On April 20th, twenty-five students from Spotswood High School went to Howell High School to ‘shadow’ other students for the day. Several weeks previous, twenty-five students from Howell came to Spotswood for a day. The Lead for Diversity Club and several other clubs and leadership classes around the country participate in the School Swap every year; the schools are paired up differently each year. Spotswood’s Lead for Diversity Club and Howell’s Peer Leadership class were the organizations participating this year.
The Spotswood students were freshmen through seniors, and the Howell students were all seniors. However, this did not affect the atmosphere of the school negatively. On both days, the host school started with an icebreaker to get to know the people in the group. At Howell, everyone was friendly and had a good time playing “interruptions,” a game when a person stands in a circle and talks about something until someone interrupts them and continues the conversation. People in the swap enjoyed a breakfast provided by Howell with various types of bagels. The students really enjoyed getting to know people from another school and made many new friends. Most students are staying connected with their friends from the opposite school by means of Facebook or phone.
At the school, Spotswood students attended the classes and did everything a Howell student does on a typical day. The classes ranged greatly, from different levels of math, English, and history, to audio/video classes and acting. The peer leadership class was especially interesting because so many students from both schools were in the same room. They watched videos of a competition similar to our “Mr. Spotswood” and played interviewing games where students were asked random questions by their peers.
The School Swap made the students aware of stereotypes of their school and what they might think of other schools. Howell was much bigger, and everyone in Spotswood loved the fact it had windows. But the people in it were the same. They were all high school students curious about others. It really made the students appreciate their school more. The Howell students are thankful for their auditorium and windows, and the Spotswood students are thankful for the smaller environment where everyone knows each other, and that we can listen to our MP3 players at lunch (for the time being). In all, it was an experience that the advisors and students benefited from.