Staff and students have come together to help decorate Northwest High School this holiday season. A competitive competition has resurfaced this school year, with focus time doors being decorated to fit Christmas. This activity is mostly student-based. Students can choose whether or not they participate.
The coordinator, Math teacher Valerie Alexander, works with the student council to sponsor this contest using the family-focused slides. Decorating began on Friday, December 13th, with judging occurring on December 16th.
For the last couple of years, the Renaissance Exchange Council has run the competition. The student council pitched in to help them organize it. This year, the student council took over the competition. The student council devised the themes, bought decorating materials for teachers, and purchased donuts for the winning hallway.
Holiday songs, such as Frosty the Snowman, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and more, were the theme for this 2024 school year.
Each hallway has a dedicated song with a scoring rubric. Office staff and hall monitors used the rubric to assign points to each hallway. Participants are graded on their creativity, detail, time, and effort.
English Language Arts teacher Katie Christener was the first to start this tradition with Special Education teacher Emily Stepke when they co-advised Student Government years ago. Student Government was a club Northwest used to have. In the modern day, the club has split into what we now know as Student Council and Renaissance Exchange Council. The Student Government club held door-decorating competitions for each hallway, similar to today.
English Language Arts teacher Sarah Soper is one of many teachers who take this competition seriously. Her hallway has won twice.
One of her focus time students, Freshman, Hannah Lowe, has contributed the most by using her artistic abilities to make Soper’s idea come to life.
“The kids are actually making things themselves,” said Soper. “I haven’t done anything other than direct them, so I think it’s really great that the students are actually doing it instead of the teachers putting decorations up.”
This event provides a bonding experience for teachers and their students by allowing them to work together and design the doors using each other’s artistic abilities. Not only does it create a bonding experience between focus teachers and students, it creates a bonding experience with the entire school.
“We are very close, even with the Career Center students when I see them outside of school, it’s a hug,” said Christener.
With all the decorations hanging around the hallways, staff members and students can admire other focus time’s creations. It provides a thrill for the holiday season and makes the school environment more festive. Holiday door decorating is not just an activity, it helps create relationships with others.
