Every week, each campus at Arrowhead Union High school–both South and North–hold drawings for the Word of the Week (WOW) program.  WOW runs weekly with a different word and features prizes for students who hear or see the word and subsequently fill out an entry form in the library.

English Teacher Terri Carnell says, “We started the WOW program in our Reading PCT [professional collaboration time] that meets the first Wednesday of the month.  We felt that implementing a school wide initiative for vocabulary would assist with comprehension and start the conversation about the importance of words, even if they were words kids were familiar with.”

The WOW program also has variety of rewards. The next three weeks feature tolerance t-shirts from the world language departments campaign.  Students can also win Arrowhead spirit wear, gift cards, or punch cards, says Carnell.

By going to the library, students can pick up a slip by the WOW box and fill it out.  At the end of the week, a person will be randomly selected and on Monday the winner will be announced during regular morning announcements.

“We had over 750 students [enter the contest] last year, so it is gaining momentum each year,” says Carnell.

“We have two winners at each campus per week.  Then, at the end of the year, we had a drawing for all of the students who had not won during the year.  So, we ended up with another 32 winners, giving away movie passes, gift cards, and spirit wear,” says Carnell.

That’s over 100 winners throughout the year.

“The rewards are usually punch cards good for four items at the Arrowhead businesses: the Union at South, the Trading Post, Cafe’ Arrowhead, and the Coffee Shop,” says Carnell.

“If one in nine people win stuff, I might try it next week,”  says senior Connor Lindquist.

If any students, staff or parents have any items they would like to donate to the WOW program, see Carnell for more details.

“Last week Gwen Jorgensen donated items from her sponsor as well as autographed pictures,” says Carnell.

Jorgensen donated those items in support of the first Word of the Week: endurance. Jorgensen is an Olympian and daughter of AHS teacher Nancy Jorgensen and sister of AHS teacher Elizabeth Jorgensen.

“Red [WOW] slips are located in both libraries next to the WOW dropbox on the circulation desk.  There is also a link on the WOW Google doc which is found on the AHS home page,” says Carnell.