Students had a chance for redemption at English Teacher Sherlyn Reafsnyder’s Salvation Saturday.

Salvation Saturday is a time when Mrs. Reafsnyder’s students can come to school on the weekend and do assignments and read to bring their grades up. Juniors flocked in droves to take advantage of the academic opportunity and bring their grades up.

Mrs. Reafsnyder explained how Salvation Saturday works.

“So many of my students, juniors, have body paragraphs or independent reading that they didn’t finish on time and their grades are behind,” she said. “They can get fifty percent credit in order to make those grades up but that still leaves them behind sometimes, even though they’ve done the work. So I’ll have a Salvation Saturday so that they come in and do the work and turn it in on that day. That’s a way of retrieving their grade.”

Mrs. Reafsnyder also talked about why she does it.

“I enjoy having kids learn, and that’s my out-the-window goal,” she said. “It’s not just ‘I want their grade to be good;’ I want them to have learned something.”

Mrs. Reafsnyder said she usually only does one Salvation Saturday a semester, so the one she did on December 3rd was a suprise. 

“I was only going to do one per semester, and then I had such a good turnout to the first one… and because they did such an awesome job, I said ‘Ok, I’ll do it one more time.’”

Junior Jayden Vigil talked about how Salvation Saturday helped his grade.

“It helped me a lot,” he said. “It helped me get my grades back up, and Mrs. Reafsnyder really helped, because she was there, always helping us.”

Vigil said Salvation Saturday was a positive opportunity for students.

“If they have Reafsnyder, usually she’s there to help, she will definitely help you get your grades up,” he said. “She will do multiple things that will make you understand something better.”

Another junior, Lukas Brodie, recommended students attend Salvation Saturdays.

“I would definitely recommend it if you’re having trouble in Reafsnyder’s class,” he said.

Brodie described what he did at the Salvation Saturday on December 3rd.

“It went really good for me,” he said. “I got like 4 assignments done. … I made up a lot of points.”

Anthony Crawford, a junior, had a definite opinion about whether he would attend a Salvation Saturday again or not.

“Yes I would (go again), and get that extra credit.”