Comm Club Q & A with Ashley Boone

Comm Club Poster. Photo by David LeDeaux '13. Copyright Red Cloud Indian School.

Comm Club Q & A with Ashley Boone

By David LaDeaux '13

The newest club of the after-school program is the Communication Club (Comm Club). This club was made to help students from different grades and classes communicate with each other and improve their communication skills. The students meet every Thursday after school in Ashley Boone’s class to take part in different activities and watch a variety of movies.

Q. Whose all in the club?
Ashley. It varies from week to week, but it is mostly juniors with a few sophomores

Q. When is the club?
Ashley. Thursdays after school. Some weeks it might switch, but that will be announced and stated on the signs.

Q. Where is the club?
Ashley. Ashley’s classroom

Q. What’s the point of the club?
Ashley. A lot of times students like watching and discussing movies, writing poetry, experimenting with drama and working on visual communication projects, but there just isn’t time in class, so we have fun with these kinds of activities. I’m also willing to proofread and help people with writing assignments for any classes they have.  

Q. How do you think it will work out?
Ashley. The turnout has been great so far.  Last week we had nine participants.  Although I want it to be student-driven, I am steering the club right now just to get it started.  

Q. Why is it called Comm Club?
Ashley. Communication is really important and it can be a lot of fun.  I didn’t want to just call it movie club or drama club or poetry club since it isn’t just one of those things, but all of them and they are all represented by the general idea of communication.  Comm club also sounds catchy.  Who knows, maybe we’ll change it in the future.

Q. What movies will you be watching?
Ashley. So far we’ve watched some slam poetry competitions, Tuesdays with Morrie and Chocolat.  In the future we might watch Beowulf, The Station Agent, Stranger Than Fiction, Freedom Writers and About A Boy.

Q. Who picked the movies and why?
Ashley. So far I’ve picked the movies, but that will change this week.  I picked them because I’ve seen them before and I think they are interesting and entertaining movies that most people at school probably haven’t seen and they would appeal to a diverse audience.  They also have interesting characters that are fun to discuss.  For example, watching Chocolat last week wasn’t just a random choice.  The film is centered around a town observing Lent, the Catholic observance currently taking place.  We didn’t just eat chocolate, but I also shared information with students about different kinds of chocolate, including fair trade organic chocolate, which means it pays farmers fair wages for their caco production and so they can use traditional methods and thus produce tastier chocolate!  Labeling the chocolate as fair trade and organic and sharing what these things mean is an aspect of communication that will make a huge difference to families around the world who earn a living by producing chocolate.

Q. How will you keep the club from getting boring?
Ashley. We’ll switch things up and do different activities.  Look for cool posters around school in the future!  We’ll also try to go on a trip to Chadron or Rapid City to see a live theatre performance.

Q. Will you keep the club going next year?
Ashley. I hope so!