World Language and Culture Night Changes Theme for Fourth Year
April 1, 2019
Every year, Manitou Springs High School plans an event called World Language and Culture Night (WLACN). This night is primarily for students in language classes—at every level— to pick a topic relating to a different country and create a presentation. While in the past the themes of the presentations have revolved around important historical figures, this year the presentations had a contemporary highlight. These projects are presented to parents and teachers, but most importantly to judges. The language teachers of the school– Terrence Batson, Alice Stoneback and Amy Rodearmel– prepare their students for weeks so they can know their presentation to the best of their ability.
On the evening of March 20th, many students, parents and teachers attended WLACN. As the night went on, many visited the variety of food trucks right outside as the students finished their presentation rotations. People had many different choices of food to choose from, like crepes, Jamaican food, Mexican food and cupcakes. Aside from the food trucks, the attendees could visit the UCCS Language Department’s table. Next to them, MSHS had their foreign exchange students available for people to ask them questions about their home countries. At the start of the event, there was a performance which included Bali wood dancers, a drum circle and the Spanish and French classes.
When the performance finished, students in rotation A were assigned to go to their table and start presenting to anyone who came up to them. Then, rotation B and rotation C presented at their assigned time. For the Spanish classes, each student had to base their presentation on the comparison and contrast of America and a Spanish country. For the French classes, the students had to connect their project to French-speaking countries in any way they wanted. Each level of class in each language had a difficulty level based on how much of the language they have taken.
For many students, this night brings a lot of stress as they try to prepare, but for senior Byrd McCarley, WLACN was easy and breezy. McCarley said, “WLACN was successful, a little scattered at times but overall a success.” McCarley has been involved in WLACN every year of his high school career as he has been in both Spanish and French.
As this stressful event comes to an end, many students receive grades reflecting their performance and their use of time. Teachers and students prepare themselves for next year’s annual World Language and Culture Night.
