The Curriculum Fair took place on January 29, 2015 in the Commons Area. This event gave future and current students a chance to learn about the broad offerings of classes at the high school.

“The Curriculum Fair is an opportunity for all current students and future students to come and talk to teachers about course offerings for next year,” said Dr. Laura Inscoe, the Dean of Counseling and Student Services.“All courses and areas of electives will be represented.”

The Curriculum Fair also gave students a chance to see what the different courses are like.

“At the Curriculum Fair, it’s basically a showcase of each program area’s highlighted courses,” said Jodi Riedel, a Horticulture and Foods Technology teacher, “It’s like an advertisement.”

Fine Arts courses, such as Vocal Music, are introduced by the students who have taken the course.

“Generally I have two chorus students, generally my chorus officers, who come and read prospective students,” said Mullinax, the Chorus teacher, “so students know that it is a class, but also it is performance- related, meaning you get to do travel and do things outside of class.”

A certain course, such as Chorus, may offer classes depending on the students.

“Some classes are the same every year, such as English III or English IV,” said Mullinax, “Vocal Music is a little different. It depends upon which students who register for the class for what course I’m going to teach. If I have more advanced [female students], then I would do a Women’s Chorale that year.”

Students who learn about the courses offered at the Curriculum Fair also get a chance to apply their skills in a career.

“By taking my course, I am able to offer industry-recognized professional certifications by taking a forty-five minute certification test in class before they finish the semester,” said Butler, a Computers and Computer Services teacher, “As long as they are old enough to legally work, they could easily go out and get a job working at Geek Squad, Intrex Computers, or get an internship doing IT tech stuff.”

The teachers at the Curriculum Fair bring not only papers with information about courses, but also bring samples from the class.

“I always take plant material,” said Riedel, “I try to get the kids excited about taking Horticulture I. Once they take Horticulture I, they shuffle into other courses. I also tell kids about my Foods II class.”

According to Dr. Inscoe, taking different courses offered at the Curriculum Fair can also represent the diversity of Wakefield.

“We are having break-out sessions for AP and Pre-AP classes,” said Inscoe, “What we’re trying to do is allow more students to access more rigor in their schedule, and hopefully having break-out sessions to inform more parents about the things that we offer and the importance of taking rigorous courses will increase the diversity of students in the classroom.”

Overall, the Curriculum Fair can help to represent Wakefield’s diversity in the classrooms and in the school.

“I would hope incoming freshman, as well as rising sophomores, could get a decent idea of Wakefield offers class-wise,” said Butler, “We offer so many types of levels of core classes and can appeal to so many types of people, as well as tons of amazing elective courses.”