Students, staff at Orange Schools recognize Black History Month
PEPPER PIKE, Ohio – Students and staff across the Orange Schools campus recognized Black History Month throughout February by celebrating the many contributions that African Americans have made to American history.
Orange High School students in Male Minority Leaders and the African American Culture Club designed and created a showcase in the front of the high school, according to a news release from the district.
Teachers Pamm Herchek and Maurice Weathers also designed showcases at Moreland Hills Elementary School.
Students at Brady Middle School, through an extension of the Great Lakes Theater residency program, watched “Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom,” a musical based on the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March.
Sixth-graders were then invited to be a part of an interactive discussion and participate in a gallery walk, capturing through artwork and photos the notion that children were heroes on the front lines of the civil rights movement.
Moreland Hills Elementary School celebrated with a door decoration contest, creating classroom doors with designs related to Black history.
The overall door decoration winners were the classes of Amanda Haas and Jean Metzger and Katie Grau’s class, which also won Best Creativity. The most meaningful/inspirational door award went to Lily Valentine’s class.
Students won the honor of having announcements live-streamed from their classrooms.
Actor/teacher Anna Parchem works with Brady Middle School sixth-grader Liam Ashby on developing the character he was assigned to read as part of the weeklong Great Lakes Theater in-school residency program. (Photo Courtesy of Orange City Schools)
‘The play’s the thing’
Brady Middle School sixth-graders learned the meaning behind Shakespeare’s quote, “The play’s the thing,” when they got to work recently with actors from Great Lakes Theater’s in-school residency program.
Students spent a week with the actors engaging in various activities while examining the relevance of classic literature in today’s society. They explored various stories, including “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “A Raisin in the Sun,” while participating in hands-on, interactive lesson plans that included acting, discussion and theater exercises.
The sixth-graders had the opportunity to act out various scenes from the plays in front of their peers after getting instruction from the teaching actors.
Student receives honor
Orange High School sophomore Liam Koeth has been selected to be a co-host and youth ambassador for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and will speak at its annual gala April 30 at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Cleveland.
The purpose of the event is to raise awareness and money for the JDRF.
Liam also hopes to be considered to speak to the U.S. Congress in Washington in June 2023 in support of diabetes research and funding.
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