Last Wednesday as my Grade 11 & 12 Leadership students came into class I discovered that 1/3 of them were absent. I open up the attendance program to find that most of them are now on a 14 day quarantine. In Alberta if a positive case is found to have been in the school all the students and staff that were in that class must self quarantine for 14 days from the day of exposure. As of right now 400 students out of 1200 as well as 14 staff are quarantined. I support the quarantines to keep people safe. I think we do whatever we can to keep kids in school. But I am getting tired of all this. How about you?
Halloween dress up came two days later. Lots of kids dressed up. We gave away candy. We had a contest on Instagram to guess how much candy was in the jar and Who Da Boo with staff (staff hold a flashlight under their chin in the dark and you guess who they are). Kids were together and having fun. My highlight was when we asked students who were quarantined to send us pictures of their costumes so we could post them on Instagram too. We got some back and found a way to help keep them connected.
So, I will put my mask back on, pivot, and find a way to offer student leadership and connecting activities at Centennial High School. It is worth it.
Covid Friendly Leadership Activities
We put three different displays up in the school that weren’t too hard to do and got some great feedback.
Day in the life of a Coyote – a group took tons of pictures of students doing various activities around the school. They made sure they had permission to display them. They then put them on a banner and hung it up. The more pictures of as many kids as possible from as many different groups as possible the better. Connect the dots!
Custodian Appreciation – You leaf the school looking great – put up by the custodians office – on the leaves we had Leadership students write specific comments of thanks rather than just general stuff like “ You are great – Thx”
Recap and Upcoming Events – Highlights of what happened last month and what to look forward to
Birthdays – don’t have a birthday display yet? Great time to start
When you can’t have assemblies or lunch activities you pivot and find a new way. Turn the Rubik’s cube to find new possibilities. So put that mask back on and keep finding new ways to make kids’ lives better. You are awesome
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Brent Dickson 