BROWNSTOWN
Seeing a sheet of paper with a black circle with a red dot in the middle of it around Brownstown signifies the work of a group of middle-schoolers.
Whether it was cleaning up the Brownstown Park or making the inside or outside of the schools shine, the Spotless Club has been hard at work since the beginning of the school year.
It’s one of 22 clubs developed as enrichment learning activities.
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For an hour on six Wednesdays, students participate in a club of their choosing. Now in the second cycle of enrichment learning activities, students could stay with that same club or try a different one. That will continue for two more cycles this school year.
Six members of the Spotless Club and their sponsor, Marty Young, recently talked about their work at a Brownstown Central Community School Corp. board of trustees meeting.
Young beamed with pride in sharing what his students have done so far.
“I could stand up here all night and talk about this and praise our students for what they are doing,” he said.
One of the best parts of overseeing the club, he said, is interacting with and getting to know the kids outside of the classroom setting.
“It is very exciting that so many kids want to help out other people,” Young said. “It really shows what kind of kids we have at Brownstown. I have been very impressed with the kids in my club and their work ethic throughout all of the projects. It really makes you feel good to see how hard they work and that these kids want to give back to their school and their community.”
Principal Doug McClure said the enrichment learning activities came about after students, staff and parents participated in a SpeakUp survey in the fall of 2016.
From those results, a series of conversations in the spring asked what programming could be implemented to help increase student engagement.
“The discussions focused on student academic work habits but also expanded to include what might be done to help increase attendance rates and purposefully generate opportunities for positive social interaction — student to student and student to caring adult,” McClure said.
Enrichment learning activities were among the strategies developed and implemented.
“If we can generate in our students a greater sense of belonging, instilling in them the idea that there is a place for them at BCMS and that they do ‘fit in’ to our school family in a personal way, perhaps those personal relationships would extend beyond the enrichment learning period and also yield benefits in the core academic classes,” McClure said.
At the end of the 2016-17 school year, students who would be returning in the fall were asked what kind of clubs would interest them. They could share their own ideas or choose ones selected by staff.
Over the summer, the staff members considered the most popular student responses and decided what they felt interested or comfortable in sponsoring.
Among the clubs they came up with are woodworking, guitar, crochet, holiday, American heroes, rock, photography, Hour of Code, classic television, Scrabble and exercise/walking.
“I was very excited at the diversity of ideas and interests that the staff offered,” McClure said. “I really felt that there was something of interest for every student.”
Young said he wanted to come up with a club that would create lifelong experiences for students.
“I felt having the students do some type of service learning project would create learning experiences that would have a positive impact on them for the rest of their lives,” he said. “I felt that the easiest way for students to volunteer around the schools or community would be to clean stuff up.”
The goal was to make things spotless around the school and community, he said.
Most of their work has been around the middle school, including dusting trophies, cleaning the stage, airing up balls, organizing a storage room, cleaning windows and disinfecting a variety of things, sixth-grader Caden Gwin said.
“We enjoy being helpful,” he said.
Eighth-grader Reagan Nuss said club members sold Orange Leaf frozen yogurt during lunch to have money to buy supplies for their projects.
On the days when the weather was nice, they washed the maintenance director’s truck, a football equipment trailer and a couple of mini buses and cleaned the high school cross-country course so it was ready for practices and meets.
“We have had so much fun helping our community,” Nuss said.
Eighth-grader Jenna Lowery said the club wrapped up the first six-week cycle with a picnic lunch at the Brownstown Park. After lunch, they picked up trash, raked leaves, cleaned dugouts and moved rock.
“We even got to play some volleyball for fun,” Lowery said.
The first project of the current cycle was going to the Vallonia Gym to get it ready to use during the basketball season.
Seventh-grader Connor Gwin said that work involved cleaning the floor, locker rooms, windows, bleachers and concession stand.
“There was a lot of work to do,” he said. “We really worked hard down there.”
The club recently raked and picked up leaves outside the middle school, filling six trash bags, and disinfected all of the books in the library.
The next project is cleaning all of the library books at the elementary school.
“We are currently looking for some community projects to get involved in before Christmas,” Young said. “I know that in the spring, we will be doing several projects outside at the schools to get ready for spring sports and cleaning up from the winter. We have an idea for Teacher Appreciation Week, too.”
McClure said the enrichment learning activities have had a positive impact on students and staff.
“It may yet be a little premature to try to measure the direct impact of what we are trying, but I believe the early indications to be very positive,” he said. “When you have students wanting to show and discuss with you what they are doing in their clubs, it indicates that good things are happening and those positive personal connections are being made and reinforced. You observe student engagement.”
Every time he steps into a classroom during enrichment learning, McClure said he smiles, and it gives him perspective.
“Yes, we want our students to succeed at high academic levels as measured by the state of Indiana, but they are still kids with individual interests, affinities and strengths,” he said. “The hour we spend in enrichment learning each week provides the students the latitude to put those same interests, affinities and strengths on display.
“When I visit, I am refreshed, and I am continually amazed and humbled at the God-given talents and potential our students possess when given the chance to express them in a different context,” he said.
McClure said he can’t give enough credit to the staff members who have immersed themselves into the enrichment learning effort.
“Our discussions last spring brought us to the point of action this fall. The staff has rallied behind the effort, and it shows,” he said. “Because of their attention to detail and their professionalism and Ms. Karen Ault’s ability to organize, our enrichment learning Wednesdays have gone off logistically without a hitch.”
He anticipates enrichment learning to continue in the years to come.
“I believe this initiative has merit as we continue in our efforts to enhance our school climate and culture,” McClure said. “It does require additional effort, planning and coordination on the part of the staff, but it is my hope that they recognize the value and return for that effort, both professionally and personally.
“As we conclude the year, we will discuss as a staff the benefits of the program as well as any aspects of the initiative that we might want to tweak moving forward,” he said. “If the buy-in remains strong, we will continue what we have started.”
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Enrichment learning activities started this school year at Brownstown Central Middle School.
The clubs include Hour of Code, silent reading, Tribal Council, classic television, euchre, Scrabble, exercise/walking, spotless, games/puzzles, American heroes, all things holiday, coloring, crochet, painting, woodworking, guitar, noggin joggin’ brain games, crafting, music, rock, photography and music appreciation.
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