BY DANI TIETZ
dani@sjodaily.com
The world is filled with children and adults, peers and colleagues, athletes and musicians, students and teachers.
At Oakwood Junior High School, seventh- and eighth-graders are learning that everybody is on the same team.
“My word for the year is relationships,” principal Anne Burton said. “Student, staff and community coming in, I just think that’s huge. We all have to work together.”
Burton’s vision has been the catalyst for staff creating opportunities for students in different grades coming together in “houses” which foster teamwork while providing healthy competition.
“But then they have to realize we’re all one family, so we are the Knights,” Burton said.
In her second year at Oakwood Junior High, Burton’s focus is helping the students gain independence through responsibility.
At the beginning of the 2019-20 school year, students were encouraged to hit attendance benchmarks.
“Our students came to school, ready to learn. They got on the bus. They get off the bus smiling, and they’ve worked really hard this year,” Burton said.
The staff noticed the teenagers’ positive attitude, and wanted to give them a day away from the coursework. Wednesday, staff and students, along with professionals from the Vermilion County community came together to give the students an “Empowerment Day.”
“I wanted to give them some time to strengthen their friendships, to continue that because we all have to have that little bit of boost to keep going at the end of the quarter. So I wanted to give them something to drive them into the next quarter,” Burton said.
Students were asked to provide information about their future interests, then staff worked to find community members who spent the day talking about their profession. While the junior high staff was not able to meet all interests of every student, the students felt like the variety of professionals they got to listen to helped them understand what it takes to realize their dreams.
Vermilion County Coroner Jane McFadden had to explain what the job entailed to the 12-, 13- and 14-year-old students, and what it means to be an elected official.
“What I do is so much more specialized than what the requirements are, so I told him anybody can run with these requirements, however, it doesn’t mean you’re going to win,” McFadden said.
The candidate, who is running for re-election in 2020, told the students that it is important that elected officials are qualified to do the job at hand.
But she also said talking to teenagers about professional possibilities is important.
“It’s a little bit more relaxed atmosphere because they’re smaller groups, you’re not speaking before a large group of people,” she said. “They’re more inclined to ask questions. It is important to get to kids early, get them thinking about what they want to be when they grow up.”
McFadden especially wants to reach young women who might be interested in non-traditional careers.
“They can really do whatever they want, but they need to start,” she said. “This is the age where they really need to start buckling down in school and doing better.”
Eighth-grader Kai White said that she thinks that the opportunity to listen to professionals is important as she prepares to consider what high school and college courses she might take.
White is interested in being a teacher to help kids or to serve in the military. Listening to speakers like Oakwood’s Superintendent Larry Maynard, put the demand for teachers into perspective.
Listening to Maynard also strengthened Rebecca Wagner’s desire to become a teacher.
“I want to be a teacher, for possibly fourth grade,” Wagner said. “I love math a lot so teaching really interests me.”
Wagner also realized that being a banker is something she might fall back on with her math skills.
But, most immediately, Wagner will get involved with Vermilion County’s Peer Court.
In the program’s 25th year, Executive Director Katie Osterbur is continuously looking for teens who want to volunteer in the process of running a court session as jurors, attorneys or clerks.
The teens don’t decide their peer’s guilt or innocence, but instead, as the youth takes responsibility for his or her actions, the teens decide an appropriate punishment that must be completed.
Osterbur said that kids are often excited about the opportunity because they are “incredibly willing to help.”
“I think peer court offers them the tools,” she said. “There are very few programs where youth can take an active role in decision making. Normally it’s adults, telling them how to do it.
“In this way, they are using their own judgement.
“I really think that this gives youth power to make good decisions and to help their community. These kids are just incredibly smart.”
White said that during the morning sessions she learned that “no matter what our differences are we can still at least try to work together, instead of bickering and gossiping the whole time.”
The morning prepared her for an afternoon of team-building games that the male students participated in during their morning session.
Oakwood Social Worker Marcy Nicoson said that the entire day was built on three components: team building, communication skills and self-reflection.
While there was one quiet station where students wrote about themselves and their peers, the majority of the activities revolved around problem-solving and communication through play.
Former Oakwood wrestling Coach Dave Markwell, who has spent the last 12 years subbing in the district after retirement, led teams in a communication activity.
He took a group of 13, and asked them to pass a story down the line.
“You’ve got to realize how stories change,” Markwell said. “I tell you something, you tell someone else, they tell someone else, that story has totally changed from when you first started, which is gossip and people get upset with that.”
He then had students lock hands as they walked together around the playground railing. If one member of the group fell off the wood, the entire group had to start the course over.
Markwell hoped that students learned that you have to know your teammates’ strength and weaknesses, and make adjustments.
“In our society this day and age, it takes a lot of teamwork just to get through,” he said. “Where would you be without someone to help you? These kids have got to realize, I know they are seventh- and eighth-graders, but they’ve got to realize that there are people out there that can help, even your peers can help you.”
Seventh-grader Nate Stewart said the team-building activities are something he sees helping him in the classroom.
“Some of the kids that needed help working in groups, it helped them; it helped me,” he said. “I don’t like working in groups, but going through this, it just helped me out.”
Seventh-grade Language Arts Instructor David Parker had students sit in a circle and pass a ball with questions attached to it. As a student received the ball, they answered the question so their peers would know something new about them.
Physical Education Instructor Clint England set up an obstacle course for peers to guide each other through as they were blindfolded.
England said he hopes that the teenagers will take what they learned to focus in other areas of their lives.
Eighth-grade Science Teacher Brady Leeman also ran a blindfold activity where students had to heighten their other senses to problem-solve with other students who may be in different circles.
Keevyn Wilson said the entire morning helped him learn more about other students in his school.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” he said.
Nicoson said that the school will seek feedback from the students to see what they liked and where the staff could better serve them. The group hopes to continue to do smaller events throughout the year, and to make “Empowerment Day” an annual activity.
Burton said the students are always positive, but this year, they are willing to try whatever the staff provides for them.
“There are people outside this willing, that want to step in and want to be a part of their lives and want to be a part of it,” Burton said. “And I think that’s really exciting.”
