By Kathryn Cross
Staff Writer
On Jan. 27, students took a break from vigorous learning and studying and became the teacher through Mira Costa’s third annual Midway Day. Although Midway Day is frequently criticized by students because the classes appear to be useless with unorganized lesson plans, the day is filled with entertaining and on occasion, even educational classes that most importantly, give Mira Costa students a break from such dense course work.
Midway Day is a day where students create a lesson plan and register to be able to teach in 45- or 90-minute blocks about a range of activities, such as “Beyonce Dance Class” and “Yoga and Meditation.”
According to Vice Principal Deborah Hofreiter, Midway Day was created in the hopes of inspiring creativity within students, especially after TedX speaker Ken Robinson received over 30,000,000 views on his web page regarding how schools kill creativity. With classes like Origami and Salsa Dancing, creativity and specific student interest is undoubtedly explored and allowed to flourish in this kind of school setting.
Additionally, Midway Day is an excellent way to relax after enduring a week of final exams, which were the week before Midway Day. Rather than immediately beginning regular courses once again, Midway Day permits a day of fun with friends and great activities. Although Mid-Way Day is not particularly an organized event, friends are able to sign up to the same
classes together and delve deep into a subject they would not have been able to otherwise.
This year, Midway Day organizers required that all class instructors submit clear lesson plans in order to be approved. This was a positive change that led to a more organized day.
Hofreiter also stated that Midway Day allows students who have unique talents to display them in front of their peers and Mira Costa’s administration. For instance, Economics teacher Adam Geczi planned to teach a class surrounding his passion for race cars. Because Geczi usually teaches economics, Midway Day lets Geczi demonstrate his hobby in front of his students and fellow teachers.
Despite all of Midway Day’s advantages, according to an AP teacher, there is never a right time for Midway day. Students, especially in Advanced Placement and Honors classes, must continue with their vigorous curriculum in order to keep up with upcoming tests, such as AP exams. However, students should be allowed to have a break for one day, especially when it is directly after a week of final exams.
Furthermore, junior Jackson Kopitz said that creativity is already featured within Mira Costa’s classes through school projects or artistic courses like AP Art History or AP Studio Art. Although creativity is indeed a part of the curriculum already, students can further enhance creativity while discovering other students’ talents as they teach classes about them.
Because many students take a lack of interest in the amateur classes, attendance tends to diminish on Midway Day. According to Hofreiter, regular attendance policies were enforced on Midway Day and attendance was taken during second period. In the future, attendance should be taken later in the day, instead of between blocks one and two, to encourage students to stay throughout the day.
Students should be incentivized to come to Midway Day because of the opportunity to relax after a vigorous work of studying for and taking final exams. Midway Day is a successful program that should continue in the future because it can be a fun day filled with unique activities that do not involve dense coursework and final exams.
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