By Juliana Riverin
Assistant Managing Editor
Mira Costa will not hold Midway Day, which usually takes place in spring, this year, because the administration plans to implement student-run classes during office hours instead.
Originally Midway Day provided Costa students and staff alike with the opportunity to increase creativity and leadership skills by teaching a class about the subject of their choosing. Those who did not teach a class selected a number of classes to attend, based on their interests. Now, instead of having one day reserved for student-run classes, students will be allowed to teach or attend classes held during office hours.
“We are still keeping the Midway Day idea but now we’re transitioning it into office hours to weave it into the fabric of our culture,” Dale said.
According to MCHS Vice Principal Deborah Hofreiter, this change will serve to improve the Midway Day initiative by making it easier to schedule into Costa’s day-to-day activities. Additionally, it will be easier to have more sessions more often, depending on the number of students willing to teach classes, because Office Hours happen weekly and therefore, so can the classes.
“I think it’s an advantage to have these sessions instead of having a whole day of student-run classes,” Hofreiter said. “There are students looking for things to do during office hours, and a full day of student classes is really hard to pull off organizationally, so doing it session by session is a good idea.”
According to Hofreiter, students will be able to submit lesson proposals by this March, once there has been an announcement in the bulletin. The application process will remain the same as it was for Midway Day, which required students to submit a lesson plan, a time frame for the class and a list of the facilities or equipment needed for the class for approval by Hofreiter.
“Sometimes kids think they have a great idea for a session but they haven’t really fleshed out the details, which can cause problems, which is why I look over their plan with them,” Hofreiter said. “Then I schedule them into the theater or small gym, or wherever is available and meets their requirements.”
Like during the original Midway Day, students can plan lessons pertaining to both academic, such as philosophy, and non-academic subjects, such as video games and aerial arts.
“The point of Midway Day is to find out and learn about kids’ talents and abilities that we don’t usually see in school,” Hofreiter said. “It’s really all about the student, what they want to teach, what they are passionate about.”
MCHS senior Andrew Welch, who taught the Mario Kart class last year, maintains that Midway Day is an important way to make school more enjoyable and let students , but he has reservations about having student run classes during Office Hours.
“I know that attendance at Costa went down on Midway Day but I feel like even less people will attend student-run classes during Office Hours,” Welch said. “However, I do think we should keep student-run classes at Costa so that students can inform people about what they are interested in and many people can learn cool skills and enjoy themselves.”
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