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Administrator’s Corner by Tyler Johnson

Springtime is a busy time for schools across the country. State standardized tests, year-end field trips and the endings of school years. One tradition that has been established at Southwest is Exploratory Day.

Exploratory Day is a day staff at Southwest plan, design and carry out unique learning opportunities for our students around our area. The overall concept of exploratory day is to give students educational opportunities that they wouldn’t usually get in a typical school day nor at home.

Teachers and staff create exploratory day events. These events are either half-day or full-day experiences. Some of the unique learning opportunities for our students this year are learning to do archery at the Full Draw Archery Club, bike cruise around Albert Lea Lake, kayaking on Fountain Lake, golfing at Wedgewood, a pottery activity at Simply Ceramics and activities at the YMCA. We are always looking for new businesses to host exploratory day events and opportunities for our students to learn in the Albert Lea area.

In the middle of April students are given the student catalog, where they can see all of the different opportunities available to them. Then, at the beginning of May we have an event at Southwest called Exploratory Day Pick’em where students and staff gather in the gym at the end of the day and students are randomly called down to pick either two half-day events or one full-day event.

We are excited for the opportunities our students have coming up here at Southwest. It is great to be able to offer them more educational opportunities such as Exploratory Day. If you know of a business or company that would be willing to host different exploratory day events in the future, please reach out Southwest Principal Tyler Johnson at tyler.johnson@alschools.org.

Tyler Johnson is principal of Southwest Middle School.