This year the middle school decided to change things up with the PAWS program. This year we are doing the Freedom Cup! The way this works is each homeroom was assigned a color based on what the teachers voted for and the students voted on a mascot. We  had an assembly about the Freedom Cup on Sept. 2. That is when we talked about which houses we were in. We also talked about how we can earn points the rules of the Freedom Cup, along with the rules of the school. Dr. Ryan Smith, FMS principal, then announced that we will be doing other activities such as tie- dying shirts to match your house’s color.  Mascots were revealed based on the winning vote.

The way to win the Freedom Cup is to earn points. There are a few ways you can do that: you can wear your team color when we have house color days, you can make honor roll, and trade in PAWS cards for points as well as perfect attendance. Everyone is able to earn points all throughout the year up until Olympic Day. 

“We are hoping that this is something that all the kids can get excited about,” Ms. Emily Rickard, PAWS team member, said.  

The biggest reason the middle school went with this model is because we want to involve all grade levels and get everyone excited about school. So to get everyone to participate the PAWS  committee turned it into a competition. 

That way there is more incentive to make good choices. This has also worked in other schools so Freedom is hoping that it will work here as well. 

“I think that it’s really fun and a lot of kids are excited about it,” Lincoln Murphy, fifth grader, said.

A lot of students are really excited about the change. Even though there are a few students that don’t like the Freedom Cup the majority of people like this a lot more than PAWS. They also think that kids will want to make better choices because they will want PAWS cards. We are sure more activities will follow as we continue with the Freedom Cup. Be sure to participate and get involved!