Traditions
Around this time of year, traditions are celebrated, whether that's by lighting the candles of the kinara, making and eating latkes, caroling door-to-door your favorite Christmas songs, or just spending time with family and friends. Everybody has their traditions, and that includes our school. Though our traditions are less holiday oriented they still have a lasting impact on our community.
One tradition that has been around our school for a long time is Jollification. Jollification is a game that we play once a month during advisory. Each grade is a team and every month a member of each team competes in silly games to rack up points. At the end of the school year, we announce the winner. One game we played that was very memorable was when a student volunteer from each grade had to answer a trivia question. If they got it wrong they had to add some sort of food to the blender. In the end, there was a disgusting smoothie that combined all sorts of fruits, meats, and condiments. Whoever got the most answers right was safe from drinking the concoction.
Another tradition we have is Spirit Week. Once a week every year we host the annual Spirit Week. It starts with a themed hallway decorating contest. This year's theme was movies and we went all out. The middle schoolers chose The Grinch, the underclassmen chose The Wizard of Oz, and the upperclassmen chose Saw. After the hallways are decorated we have students and staff dress up every day for a different theme. Our Student Government sold pizza one of the days and we ended spirit week with a student vs teacher kickball game.
Some of our traditions have also extended to outside of school. At least twice every year we gather students to volunteer at Mobile Hope. Mobile Hope is a local organization that provides resources for struggling youth. Recently we helped with their Christmas Village for children in need. We did things like organize and wrap gifts, face paint little kids, and serve hot chocolate to those attending. It was a magical experience and felt good to see the direct impact we had on the kids.
