The school buzzed with excitement as the speakers were announcing the winners of the door decoration contest.
“It’s a big deal,” said one of the winners, Ms. Olivia Adams, Champions English teacher.
Rachel Carson administrators decided to put up a contest for Halloween with prizes. The contestants had to pick a theme for their decoration on their Panther Time classroom’s door. After choosing a theme, they had to decorate their door however they wanted.
Doors were judged on best theme, most detail, and most creative.
On Oct. 31, RCTV announced the three winning classes during Panther Time.
The classes who won and got doughnuts were:
- Ms. Adams, the English teacher on the Champions team whose theme was the Addams Family
- Ms. Patricia Walsh, the science teacher on Dream Team whose theme was Pawsing for the Fall
- Ms. Amy Allen, the English teacher on the Legacy team whose theme was The Ghostbusters
Ms. Adams’ Panther Time class won the Best Theme title.
Ms. Adams said, “We were going to do something ghouly and then we wanted to do the Addams family because it relates to my last name, and because it has been around for a long time.”
Ms. Walsh’s Panther Time won the Most Detail title.
“We started with a brainstorm, and it came to a fall theme, and as we moved on the class decided the details for the doors,” said Ms. Walsh. “Fall themed but the main part was pawsing for the fall.”
Finally, Ms. Allen’s Panther Time won the Most Creative title.
“Originally we were going to do a Wednesday theme but then someone said we should do ghostbusters and everyone agreed,” said Tyler Jones, 12, of Legacy, from Ms. Allen’s Panther Time.
Ms. Adams’ classroom wanted to divide the amount of time to make the door decorations, and even got help from other classes.
“We worked little by little every class period until the judgment,” said Ms. Adams. “Everyone and some other people from different classes came and helped us make it.”
Ms. Allen’s Panther Time also worked on it efficiently, and she said that about half of her class worked on it.
“Four or five Panther Times, we were just really efficient and everybody who participated were excited which made it more easier,” said Ms. Allen
She wanted to be fair to the students who worked on the door, so only the students who worked on the door got doughnuts.
“I said from the beginning — if we win, only those who participate in the door get the prize,” said Ms. Allen. “I stated that from the beginning.”
Ms. Walsh’s whole class worked on their door decorations.
Ms. Allen’s students felt like they would win.
Tyler said that they felt grateful, accomplished, and amazing.
“I think everyone was very, very excited, but I think we all knew before, yeah, we had a hunch,” said Tyler. “We felt very good that we destroyed the competition, yeah, we destroyed it.”
Ms. Allen felt good that the class got it done well.
“I feel like we were just efficient,” said Ms. Allen.
Ms. Adams also felt really good that her class made the door almost by themselves.
Ms. Adams said, “This year especially, I completely took a step back, I mean the only things I did were print two pages out and the rest was done by the students.”
Sophia Robles, 12, on the Legacy team, says that she liked the other students including each other often.
“If someone didn’t have a task to do, they included people,” said Sophia.
Anyuta Keetham, 12, of the Champions team, just liked being outside of the classroom and working on it.
“We got to go outside in the hallway and socialize with other students from different classes. It was fun just helping everyone and just making the decorations amazing,” said Anyuta.
Ms. Adams felt really good about winning.
“It’s a big deal,” said Ms. Adams. “I felt like a champion, bam bam, cause we’re in Champions.”
Others even came to congratulate her and her class.
“The room felt wild, it was hype in here other people came over to congratulate us, we were feeling on top of the world,” said Ms. Adams.
Even other teachers came over.
“I think a lot of other teachers and kids hyped us up,” said Ms. Adams.
Ms. Walsh did not expect to win, she said.
“My class has never won,” she said. “The best part was the group effort.”
She and her class felt confident about their door.
“We cheered, we felt confident for our door, it was a nice surprise,” she said.
Ms. Adams said she had a harder time getting all of the decorations to stay.
“No, the door kept falling off,” said Ms. Adams, “I mean the decorations.”
Even though it was hard, she still hoped to win.
“I had hopes, yeah,” Ms. Adams said.
Ms. Walsh liked it because it was competitive.
“I’m a little competitive so this was a little bit better,” said Ms. Walsh
Ms. Allen didn’t care if they won or not as long as they tried hard.
“If I lose, it’s not going to be because of lack of effort. And I’m okay with losing if I’ve done all I can to win,” said Ms. Allen.
She said she definitely expected to win.
Ms. Allen firmly said, “I don’t play to participate, I play to win.”
