at Merrill Middle School.
They’re going to need a break at Merrill Middle School after today!
Let’s see, the 6th graders are winding up their annual Dollar Doing Good project. Oh, and today are the finals in the Poetry Madness brackets, too. And the upstairs corridor is wallpapered with human rights giants from the past as the 8th grade humanities project culminates with the Hall of Heroes.
According to science teachers Blake Hammond and Christine Ryerson, virtually every one of Merrill’s 244 6th graders participated in this year’s PTA-sponsored Dollar Doing Good effort. Each of them was given a single, solitary buck by the PTA a month ago and entered into a contract to parlay it into something more that would contribute to the greater good. Merrill is an International Baccalaureate school and community service is one of the cornerstones of the IB curriculum.
How did they do? How do grand totals of $8,754, 1,109 items and 120 hours donated to 40 worthy causes sound?
They shoveled snow for neighbors. They cleaned cages at the Animal Rescue League. They solicited donations and volunteered their time to the food pantry and the community shelter. One girl bought a pack of seeds and donated them to a community garden, very much in the spirit of the program. A couple of them even shined shoes.
“We used our dollars to buy shoe polish,” reported Logan Garland. Then he and his partner, Simon Boerner, opened a shoeshine stand, charging $3/pair. Together they raised $97. Let’s see, 97 divided by 3…they must have accepted tips.
If the project is voluntary how come it’s so popular?
“Nobody wants to be the person who didn’t pitch in,” Logan said, when he might have been thinking “Duh…” How did he and Simon master the dying art of shoe polishing? “My dad showed us how.”
Down the hall from Hammonds’ and Ryerson’s rooms the NCAA-style brackets hanging above the banks of lockers broke down the Poetry Madness that’s been going on in the language arts classrooms of Shanna Freeman, Janice Morris and Kristin Vogel. The champion poets, as determined by class votes, will receive Barnes & Noble gift certificates. Good luck picking a winner in matchups like Stupor Man vs. Apple or Crocodile’s Toothache vs. The Fly Away Horse.
Also on the 6th graders’ agenda today is a purposeful stroll down the Hall of Heroes, territory where 6th graders normally fear to tread. But in this case their trespass is an assignment. Dave O’Connor teaches 8th grade humanities and he assigned his students to choose from a roster of human rights activists, research and profile their selection and then, the coup de gras, create a life-sized portrait for posting in the upper hallway. O’Connor’s 6th grade counterparts, Pete King, Christina Tharp and Meredith Bell, assigned their students to tour the display and take notes for their own class purposes. The HOH ranged from Sojourner Truth and Mum Bett at one end to Oskar Schindler and Jackie Robinson at the other.
Lydia Berry was one of the collaborators on Truth. Why was she drawn to her?
“Because she was a pioneer for her race and her gender, both,” Lydia reasoned. “She fought against slavery and also for women’s rights when being a black woman was about the toughest thing to be.”
O’Connor said the artwork aspect of this annual assignment is always the students’ favorite part.
“I trade rooms with (science teacher) Dinah Lockhart because she has the long tables,” he explained. “Then the kids roll out the paper, get out the paintbrushes and really bring the subjects of their research to life.”
And as if all of this weren’t enough, the plan is to break ground on renovations at Merrill while the building is idle – AFTER today!
