WHMS students tackle a monumental undertaking for Lit Night
By Dave Mast
December 6, 2016
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Standardized tests are fine and dandy, but sometimes the most important learning lessons come not from Common Core, but from common sense.
Recently the eighth-graders at West Holmes Middle School experienced a twist to learning that took them outside the school, all over Holmes County and even to Washington, D.C.
On Monday, Nov. 21 at West Holmes Middle School a large number of invited guests were on hand to witness the steps taken to build monuments dedicated to important people, places and things throughout the West Holmes School District.
The West Holmes Middle School Monument Project saw groups of eighth-grade students team up to tackle the task of building monuments, and the work they had to put forth in doing so was unique and challenging.
This was a very ambitious project, and when we first stated, we wanted to get math involve, which was why we made a budget, Wengerd said. We wanted to get science involved, which is why we included the use of Google Earth images and talked about topography. Language arts included writing and making the presentations. Of course we wanted the local history to be a big part of it, so we ended up including a lot of learning tools.
Wengerd said that the English teachers sacrificed a lot of their time end energy that would most likely be spent gearing students up for the state standardized tests, but he felt that the end product seeing students have to stretch themselves and use every aspect of learning outweighed the negatives.
Some things are more important than the Common Core standards, and this is one of those projects that really challenged our students.
Part of that was learning more about the local history, and who better to inform students than Mark Boley, executive director of the Holmes County Historical Society.
Boley came in before the students went to Washington, D.C. and spoke about the various towns throughout West Holmes and the key historical components that make up Holmes County including people and industry.
I think more than half of the kids had never heard about Fort Fizzle and ODells Lake, and they were so quiet and intent on listening because it was all new to them, Wengerd said.
After they returned, Jim Wolfe and Larry Purdy of Glenmont came to school to talk to the students about the new monument they recently installed in their hometown.
Each team had four members, and each had their own job to perform. Those roles included a public relations director, a fundraiser chairperson, a researcher/developer and an engineer.
The groups were required to work under budget constraints and had to contact area people to invite them to the Literature Night event.
The WHMS English staff that dedicated itself to the project included Wengerd, Tracy McDowell, Carla Pringle and Melissa Rennicker.
Part of this is getting the kids to learn how to work together to complete a pretty big project, McDowell said. We really tried to be innovative with the way we approached this project, and we had the students using a lot of different tools to complete them.
Katrina Rolince, Callie Proper, Alexis Weiss and Joy Latouf dug into the history of the great flood of 1969 and developed a monument honoring those who lost their lives and the many homes that were destroyed.
We decided to do the memorial for the 1969 flood to honor all of those who were affected by it, Proper said. 41 people were killed, and 500 were injured, and 10,000 homes and 104 businesses were destroyed.
Like the rest of the groups, the foursome met during class to explore their topic, what kinds of materials they wanted to use to build their monument, how they could stay within their budget and whom they wanted to invite to the evening to hear about their project.
Latouf said they came up with the idea of a pentagon because each side of the pentagon would represent one of the five towns in the area that were deeply afflicted by the flood.
That makes it more like a memorial for the entire county, Latouf said.
Each of the groups had to delve into the history of their respective towns or geographical areas, deciding as a team what they wanted to honor. The event provided some insight into the countys history that the students had never before known.
Lauren Jones was part of the team that opted to honor not an area, but a people, that being the teachers of Holmes County.
They deserve to be recognized because they always work hard and get very little recognition, Jones said.
They stuck to the basics, using sandstone base walls with their names engraved. She said the idea is to continue to add teachers as they come into the district.
The eighth-grade class at West Holmes recently came home from a visit to Washington, D.C., where they got to view the many monuments that honor great Americans and heroes.
That served as further inspiration to the students, who gained a new understanding as to what these monuments mean.
All of those monuments in Washington, D.C. were made to honor those who fought for our country, and we thought teachers inspire us every day.
Darek Martins group turned their attention to canvassing the entire county, honoring Major Andrew Holmes with a monument. Martin said in erecting a monument of the man who gave the county its name, they chose to erect it in the lot beside the BP Station in downtown Millersburg. In addition they even designed a chicken dinner fundraiser to raise funds for the monument.
We want to build a 10-foot-tall monument made out of black soapstone, Martin said.
Martin said that learning how to work together as a team was a big part of the process, and he himself had the job of inviting at least five area people to Literature Night. His list included mayors, school board members, city council members, teachers and family members.
It was a lot of fun because it was new and exciting, Martin said of the process. It was challenging, and hearing the different people come in and speak and seeing all of the monuments in Washington, DC inspired me.
McDowell said that with the monument project being in its inaugural year, there were some growing pains that made for some interesting twists and turns, but overall she said the staff was very pleased with the way things came together.
It wasnt always easy, but now we will have a chance to sit down and evaluate how we can improve it for next year, McDowell said. We felt like the kids learned a lot through the process and really had a good time working together to build these monuments. The groups came up with some really neat ideas, and with each of them working on one specific area of the project, it was a good chance for them to learn a lot about responsibility.
With monument projects like a nod to ODells Park, the early businesses of Nashville and Chief Killbuck, the students canvassed the western half of Holmes County in their effort to come up with ideas.
As the project continues to blossom over the coming years, who knows, one of these monuments could well make its way into existence, which would truly help drive home the importance of the West Holmes Middle School Monument Project.
