A freshman student sits in their AIM, head down and trying to fall back asleep. The announcements turn on, and the voice of Freshman Campus Principal, Greg Eiserman, blares through the speakers. He shares a message about “Beat the Blahs,” a new incentive for student motivation. This gets the freshman thinking, “Have I been beating the ‘blahs?’”
After winter break, student motivation tends to plummet, so the Freshman Campus decided to do something about it. On Friday, Mar. 22, in the Main Gym, any freshman student that has been present ninety percent of the time during second semester will be able to attend a “Beat the Blahs” carnival during their lunch period.
“I think a lot of times it is with the weather,” said Eiserman. “You also get this high from the holidays and everyone is kind of in a good mood, and a couple weeks after you have a couple Mondays off. Then all the sudden you hit mid February, and it is all a long haul till spring break.”
There are a lot of factors that go into the slump post-winter break. Instead of always punishing and having consequences for students, Eiserman chooses to use incentives like Fall Fest to motivate students, and now a new one called “Beat the Blahs.”
“We are going to rent a bunch of inflatables,” said Eiserman. “We are going to have a basketball hoop, we have got this knockout game, a wheel game, and bozo buckets. We are gonna have a big TV so students can watch the ‘March Madness’ game. We are gonna have a popcorn machine, and we are working with a new place in town, Rita’s Italian Ice.”
Mitchell Stengel, the Activities Director at MCHS, talks about the “Beat the Blahs” carnival, the planning behind it and how the incentive has worked so far.
“We decided what the prize would be, what businesses we want to loop in, and how we would get students motivated to want to be here,” said Stengel. “So far, it is succeeding, we have the most ninth graders on track and coming to school that this campus has ever seen.”
JR Bocian, a counselor at the Freshman Campus, gives advice for students feeling unmotivated during this time of year and says to work on what you can control.
“Keep it really simple,” said Bocian. “Keep three things that you are going to do today, whether that is on a checklist or just in your head, like, how you are going to focus your energy in terms of what you need to do and identify those things.”
A freshman student sits in their AIM, and Eiserman’s voice takes over the speakers again, “The “Beat the Blahs” carnival is today, I will see you down there!” He says. The student looks at the sticker on their ID, and smiles knowing that they have, in fact, Beat the “Blahs’’.