2 June 1998
The story behind our first
Student Exhibitions Day
Or Be Careful What You Wish For . . .
It all started a week before the beginning of school with several teachers philosophizing at lunch. "Wouldn't it be neat if we had some way to help promote the talent and achievements of our students? Perhaps we might have some sort of exhibition on campus. We could even have a day dedicated to this purpose." It seemed like a great idea to me. An exhibition day would allow my Senior Projects students a forum in which to show off their stuff. It would also serve as a good way for recruiting more Senior Projects students in the future. We as teachers decided to go forward with the plan. The ASB class would take charge of the project and things would work out just peachy.
That was at the beginning of the year before the crunch of labs, papers, tests, projects, and grading. The ASB students were busy with fund raisers, planning dances, and the daily needs of the school. Student Exhibition Day remained on the schedule but was about all. We all just sort of put it off. Come the beginning of May, it was more than apparent that the student in ASB were not about to take on some unknown event called Exhibition Day. I felt responsible for this mess having been such n ardent supporter of it in August.
In desperation, I broached the subject with my AP Physics students. "You guys know how hard I have pushed you all year. You have met every challenge and then some. Well, I need your help. And, I understand that you are tired and not obligated but we have just over a month left in the year and I am at wit's end. Come June Second I am expected to produce an open house for Senior Projects. Some of you know about this because you are working on your projects right now. As well, we are going to put on the conduct the finals for the physics balsa wood bridge brake-offs. On the same day, and in addition to this I have to come up with something called Student Exhibition Day. It hasn't even gotten off the ground and doesn't look like it ever will." Many of the students looked perplexed. "What is Exhibition Day?" I told them, I didn't exactly know. However it was important that we come up with something. If they had any ideas, these ideas would be much appreciated.
It was as though one were watching some sappy, idealistic, and totally unrealistic movie about schools. My students stood up one after another and said that they could and would make this happen. What a wonderful sight. It brought tears to my eyes. They got together in a group and within minutes had developed a plan for organizing the day, recruiting students, and promoting the concept. In the process it was becoming their exhibition day and they were going to make it happen.
The next thing I knew these students were fanning out across the school and going into classrooms. It was almost embarrassing. Their presentations went something like this, "If this day doesn't come off it will be a black eye for the school and fodder for those who were not in favor of schools of choice. You don't want to see that happen do you?" They asked for volunteers who would be willing to show off their stuff for the rest of the student body. The response was incredible. Students came out of the woodwork with ideas for exhibitions. Within a matter of days we were inundated with ideas and volunteers.
Pulling off a school wide exhibition day requires more than recruiting volunteers. There were a host of potential problems that needed to be addressed. We are a school of 1,200 students. One can not have every student at the same place at the same time. This meant that some students would have to go to one location while others went to another. The following are just a few of the questions they were asking:
How many students would be expected to come to any one exhibition?
How many exhibitions should be open simultaneously?
Should all exhibitions be the same length?
if the exhibition involved more than one performer, how long should each performance last?
How would the students know where the exhibitions were?
Who was going to watch over the exhibitions to make sure that everything was going as planned.
Most importantly, what would happen if we were to hold an exhibition day and no one came?
In the end it was largely the students' own decisions that made the day.
We would offer as many different exhibitions concurrently as we could.
There would be four exhibition periods and most exhibitions would be held twice during the day so that students had a choice of times to see the performers and performers could see other exhibitions during the day as well.
To guarantee that students came to school all regular classes would be held but on a greatly reduced time schedule.
Additionally, there were a series of meetings at which presenters worked out details such as times, locations, and equipment needs. The ASB director, Ingrid Taylor, produced a wonderful pamphlet that gave times and locations of the exhibitions as well as a short description of the purpose of the day and how attendance was to be taken. The final method adopted for attendance was unique. The pamphlet was to serve as each student's passport to the exhibitions. At each exhibition the student was to get the passport stamped by teacher. Finally, At the end of the day all the passports were collected for a record of attendance. This allowed students to choose which exhibitions they wanted to see and when they wanted to go. What a phenomenal concept, student choice at a school of choice!
I would not hazard to count the thousands of student hours that were spent preparing for this day. If the Exhibition Day was not going to come off it would not be for lack of trying. It did come off. What happened was beyond our wildest dreams and expectations. Students were everywhere. So was the music. If you were to take a walk across the campus and at any given you could choose between classical music (piano, guitar, flute, or violin), wonderful jazz performances, acid rock, and for lack of a better term, alternative music. Most of the music was original student composition. It was simply amazing. There were dance exhibitions; ballet folklorico, jazz, swing, and break dancing. The sewing and clothing design club ran a fashion show. The industrial arts department had their home made dragster on display and conducted the finals of their CO2 car design and performance competition. Two complete exhibition periods were dedicated of poetry readings. These readings were so crowded that students were literally overflowing the room and out into the walkways, 100+ students at any given time. There were many other exhibitions as well; a science fair, computer applications and demonstrations, a literary anthology, video productions and movies, karate exhibitions, and a student cast, directed, and acted production of Waiting for Godot. Of course there were physics balsa wood bridge finals on the amphitheater and the Senior Project open house in the gym. The day was a great success. For the rest of the year you could hear students talking about it. An unexpected result was that a committee of students was organized to promote even more student activism in the Academy
We do have a wonderful school. Exhibition Day brought home that fact. What had started as our, the teacher's, day had become our, the students' and staff's day. If there are those in this country who believe that all of America is going to hell in a hand basket, I invite them to meet my students. Without compensation or expectation of recognition they took what was only an idea and they made it a reality. Thanks guys. You are special indeed.
Dancers
Music
Science Fair
Some Senior Projects