If you could change one thing at Linganore, what would it be?: Photo of the Day 6/12/19

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Emily McNally

Bailey Bennett, Austin Mcfarland, and Elizabeth Rajnik present their project on reducing stress.

by Emily McNally and Ashley Baker

A crying closet?

“It’s a real thing,” said Elizabeth Rajnik.  She made this part of her proposal to improve LHS.

Let’s be honest, no school is perfect. Everyone has opinions! But imagine the one thing you would want to do to improve Linganore. Students in Mrs. MaryEllen Newcomb’s English 10 Honors class had an assignment to do just that.

Students were assigned to get in groups and brainstorm possible ideas to make Linganore a better place, and they didn’t hesitate to get creative. Some had the idea to purchase better water fountains; others wanted to add a crying closet, and some wanted to build a student lounge.

On June 10, 11, and 12 students presented their projects after working on them for about two weeks.

Elizabeth Rajnik, Bailey Bennett and Austin McFarland did their project on adding ways to reduce stress among students at Linganore. They want to allow comfort dogs, break time, and a “crying closet.” They also made a survey to research the amount of stress in students and see what others thought of their ideas. 

“I think these projects are really fun, especially being towards the end of the year because as students, we are able to advocate for change that we want in the school in the upcoming year,” said Rajnik. “I also think it’s really interesting to see what my classmates want to change about our school in comparison to me.”

Emily McNally
Natalie Rhodes presents her project on replacing the school water fountains.

Students used NoodleTools to plan their projects and then had to put that information in some form of a presentation. Students had to think about how much their idea would actually cost and think logically about their idea as if it was really happening.

“I thought it would be really interesting to see what they would come up with that would actually benefit Linganore,” Newcomb said.

Sammy Thomas and Emily McNally want to add a student lounge, built in the Learning Commons or in a big spare room. They made a survey to see what other students think about adding a place to relax.

“This gives students a chance to chill and relieve stress. If you don’t want to just sit in PREP, you will be able to hang out in a more comfortable student lounge,” Thomas said. “This project was really interesting and I had a lot of fun researching what types of furniture will be in the lounge.”

“Somebody should be listening,” Newcomb said.