Printer-friendly versionWhen the start of Mix It Up at Lunch Day was announced at Seth Johnson Elementary in Montgomery, Ala., cheers rose up in the halls. At lunch, the fifth-grade class – leaders of this year’s activities – proudly displayed the banner they created for the event.
Students seemed a little shy as lunch began, but soon, fifth-graders Jaelyn and Breyanna found they shared a common interest – football. By the end of the day, the entire cafeteria was buzzing with conversation.
That story was played out thousands of times Nov. 10, as schools across the country participated in Mix It Up At Lunch Day. Though Mix It Up was held on Tuesday in most schools, reports of successful Mix events are still emerging.
In South Haven, Indiana, a home school advisor’s own interracial friendship inspired her to promote Mix It Up at her school. At Christa Macauliffe Elementary in Colorado Springs, fifth graders of different races “played like lifelong friends.”
In Manchester, Mich., teachers say Mix is helping 11-year-olds develop important social skills.
Palo Alto High School in California held its first Mix event this year. The news comes to us courtesy of The Paly Voice, a well-written student newspaper.
In Massachusetts, Swampscott High School held its third annual Mix Day, with help from the Swampscott Education Foundation, a local non-profit.
Every year, we encounter grownups who feel that Mix It Up would be a good idea in the workplace. This year, book reviewer Lee Wind is advising his readers to do a literary Mix It Up.
The St. Petersburg Times notes that 30 schools in the Tampa/St. Pete area participated in Mix.
Students in Wausau, Wisc., Emporia, Kansas and Santa Barbara, Calif., got in on the act.
Three schools in Gastonia, North Carolina gave Mix a try.
A writer at The Baltimore Sun declared “mission accomplished” after watching three 12-year-olds – nearly strangers at first – opening up to each other at the lunch table.
At Midvale Middle School in Salt Lake City, Mix It Up is now being done once a month, not just once a year, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
In Montana, eighth-graders bonded over an icebreaker that asked them what super power they’d like to have.
In Hamden, Conn., Mix It Up Day helped launch conversations about stereotypes and friendships.
In small communities, cliques can be particularly limiting. “We all know each other's names and we've grown up together, but still we're segregated,” Sands High School student Ashli Stockton told a West Texas television station. Mix It Up organizers at Sands said they hoped each student made at least one new friend.
In Ohio, new friends vowed to stay in touch long after Mix Day has passed.
How did your school observe Mix It Up? Leave a note in the “comments” section to share your story.
Comments
Mix-it-up-at-Lunch 2009 at
Mix-it-up-at-Lunch 2009 at Deerfield Elementary School was a huge success! The day was organized by our 67 6th graders who greeted classes 1-5 at lunch, giving each student a color card that directed them to a table. At each table one of our 6th graders held a Q&A round-table discussion about the importance of the day. The feedback from our student body was mostly positive, with only a few negative comments. This will be the 5th year DES has organized this day.It just gets better and better thanks to our faculty, staff, our Principal and of course our students.
Thanks, Julie. It's always
Thanks, Julie.
It's always good to see students leading other students in activities. There's no better way to learn, and to learn social skills!
A note to our readers: Deerfield Elementary is in Massachusetts.
Love the idea!
Love the idea!
We're so proud of our 6th
We're so proud of our 6th grade students for their leadership roles at Deerfield! Congratulations to our outstanding students and wonderful staff for making "Mix it Up Day" a Deerfield tradition!
Our student council members
Our student council members gave out Jolly Rancher candies to each student as they entered the cafeteria and then were asked to sit at the table with the matching color for their candy. One of the geography teachers than asked the students to write a one page paper about their experience and what prejudices they overcame or struggled with during this exercise. Several students sat with the "life skills" kids, the "emo" kids, the "jocks," etc but almost everyone one of them realized that they weren't really any different than they were themselves. A very successful mix it up lunch day. Several kids asked to have it more than once a year and we told them that they could do it themselves!
Indian Ridge Middle School
Indian Ridge Middle School (El Paso, TX) teachers and students participated in this year's Mix It Up.
Our 3rd "Mix It Up Day" was a
Our 3rd "Mix It Up Day" was a wonderful event. Our Ignition Program Mentors prepared for it by incorporating the Wall of Ignorance into their presentations to their 9th graders, by displaying the bricks prominently in the front hall, by coming up with energetic activities for the day, by including music played by mentors and other kids, and by contacting local businesses for door prizes. The combination of the bricks, of the introduction of the day's purpose and of the endnote of symbolically tearing down the injustices as well as pledging to end intolerance was powerful!
Sawgrass Springs Middle
Sawgrass Springs Middle School, in Coral Springs, Florida participated in Mix it Up Day. Our students sat at tables according to their birth month and it was a huge success!! We even had a famous entertainer make a surprize visit to get the students off their feet! It was none other than Aretha Franklin!!!
Well, actually it was myself, our principal and another teacher. We played the song R-E-S-P-E-C-T, over the loud speaker, and danced our way throughout the cafeteria. It was great fun!
I am teaching at a new school
I am teaching at a new school this year. My previous school participated in Mix it Up day and enjoyed it, so I recommended it to this administration who thought it was a great idea. The faculty voted to participate, and 70 to 80% of the students mixed it up. The feedback from the surveys were telling, and expressed a desire to do Mix it Up every month! Thank you for promoting this valued activity!
At St. Teresa Catholic School
At St. Teresa Catholic School in Grants, New Mexico, our Mix It Up For Lunch Day is the culmination of week long presentations on Anti-bullying. As the principal, I present to each class a video as well as activities on anti-bullying. This is our second year doing this and I believe that it works well in helping our students understand just how detrimental bullying iss.
Our middle school in San
Our middle school in San Jose, CA, has tried several different thematic approaches to the "Mix It Up Day" activities. We have a student body of 1300 6th, 7th and 8th graders who spend their California lunch (30 minutes) out of doors in two separate eating areas. The challenge is to encourage students to discover new territories and students within a large physical area and a short lunch break. Three of the ideas we have used to encourage movement and interaction out at lunch are "Shuffle Your Deck","Birthdays" and "IceBreaker". With "Shuffle Your Deck", each student received a playing card (on a pendant length cord) in the class right before lunch, and a bookmark of poker hands. At lunch we had photo areas where students who had assembled any "poker hand" of 5 students could be photographed as a group. The groups received a treat and had a photo taken. When photos were printed and displayed in the school Commons, students had fun looking for their groups. For the "Birthday" mixer, we painted large banners for each month of the year, and students were encouraged to visit the banner, sign it and meet other students or teachers who shared birthdays for that month. When we have used the "IceBreaker" theme, students were encouraged to dress in white, and lunch activities have included paper snowball tossing teams, groups wrapping students as snowmen, in toilet paper streamers, and "freeze"-dancing to music over a PA system. We have a great parent group who support these efforts at improving school climate by helping prepare and set up these events, as well as turning out in large numbers at lunch to assist and enjoy the activities.
awesome!!!!
awesome!!!!