The BC Teachers’ Council (2019) defines Standard 8 as “Educators contribute to the profession.”
Hosting the Halloween Assembly
I chose to take on hosting my school’s Halloween assembly this year. Instead of developing the ideas myself and assigning students different roles within the assembly, I developed the assembly and the necessary preparations for it into a unit in Career Education.
Over the course of the six weeks proceeding the assembly, my Grade 6 students worked together in small groups to research different elements of the Halloween assembly, write the script, decide whether we should have a costume parade, and practice their lines. Through this process they learned valuable project-management, collaboration, and planning skills. They were very excited to have the opportunity to contribute to their school community and take ownership of their role in the process! Many of them bought in to the process and in the end, the majority of them volunteered for a speaking role in the assembly.
It is still a work in progress and I am excited to see it all come together on October 31.
I think it is important to contribute to the school community and make an effort to show your students why it is important to be an active member of the community. Even more impactful than showing them why it is important, is showing them how it can be done. This process was a way to demonstrate those values through action.