The 2019 – 2020 school year is coming to a close. This means most students will have new electives. West Middle School has many electives to offer. Let’s take a look into a few electives, and find out what some of West’s most popular electives are.

One of the most popular electives at West is gym. Gym is taught by Mr. Wells and Mr. Almachy. Mr. Wells also teaches Health for 6th grade. He wants to influence good habits upon his students while teaching them important skills such as sportsmanship and teamwork. “I love [gym] because I can watch kids have fun and play,” Wells states. “I feel that a child needs to break away after sitting for 50 minutes in class.” He wants his elective to be a place where kids can be a little bit free, and have fun. However, he also tries to give them important knowledge of working together for later on in life, even if they don’t realize it at the time.

Another well-known elective is LME (Life Management Education), taught by Mrs. Bazzi. She also teaches PBL (Project-Based Learning). She loves both of her electives, and would not trade them for any other classes. “I like to teach LME because it tries to get students to learn skills for later in life.” In 6th grade, LME focuses on sewing and cooking. “Then, in 7th grade, you start thinking about careers, and in 8th grade, you typically learn a lot of more difficult skills for life and they also learn about caring for a baby.”

We interviewed an 8th-grade student, Frances Walewski. “I like that [the electives] are fun, and that they kind of break up the day instead of like, doing work and learning all day long, there’s something fun to kind break up the monotony,” Frances states. She tells us that her favorite elective is choir. She also explains that she would like to see some graphic design electives at West in the future.  

We also interviewed a 7th-grade student, Anna Gonzales. She tells us that her favorite elective is band, because, “…I have made many new friends there.” Anna enjoys electives because she thinks they are fun, and she has made a lot of friends. “I like being able to take a class where I can do what I love.”

What is your favorite elective? Are there any electives you would like to see at West in the future?  We would love to hear the opinions of West’s students’ favorite elective classes!