Community Members Contribute to Students' Education

Over the past few weeks community members have been engaged with Opelika City Schools students to expand their understanding of school and community relationships.  Rusty Melnick, OHS graduate and community businessman participated in two of these events.  His thoughts about his experiences are listed below after a brief description of the events.

Opelika City Schools worked with the Opelika Chamber of Commerce to offer the Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA) to our students.  We are currently offering this program through one of the technology classes at Opelika Middle School.  YEA is a national program that teaches young people how to take an idea and develop it into a business.  YEA utilizes community members to teach the process of beginning your own business.   

Opelika High School tenth grade English teachers recently asked Patsy Boyd Parker, Rusty Melnick, Wilbert Payne, and Frances Capps-Palmer, who were OHS students during the desegregation era to form a panel to discuss how segregation and desegregation impacted their lives. This panel discussion was an activity to coincide with their reading of Warriors Don’t Cry.

Rusty's comments:

OMS - When I was asked to speak with the YEA class at the Middle School my first thought was, “how could students this young be interested in a presentation on business insurance.” After about five minutes into my presentation my question was answered, and it was not the answer I was expecting.  (They were interested because of what they had been learning in YEA.)  The students were extremely attentive and respectful of not only me but of their fellow classmates. Their interest prompted them to ask questions during the presentation instead of waiting until we finished. I was absolutely blown away by their questions which were specific to their business exposures and were thought provoking. The students’ attention and participation far exceeded my expectations!

OHS - I was excited when asked to participate on a panel concerning my experience during integration of the Opelika School system. Prior to the first panel session I was not sure what to expect from the students as far as their interest in this subject. The session started with each panel member sharing about a couple of the experiences we had during the beginning of integration in Opelika. The students were attentive during our opening remarks, then the floor was opened up for questions and the students came alive! Questions came from all students, male, female, white and black asking questions that were sincere and looking for honest answers. After the session was over, numerous students approached each panel member to thank them for sharing their experiences and also to ask additional questions. I would definitely say I benefited more than anyone at the session because of what the other panel members had to say and from how the students were respectful and genuinely interested in learning more about the integration process in Opelika - based on the quality of questions they asked!

Thank you Rusty for your involvement and these comments.

Robotics - A Student's Perspective

Opelika High School and Opelika Middle School both have a Robotics Team that recently competed in the War Eagle BEST Robotics Competition sponsored by Auburn University.  For this event, teams receive a challenge.  This year students were challenged to build robots that could transport and assemble parts for windmills.  These teams work for six weeks to construct a robot that will be able to complete the challenge.  Not an easy task.  Below are a student’s thoughts on this process.   

My name is Codey Bracknell, and I’m a sophomore at Opelika High School.  The reason I got involved with the robotics’ team is because I wanted to try something new. I am in the Project Lead the Way engineering class, and one day Mrs. Howell was explaining how robotics worked.  I wanted to try it out and see if it was fun, and I also wanted to meet new people.   The main thing I like about robotics is being able to design and share ideas.  Even if your idea is not so great, it can still be a good idea because it might have a little piece in it that the team can use.

            When we started to design and build the robot, our main focus was on what type of wheel design we needed and what the shape of the claw would be.  Our prototype’s claw couldn’t pick up any of the game objects but the way we had the wheel system setup was perfect. So we kept the wheel design and changed the claw’s shape and how it worked.  We made the claw into a hook that rotated up and down kind of like a dump truck picking up a big trash can.   Our team won the 2^nd place Founder’s Design Award for our robot design.

One challenge that our team had was how we would approach the game field and how many points we could score in 3 minutes. So, the team came up with the strategy of picking up 1 chicken, hitting the permit switch with it, and then getting that chicken out of the way.  We would then move the other chicken out from in front of the bridge and open the bridge crossing gates.  After that we just started picking up windmill objects and taking them to the other side since they were worth 30 points apiece.  I was the first driver at the competition on Saturday, and I followed our strategy.  But when I picked up the chicken and rammed the permit switch, the chicken came off and fell on to the other side of the game area.  After I was finished I got all the other drivers together and told them we needed to go with a different strategy and just pick the chickens up and get them out the way instead of trying to perform tasks with the chickens hanging on the hook.  We went with our new plan and it worked.  We were #4 out of 22 teams in the seeding matches and advanced to the semi-finals (top 8 teams).   We tried to use the same strategy again and it almost worked, but we just didn’t do as well driving and ended up 5^th or 6^th and didn’t advance to the finals.  This year’s robot was a success, because it could consistently do everything we designed it to do.

The things I learned from being on the robotics’ team are that no one is perfect and no one is too smart. Everyone has flaws in life and everyone has their good and bad days. Another thing I learned is that duct tape does not, I repeat does not, fix everything. Being in robotics inspired me to go ahead and keep doing robotics next year because the best thing I like about it is designing and building the robot and seeing if the idea works. Once you do it and it ends up working you get to say “hey, I helped design and build that robot”.  So, the biggest thing I learned is take pride in your work whether you win or not; if it works in your head you’re still number one. I keep saying that no idea is too good and no idea is too bad and don’t be afraid to comment or share ideas that you have because you never know when one of your ideas might help more than you think.

We are proud of the hard work our teachers and students put into this endeavor.  This work is done completely after school and receives no state support (locally funded).  Below is a picture of Axle, the OHS robot.

Think About It

     Once upon a time, gathering information for a report entailed looking the topic up in the World Book Encyclopedia or the Encyclopedia Britannica.  These information sources were known to be true, reliable and up-to-date (if you purchased the yearbook each year).  Today, however, our students "Google" everything from "who won the football game" to "what caused the Spanish American War."  And, many students (and adults) think that "it must be true if I found it on the Internet."
     News flash:  Not everything on the Internet is true!  So, how do we teach students to be critical readers?  How do we teach them to discern fact from fiction?  How do we help them navigate the abundance of information that is literally at their fingertips in order to use the good and true information to solve problems and make good decisions.

     One way that we teach critical reading is to have students identify questions as they are reading. What information is missing?  What question does this bring to mind that was not answered in the text?  Is there a resource to back up what is being said?  Students often use sticky notes to make observations and record questions.  Then, these sticky notes can be a springboard for class discussions, ideas for more research, or small group discussions with other students.  Students will not always be able to have every question answered, but it allows them to make some decisions about how reliable a source is based on what is or is not included.
     This same procedure is used when teaching novels or other fiction materials.  Sticky notes may contain a note such as "this makes me think about a time that...", or "this makes me wonder about..." or "I don't understand what this means..."  In other words, it's not just about reading; it's about thinking.
     
     Another example of how to teach critical reading it to cite text evidence.  As students answer questions about the text they have read, they are asked to find the evidence in the text that supports their answer.  Instead of just trying to remember what happened in the story, students may be asked to find the answer in the text and "cite the text evidence that you found."  Often students use markers to highlight the evidence.  When students form opinions about a character or situation, they are asked to cite text evidence to support their opinion.  Again, it is not about just reading; it is about thinking.

    We want our students to be prepared to handle the bombardment of information that they get on the Internet, news sources, propaganda, and even textbooks.  We want students to be able to make their own informed decisions and to not just believe everything they read.