Before the year started, we decided that
teachers would meet weekly on Tuesdays while students were in all school
assemblies from 2:25-3:05 (the end of the school day). With this decision came the question,
how do we organize all school assemblies?
Preparing for all school assemblies is a
mighty task. Some questions needed to be answered. Who will be responsible for
the assemblies? How will the students sit in the assembly? Where will they put
all of there stuff for dismissal? What will dismissal look like after the
assembly?
In the last blog, I shared that the
guidance counselor had agreed to do two assemblies a month, the music teacher
another assembly a month, and the teachers the other assembly each month.
Originally, the idea was that we would do things in the assembly to improve
behavior and discipline. Our guidance counselor incorporates this in to her
lessons, and we incorporate it into the other assemblies as well. We have had a
lot of guest speakers come to assemblies including a town judge, a probation
officer, a fireman, a museum guide, 4-H leader, and many others. The teacher
led assembly has so far been a guest speaker every time. This allows the
teachers the flexibility to continue on with their Teacher Based Team work
rather than having to attend the assembly.
Getting 350 students in a gym all sitting
on the floor can be quite a task. I drew out a map of where students should put
their book bags and coats in the hallways before coming into the gym. The first
day was a little hairy. We made adjustments to what made sense, and my original
map went into the circular file.
Let’s skip ahead to dismissal. How can we
make sure the four staff members we have can dismiss all of these students and
be outside to cover bus duty and parent pick-up? Well, we recruited the
after-school care program manager who happened to be in the gym waiting to set
up her program. She agreed to help us dismiss children by groups using the
microphone while the other teachers took their places at the bus lines, a
parent pick-up point, and in the hallway. Here are some problems to avoid that
we learned through trial and error. Make sure the other teachers are where they
need to be before students are dismissed, and make sure that the hallway
monitor is in a central location, so all boys and girls understand they are to
walk in the hallways. It turns out we needed to recruit the school nurse to
step out in the hallway and help with monitoring students walking in the
hallway on their way out of the building. Oh, and did I mention review with
boys and girls that they need to walk in the hallways.
Now, let’s rewind to the actual assemblies.
The behavior of the students in the weekly all school assemblies were exceptional
at the beginning of the school year. Students were commenting on how much they
were looking forward to what the next assembly might be. We enjoyed the honeymoon
period (while it lasted). As time went on, some students began to test
boundaries. We decided to have a pullout room for students who were showing us
they could not participate well in the assemblies. These students were to write
apology letters while they were out of the assembly. As time progressed, it was
apparent that this was not enough of a deterrent for a portion of our boys and
girls.
The teachers operating the assemblies came
to me with some great ideas they had to help our boys and girls along. So, I
shared with the boys and girls that if they need to be pulled out of the assembly
they would be seeing me the next morning, and they would be receiving a
consequence. We reviewed the form that would be used and explained that the
more times a boy or girl is pulled out of the assembly the greater the
consequence would be. Of course, we shared that there would be rewards for
classes that did a good job in the assemblies. Happy to report, the guidance
counselor said that everything was “100% better.”
As a principal, I knew that I needed to
support the teachers who are helping with the assemblies. Without their work,
Teacher Based Teams would not be happening on a weekly basis. We may need to
adjust our work again; and so, it’s important to keep the lines of
communication open.
The guidance counselor and the music
teacher do a great job helping me with flexibility. When we had a guest speaker
call out sick, the guidance counselor had a back up assembly ready to go.
Another great reason to say thank you ask much as possible.
The general lesson with weekly all school
assemblies is to think ahead as much as you can. Have a system of consequences
and rewards ready to go from the start. Finally, understand that you will need
to learn from your mistakes and make adjustments as necessary.
In the next blog, I will share how
intervention was organized in each grade level.
