MEC has kicked off the 2022-2023 school year with the theme of “Building Classroom Community”. Staff participated in an intense training by Ambrose P. Panico, the prominent educator, author and consultant to schools and organizations on reconnecting youth to their schools and communities.
After several days of activities on building our community at MEC, students and staff participated in a special “maze activity”. This activity challenged our trust, and continued with our theme of building a strong, caring and supportive community.
A “maze” was put together in the gym of different items arranged like an “obstacle course”, that students and staff had to travel through. After selecting a partner, students and staff were blindfolded, and led through the maze verbally by their partner. Then students were paired with someone they did not know and completed the maze a second time.
The results: learning about effective communication, trusting another person, taking risks and a lot of laughter. Students left the activity with big smiles on their faces, as they too were “a-mazed” by their completion of the activity and the feeling of building a community together.