To celebrate a major milestone like a 100th anniversary is a given. To turn it into a lesson plan, but more important, a journey into the history of a school and a community, is much more special.
This is the centennial of Calexico High School, a school that has seen location changes and changes in demographics. The high school yearbook staff and its adviser in focusing on the centennial have given other schools a blueprint, we think, for not only celebrating such a mark, but for creating a connection to the past.
Yearbook adviser and English teacher Erasmo Zayas tasked the students on his yearbook staff with going out into the community to find past graduates and their memorabilia and other Bulldog goodies to celebrate and commemorate in the pages of its coming class annual.
In the process, the students got in touch with their past and the pasts of their parents. By some accounts, though, it’s as if the project also put the students in touch with their present and possibly gave them an insight into their future.
More than a few students interviewed by our staff for a story on the project came away with a desire to give back to their campus later in life, and naturally they are savoring the present in coming to understand what the project means to them and their history.
We’re not entirely certain if this has been done before around the Valley as other communities have celebrated the centennials of their respective high schools, but Calexico High went about it in a way that seemed very conscious and conscientious of not just mining a milestone for content, but also as a way to create a lesson plan that extended far beyond the classroom.
Great job, 2013 Calexico High Bulldogs. And we believe we speak for Bulldogs of the past as well.
THE ISSUE:
Calexico High celebrates 100 years
WE SAY:
The yearbook staff engaged with the community in researching the centennial.
WHAT DO YOU SAY?
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