The competition is heating up at St. Dominic High School for March Madness! Two of our ecstatic teachers, Spanish teacher Profesora Guzman and history teacher Mrs. Newton, have decided to take the traditional idea of the March Madness competition and come up with their own challenges for students. Let’s take a look at what this month full of competition looks like.

Mrs. Newton has come up with the brilliant idea of hosting a challenge that is not only fun for our crusaders, but brings loads of nostalgia. Mrs. Newton’s B4 class came up with different brackets of Disney movies, ranging from princess, old-school, and musicals. The students then passed on the brackets to the remainder of classes that Newton teaches to be voted on.

“It started with a simple discussion on which movie was better—Beauty and the Beast or Tangled—and my B4 students took it and ran with it. They had a group discussion on the initial pairings, and my classes have been voting ever since,” Newton said.

Yet, our crusaders who learn and elaborate the language of Spanish have also been having a blast this March. Mrs. Guzman has worked diligently alongside Spanish teacher Mrs. Phillips to allow these honor students an exciting opportunity to relax, enjoy the class, and debate along with their peers.

Starting in the beginning of March, Mrs. Guzman and Mrs. Phillips have joined a national competition to choose the best Spanish song.  At the beginning of every Spanish class, students listen to two brand new songs followed by a vote and debate on which song was better. Despite the variety of genres, all of the songs are in Spanish, and sung by both famous Spanish singers and some new up and coming artists.

The song with the most votes at the end of class is then moved up higher in the bracket to later compete against the other winners. Mrs. Phillips covered a wall in the lower 400’s with a large bracket to keep crusaders updated. There is even a QR code for students and teachers to listen to the winning songs!

“I love this idea for March Madness because we walk in every day, hear a brand new song, and it is a lot of fun for our whole class to decide which song is the winner of that day,” senior and Honors Spanish four student Ava Kinsella said.

Finally, family time for the crusader family has been spiced up with a “quiz bowl” that started the first week of March. Students were provided 20 questions ranging from subjects like history, science, riddles, and pop culture. Each family then created a strong team who would continue to represent the family throughout the bowl and fight for house points.

The crusader family is diving deeper into March Madness than ever before and there has been nothing but positive feedback and smiling faces. It allows our crusaders to be intrigued and invested in the competitions and make guesses on what will win while growing closer with one another. Stay tuned to see what movie, spanish song, and quiz bowl challenger will come out on top this March Madness!