Desert Wind T.I.G.E.R. Night turnout termed ‘amazing’

Last week Desert Wind Middle School held T.I.G.E.R. Night–Teachers Inspiring Great Educational Responses, and the response from parents was great.

The evening began with a free barbeque. Student council members, with direction from their advisor and seventh grade math teacher Lindsey Kerber, grilled hot dogs and cheeseburgers for students, their parents and siblings from 5-6 p.m. and handed out chips, cookies and cold drinks.

During dinner the school’s band, directed by Kevin Floth, and its choir, directed by Theresa Hintz, provided musical entertainment.

Academic activities took place from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in 20-minute segments. The focus was on curriculum insight for parents through hands-on learning activities, as well as giving them an opportunity to view their student’s work.

Some examples of those learning activities included a “Show, Don’t Tell” vocabulary lesson in the sixth grade language arts classroom of Teresa Keime. Parents and students were asked to pick a word, illustrate it and then use movement to present that word.

In Melissa Hackett’s sixth grade math room everyone was asked to choose a decimal and then get up to order it and themselves from least to greatest.

Wind, water and glacier erosion testing and PH soil testing took place in Beverly Parker’s seventh grade science classroom.

In addition, book fair materials were available in the library for purchase or to peruse.

Asked to comment on the extremely large turnout for T.I.G.E.R. Night, Principal Joe Veres said, “This is amazing. We feel blessed to have the community we have. They continue to support us, and we do our best to support them–we’re a family.”

Photos by Joyce Hollis