Monday, October 20, 2014

School Spirit

In the hustle and bustle of covering massive amounts of content, we tend to forget that we are working with KIDS.  It would be lovely to think that the math concept that we poured our heart and soul into teaching would be the lasting memory of these kids, but the memories that these young ones will retain are of the things that occur outside of our instruction. Teachers sometimes forget that they were once, too.

We recently ended "Spirit Week" for our school. One day, we had hat day. Another day was wacky Wednesday, where students wore outfits that creatively expressed their interpretation of crazy. The students got to have a pep rally the day before our Homecoming game, and the culmination of the week was a dance held on Friday.

My 6th grade students in first period designed and created my door. I think they did an outstanding job!


Although I think our Spirit Week was fantastic, the purpose behind my post is much different. If you want kids to "buy in" to our school environment, you must provide them ways to create a vested interest in the day to day happenings. For some of the kids that darken your doorway, their life at school is the only chance they get to redesign who they want to be. Some of the kids that come to school have lives that require them to grow up too quickly, so it is vitally important that we allow our students time to "be kids."

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