ROME, GA— With five minutes to spare before the live broadcast began, West End Elementary sixth grader Alex Alvarez stood in the foreground of the WEETV lens as he practiced articulating his informative speech on professional Argentine football player and manager, Diego Maradona.
Once cameras were rolling for the WEETV morning announcements, Principal Dr. Dennis Drummond greeted the WEE community with much morning cheer as he introduced Alvarez and officially kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month on Sept. 15, 2022.
“Every morning on WEETV, we have one volunteer from each homeroom come up and share with us a Hispanic American that is special to them,” Drummond explained. “We’ve been doing this as long as I’ve been here. It’s something that’s really important to us, to celebrate the different cultures that attend West End.”
Gifted teacher Kathy Rogers assisted the students with cues throughout their broadcast of the morning announcements. While keeping an eye and ear open, she explained, “The students get to choose who they will present, and they are asked to write a paragraph about that person.”
She smiled as she explained that the goal is to inform the students schoolwide of as many individuals and impacts within Hispanic Heritage as possible.
After Alvarez finished his speech, Drummond informed viewers that Hispanic Heritage Week was introduced in 1968 and was later extended to a full month (Sept. 15 - Oct. 15) to celebrate the roles played and impact made by Hispanic people throughout history.
Drummond went on to highlight some of the activities happening at West End to further honor Hispanic Heritage including books displayed in the media center and special activities in music, art and STEM, not to mention the traditional Guatemalan dance performed by students at the Parent Teacher Organization meeting on Sept. 8.
“We also have what we call the Book of the Month,” he said. “All of the students at West End are reading books that celebrate Hispanic Heritage.”
As the students at WEE embarked on a new day, the month’s focus was set to continue to expand their breadth of knowledge on the ways in which the rich culture, history and contribution of Hispanic influence has enriched American culture.
Drummond smiled into the camera as he brought WEETV to a close for the morning, “We’re looking forward to a great day of learning, the time is now 7:45 a.m.”
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