At most schools, teachers toss students' paper airplanes in the trash. But West Hall Middle School teacher Beverly Walters champions students who make the most aerodynamic paper airplanes.
The fun happens during West Hall Middle's Patriot Power Hour — the first class of the day, where students' interests are matched with teachers' passions. The result is an hour of guided exploration where students discover how the lessons they learn in science, language arts or math can be applied to real-world jobs.
Both students and teachers say they are invigorated by the opportunity to learn and teach what they want.
"We just don't have any students who arrive tardy, because they are ready for power time to power the mind," said West Hall Middle School Principal Sarah Justus.
While Walters' class studies aerodynamics, Pamela O'Connell's class is temporarily turned into a newsroom that publishes The Patriot Times every other week. Jeffrey Williams' students are mapping out the needs of future cities, and Carl Phillips' class is designing robots. Other kids are pursuing their interests in math competition, creative writing, poetry, Web design or international studies.
Justus said students and staff were surveyed last year to gauge their interests. Teachers were asked what they would like to teach to help students realize real-world problem solving in a global society. Students were then given options and were assigned a power hour class based on their interests.
Walters' first period class, which happens to be a room full of boys, made gliders to test the laws of physics. Gainesville pilot Tom Smiley recently shared with the group his experiences from inside the cockpit.
Smiley taught students about how a pilot navigates a plane using visual and instrumental flight rules. He pointed out the "victory line," an eight-mile-wide invisible skyway that is a clear shot for pilots between cities.
"If you stay on that line, you won't run into anything. That's important to know," he told students.
Smiley said he hopes to fan the spark for any students who have an interest in becoming a pilot.
"I hope what really will help them is that until I was in college I had never been in a plane or even seen one except in the sky," he said. "So no matter what you might not know about flying now, it can still be your dream."
Just down the hall from Walters' class, kids are writing articles, selling subscriptions and designing pages for The Patriot Times.
O'Connell teaches eighth-grade language arts and the newspaper class.
"They're moving all over the place. It is kind of chaotic in here, but they're learning real-life skills," she said. "It is reinforcing what they're learning in other classes. They're learning how you can use math in real life, how you can use writing in real life."
Kyle Byrne, a West Hall eighth-grader, is the sports editor for the school newspaper. He said the first period class is his favorite.
"We get to choose what we want to do," he said. "We get to interview people about sports, what they're doing in class."
O'Connell said the excitement is contagious.
"This is the most fun class I've ever taught, really," O'Connell said. "There's no grade attached so they don't have the pressure of earning a grade. I see more quality work because of that. They want something their classmates are going to want to read."