Originally scheduled to run from 12:10 to 3:35 PM, the Exploration event was met with a sudden change in plans when BMS was evacuated due to a small gas leak, leading to an influx of 6th and 7th graders also converging on the high school at around noon.
Despite the unexpected challenge, the event’s organizers successfully navigated the chaos, ensuring that the 8th graders had the opportunity to explore a range of career and technical education (CTE) programs and other elective offerings that will help them make informed decisions when registering for high school classes.
“It ended up not being the day I had in my head, but everybody pitched in and the day went as good as it could have,” Tawnya Thayer, the Work-Based Learning Coordinator at BHS, said after the event.
The planning and coordination of the event was a collaborative effort. Bayfield Middle School Counselor Nicole Machallister helped ensure that each student’s preferences were registered, and Thayer handled the logistics of scheduling the four exploratory sessions for each of the students who attended.
"The purpose of the event was for us to allow 8th graders to choose four classes out of the seven that we offer for them, so they could make a little bit better decisions when registering for next year’s classes,” Thayer explained. “Every student got what they put on their plan.”
Each session was 45 minutes long, and designed to give students a chance to experience hands-on activities that align with the curriculum they could expect in subjects such as Health Science, Construction Trades, Engineering, Agriculture, Business, Art, and Music.
“We asked the CTE and elective teachers to plan an activity or project that is very similar to something they would do in one of their classes in their pathway,” Thayer said, emphasizing the importance of allowing the 8th graders to get a real feel for the learning environments they could choose from.
The intent was for students to get an authentic experience, and their feedback was positive.
“Some of them were surprised when they went to a class and really didn’t like it that much, but they liked some others,” Thayer shared.
She believes the exposure to different classes will allow the students to reflect on their preferences before they participate in high school registration, which begins this week. Registration Night for current 8th through 11th graders is scheduled for February 6, from 4 to 7:30 p.m. at Bayfield High School, where families can meet teachers and discuss options.
“This event will help those 8th graders know who to talk to when they come in the building,” Thayer noted. “The students will be able to make better choices because they were able to meet that teacher and see how they felt in that space.”
Additionally, Bayfield High School Counselor Jen Leithauser will be visiting BMS to help 8th graders register for their classes and BHS teachers are encouraged to use Registration Night to have conversations with kids and parents about their programs and classes to help steer students into the courses that are the best fit for them. Teachers are encouraged to work with their departments to figure out the logistics of the night, whether that means meeting in a shared space or spreading out across individual classrooms. "This is completely up to you," she said, stressing the flexibility of the event.
Thayer said she believes last week’s event helped get the high school registration process off to a good start for next year’s freshmen, and after gathering feedback from both students and teachers, improvements are already being discussed to make next year’s event even better.
“We will definitely shoot for this every year. I felt it was really successful,” she said.
