Students Use Creativity To Celebrate Maryland Day

Students Use Creativity To Celebrate Maryland Day
Students Use

POCOMOKE – The red, white, black and gold of the state’s flag filled the halls of Pocomoke Middle School this week as students celebrated Maryland Day.

Though the holiday was technically March 25, students at Pocomoke Middle welcomed visitors this week as they showed off various projects meant to honor the Old Line State.

“Maryland Day was about the opportunity to show parents, teachers and the community we’re a proud Maryland public school,” Principal Matthew Record said.

According to Record, the idea of a Maryland Day celebration was brought up by social studies teacher Twynette Binns in December. Binns said this week the school’s fifth-graders studied Maryland every year and she thought it was a lesson that could be shared school-wide.

Rather than disrupt the school day with an actual celebration, Binns and Record decided to let teachers work the concept into their curriculums as they saw fit.

“We didn’t want to interrupt the school day we just wanted to celebrate where we are,” Record said.

Cropper and teacher Twynette Bins look at brochures and essays students created for the school’s Maryland Day celebration.

Cropper and teacher Twynette Bins look at brochures and essays students created for the school’s Maryland Day celebration.

In foreign language class, students made posters advertising the various languages spoken in the state. In music, students sang “Maryland My Maryland.” In English, they wrote persuasive essays meant to convince readers that Maryland was the best state.

“We found ways to incorporate it into the curriculum and not just give teachers extra work to do,” Binns said.

Because they planned the event so far in advance, they were even able to have Pocomoke Middle’s visiting artist set Maryland as the theme for the school’s screen-printing project. One of the first things visitors entering the school this week noticed was the pair of screen prints depicting crabs, terrapins and other images associated with Maryland. Record pointed out the students even managed to work in the official state dinosaur.

Binns said she was thrilled by the excitement Maryland Day instilled in Pocomoke Middle’s students.

“They’re constantly coming to me and saying ‘did you know…’” she said, joking that most of them were aware she was from Virginia. “They’ve had a ball. They think they’re doing something that’s not school.”

Record said he too was pleased with the response Maryland Day had received.

“You know you’re doing something right when the kids start teaching the teachers,” he said.

About The Author: Charlene Sharpe

Alternative Text

Charlene Sharpe has been with The Dispatch since 2014. A graduate of Stephen Decatur High School and the University of Richmond, she spent seven years with the Delmarva Media Group before joining the team at The Dispatch.