Article: Banners! GREAT or GROAN!

Oh look! Up there are some people on banners in the hall! They have 9th graders on them and have been up for only 2 years. There are 20 banners up in the curvy hall down the Page page hall. Mrs. Bass was part of a team of teachers that narrowed down the results of the nominations that all the teachers made. She said, “I chose students who are successful learners, effective communicators, and responsible citizens.  Students who emulate these characteristics are good students; hard-working, kind, helpful. They also work well with others and participate in class discussions.” Most teachers including Mrs. Bass voted based on the Desired Results for Student Learning that the school has developed.

At the end of your eighth grade year, 20 students get called into a meeting room in the front office. They meet the conference room in a group of about 4 other students. Mr. Rowley, the vice principal last year was the person that told the students that they were chosen to be on a banner. He hands you a paper and explains what the banners are. The students need to get the paper signed if they want to be on a banner. Some of the students who were nominated chose to not be on a banner. Mr. Rowley told the chosen teens that at the end of their ninth grade year they would be able to take the banners home. They were asked to keep it mostly a secret so it would be more of a surprize.

Bethany Blakey, one of the few students that were given the privilege to be on one of the banners wasn’t too happy with the way it turned out. She said “I was kind of surprised,” Bethany thought that it was cool that she was chosen but was kind of embarrassed about seeing her face when she walked down the halls. Each one of the students that got on the banners was assigned a caption that represented good attributes. Bethany got assigned Creative and she would have rather chosen an attribute for herself instead of getting it chosen for her. She also didn’t like her banner because there was bad lighting and as she said, “school pictures really never turn out.”

Cathay Poulsen was another of the ninth graders that was able to get on one of the banners. Cathay did not like her banner, mostly because she is holding one prop while most everyone else is holding at least two things. Also, Cathay said that she feels like her picture isn't very flattering. On the better side of things Cathay said, “It’s pretty nice,” she said that because you had to do something good and recognizable to be able to get on them.

Eighth grader Elizabella Francom said, “it’s a cool idea,” that the banners are there in the first place. Her brother, McKay was one of the few kids that got on a banner. She would like to follow his example and get on one.

Even though some of the Banner Kids weren’t satisfied with the results of their pictures they are still great examples of star students. When you see the banners in the halls just take a moment to recognize the good things that those select few students achieved.