Words: Shweta Maruvada
Centennial High School (CHS) seniors upheld the long-term tradition of the school’s Senior Takeover Day on Friday, March 29th, 2013. This is always a new learning experience for the senior students, who are not used to being the ones in control. The rest of the students also look forward to this CHS tradition. According to junior Deepika Sagar, “It was fun, and it was a nice break from all the academic work we have been doing. I honestly enjoyed it and think we should have senior takeover day more often.”
Katie Judd and Ashley Grooms took over for dance teacher Rebecca Clark. Judd and Grooms choreographed routines in the morning before classes began. For each class, they went through a typical dance class according to the level being taught. “While taking over, I learned the style that the different levels (and ages) of dancers learned best with and the best ways to get everyone involved (with dance 1, a game of freeze dance was the best way for everyone to have fun; for senior company, having an improvisational ‘dance-off’ was best),” said Judd.
Grooms also enjoyed taking over for Clark. “We taught a very short dance class for each period and then played freeze dance. The final two people in each round ended up having a dance off. I guess the best moment would have to be during 6th period when Jacob came in and had a dance off with Shannon. It was so much fun! Honestly I don’t think I really learned anything new apart from that I still love teaching dance classes!” she said.
Art 1, 3, and 4, usually taught by Nan Collins was taken over by Courtney Payne and Blair Dettmer. The classes were told to work on their clay pieces, while Payne and Dettmer wedged the clay and assisted the students. All the students were given candy as a special treat for the day. According to Payne, “The best thing that happened was getting to emulate Ms. Collins and make jokes out of her classroom pet peeves. Ms. Collins hates it when students put their backpacks on the table, so we jokingly yelled at someone that did that. It was quite funny to all parties involved. The worst thing that happened was having to clean up all the clay mess!”
“We learned how much clean up goes into being an art teacher. Blair and I didn’t really remember how to use clay properly since we hadn’t done it since Art 1, but Ms. Collins quickly refreshed us on that. Lastly, for me at least I learned how hard it is to get people to listen to you. Overall I had a great time,” said Payne.
Amanda Mazer took over for Officer Perry. According to Mazer, “We watched the cameras all over the school and parking lot, reported some suspicious activity to Mike, and monitored the hallways during passing periods. Then we wrote a traffic ticket for Mr. Hollwedel! We also did a building check to make sure all of the school doors were locked and everyone was safe. Of course Mr. McCoy didn’t have his locked.”
“The best part of the day was hanging out with Perry. The worst part was when he yelled in the hall that I was ‘the new sherriff in town’ it was so embarrassing,” said Mazer.
Ben Evans and Bri Pomerantz took over for assistant principal Joelle Miller. Similar to Miller’s routines, Evans and Pomerantz went to classes, participated in lessons, pulled kids from class, and gave detentions. “Seeing the look on kids faces when I was yelling at them and they had no clue why, was definitely a high,” said Evans.
However, Evans also faced the difficulties of being in control. “I learned that being an administrator is incredibly difficult. Kids don’t listen, and there are many jobs you wouldn’t think they would do, such as changing the sign out in the front.” He was grateful for Miller’s work and congratulated her on encouraging him throughout the day- “Shout out to Mrs. Miller for being such a great mentor and going along with my craziness.”
Congratulations to all students who participated in this year’s senior takeover, and supporting the seniors and faculty/staff who worked so hard to make it a success.
