The Door Decorating Contest returned to State High this past December, and State High teachers and students were challenged to spruce up their classroom doors with seasonal decor. Classes were urged to collaborate on festive door designs by Friday, Dec. 17. Winners were announced shortly after, and are as follows: 

1. Sheila Abruzzo/Jen Rand

2. Steve Klebacha

3. Autumn Moyer

4. Amanda Showers

5. Dagmar Wilson

Among the many teachers that participated in the contest were freshman English teacher Mrs. Dinsmore and Learning Enrichment teacher Ms. Abruzzo, with their respective classes. The classes that participated each had their own unique designs, ranging from designs that were representative of the individual course’s curriculum, or designs that depicted classic winter scenes.

“For our door, our class decided to depict a person wearing a State High jacket skiing down the side of a snow-clad mountain. We added fake snow, trees, snowflakes, and even strings of lights,” Dinsmore said.  

Classes like Abruzzo’s took aspects of their curriculum and put a seasonal twist on it. 

“‘The LEt it snow’ on the bottom of the snow globe was a nod to Learning Enrichment (LE) with the capital L and E. Our friendly competition down the hall with the other LE rooms and the business classes added a layer of fun,” Abruzzo said. 

The contest has every student pitch in and contribute to the decoration of their doors. Abruzzo reflected on the planning process of her classes’ door decorations and noted that it was primarily her students that led the project.

“This was totally my students’ idea—[they led the] planning and execution [of the door design]. I asked if they wanted to join the contest and they were super excited. They wanted to avoid anything that might be related to any specific holiday so they chose a snowman snow globe,” Abruzzo said. 

This contest that State High held was a great way to get students more involved and festive for the holidays. It gave students the opportunity to be creative and connect more as a class.

“My students were excited to brainstorm ideas and everyone in the class participated in some way during the process,” Dinsmore said. “On the day we decorated, we laughed and smiled a lot. I’m super proud of them and I love our door.”