Sycamore stresses life skills
School project involves all in running 'city'

By Jamar Younger, From Arizona Daily Star, September 24, 2007

Sycamore Elementary students operate their own bank, make announcements on their own radio station and oversee their own judicial system.

A team of students visits classrooms each week to pick up recyclable items. Another group hands out citations to students who run down the walkway or walk on the grass.

The students are participating in Stinger City, a schoolwide project that began earlier this month to teach academics through real-life experiences.

The city is named after the school's mascot.

School officials modeled the concept after a social-studies project the school's fifth-graders took part in last year, said achievement teacher Darcy Mentone, coordinator of the project.

Mentone said she was involved in a similar concept five years ago when she was a fifth-grade teacher at Davidson Elementary School.

"When you tell them it is their job and the teacher is their employer, they start seeing school in a different way," she said.

Every student at Sycamore gets paid money, dubbed "Stinger Bucks," for academics and positive behavior. About 300 of the students sacrifice time during recess and after school each day to work various jobs on campus, ranging from reporters and advertising executives to attorneys and the judge who presides in the school's court.

The teachers receive $250 in Stinger Bucks a week and they pay students accordingly. Students with jobs get paid an additional $5, she said.

Mason Gasho, 10, applied for a managerial position at the school's radio station, which is actually the announcement system, because his grandfather and uncle were musicians, he said.

Mason, who is in fifth grade, writes his own scripts and makes announcements about school activities and lunch menus, a segment he calls "What's for Lunch with Mason."

"I've learned about how to make mac-and-cheese sound better," he said jokingly.

The radio station is still developing, as students continue to learn how to write scripts for advertisements, but Mason said he is satisfied with the progress so far.

"It's become bigger than it was supposed to be," he said.

Gregory Russell, 9, is the manager of the Stinger Store, which sells pencil sharpeners, fuzzy-tipped pens and fancy erasers, he said.

"I did not like stores until I found out all the stuff that happens," said Gregory, a fourth-grader.

He learned how to sell products and how to keep the employees happy, among other things, he said. "The managers have to be a part of it.

We have to help them out," he said.

He also is responsible for advertising.

Cheyenne Parton, 9, learned how plastic bottles and other items are used to make different products, she said.

"The carpet is made out of plastic," she said, pointing to the dark-colored carpet beneath her.

"Silk is made out of plastic. They actually melt it up into thin beads, then they melt the thin beads into a little square," said Cheyenne, who is in fourth grade.

The students attended a job fair held last month and went through an interview process with teachers who oversee the different jobs, she said.

"Instead of having one thing kids could do, they actually got to choose a job," Mentone said.

After the students were hired, they attended a series of training sessions after school over a two-week period where professional judges, attorneys, radio DJs and sales people came to the school to provide insight into their new careers.

In October, the rest of the school's roughly 770 students will have the opportunity to open their own businesses at school if they choose, Mentone said.

The school staff began planning the project last spring and began advertising and setting up Stinger City's economy during the first month of school, she said.

Staff members had to figure out all of the components of a real city before they could operate one, she said.

"There are things that we didn't understand," she said, such as the roles of different institutions, such as banks, courts and law enforcement.

"What does a bank need to do?" she asked.

"Getting involvement from the community was a really big thing."

The school received the most help from the Parent Teacher Association, which donated about $500 for the project, she said.

The school's city concept has created a more cohesive school environment, especially for after-school activities, said Principal Ken Graff. After-school clubs that typically would work in isolation can now work in conjunction with the city, he said.

For example, "We had student council, but now we can tie that into the government piece of Stinger City."

The project will continue beyond this year, he said.

"I think anytime we can provide kids with a real-world opportunity to show what they know, it's exciting."

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