Kinkaid Middle School-Southwest Region Highlight School for November

Houston's Kinkaid Middle School has been named ADL's Highlight School of the Month, mainly for its participation in Mix It Up At Lunch Day.   

Kinkaid teacher Gene Festa called the event "a big success" and said "the kids loved it!" The middle school students took different approaches to mixing it up at lunch.  Fifth and sixth graders mixed it up with other students on their grade levels.  Seventh and eighth graders mixed it up between the two grades. 

Festa says the results were "a lot of ongoing conversations" and interactions. Seventh and eighth grade students helped move the conversations along with a sheet of questions left on the lunch tables for their peers to discuss.  The questions included: "What’s your favorite music?  What’s your favorite movie?"

Fifth and sixth grade students helped each other interact and learn about different languages by giving each lunch table a language and having the students practice some words and phrases in that language. Students were dismissed from lunch table by table after each table was able to stand up and yell "Hello," in its assigned language. 

Kinkaid students also were asked to wear crazy, mismatched socks to celebrate Mix It Up at Lunch Day, and many of them did.

For such a creative approach to Mix it Up at Lunch Day, ADL's Southwest Region awards its Highlight School of the Month designation to Kinkaid Middle School.  All schools achieving the Highlight School of the Month designation will be entered in a raffle for No Place for Hate® party at the end of the school year.  If you'd like your school to be a Highlight School of the Month, call the ADL's Southwest Regional Office at 713-627-3490.