I like to try and set a goal for myself every year or with each new job regarding something specific that I’d like to work on as my career progresses. In the case of my role as an Itinerant Teacher, I knew that my focus would need to be outside of the classroom as I would not have a classroom of my own. This is how I decided that my goal this year would be to involve myself in creating and participating in the school community through extracurricular activities. I had not had the opportunity to be involved in clubs, teams or school events previously because my entire career so far had occurred through the various stages of COVID-19 restrictions.
October Family Night
This event was the first school-wide activity of the year – and, for some families, this would be their first time entering the building and meeting the staff given the previous 3 years of COVID. This was also the pilot year for the BRIDGES program and so it was a wonderful time for families to come into the school, meet the administrators and their child’s teacher and to see their child’s classroom. Because I did not have a homeroom as an Itinerant Teacher it was voluntary for me to attend the event, however, I thought it important to be there because I was hoping to become an important part of every student’s school experience. I was given the task of standing by the school entrance and welcoming everyone who came into the building. I was also supervising the “Parent Council” table where interested parents could sign up to be a part of volunteer school events. This was an excellent opportunity to meet parents and begin making connections in the community.
Winter Assembly
I am not going to go into much detail here regarding this event because there is a whole section of my website dedicated to the in’s and out’s of planning this event, but I did want to mention it here because it was one of the most important community building events that I took on this year. The school had historically done a winter concert every year and it was run by the music teacher who was also in charge of the various school bands. For a variety of reasons, this was not possible this year and so they needed someone else to volunteer if the event was going to occur at all. While the finished product may not have been entirely what the school had been used to, I am extremely proud of what we pulled off. This event was entirely my “baby” and I took responsibility for organizing every aspect of the event. I hope that you check out the page about this event because it is something that I will remember forever!
Yoga Club
Back in September, the administration had circulated a “staff involvement” sign-up sheet for anyone who might be interested in running a club. At the time I had signed up for a “Yoga Club” because yoga is something that I myself practice on a daily basis and I knew that I had the resources to do so. And so, our lunchtime Yoga Club began! We put up a sign-up sheet in the school and had so much interest that we actually needed to divide it into a grades 1-4 club which met with a different teacher and a grades 5-8 club which met with myself and a colleague in the Library. We met every Wednesday during the first 20 minutes of lunch recess (we were on a traditional day schedule at the time) and we would roll out our yoga mats and follow along to a Yoga with Adrienne youtube video curated by myself. What was particularly lovely about this yoga club was that our consistent members were mostly students from our DE class – students who might not find themselves joining other clubs and sports teams. I loved that our little yoga club became a space for students who struggled to belong!
Open House Scavenger Hunt
In the spring of 2023, our school decided to host an Open House for families to come in and explore our school. This was also an opportunity for our Grade 8 students to raise some money for their graduation trip. Some teachers decided to open their classrooms and have activities for families to engage with, but seeing as I did not have a classroom in my Itinerant Teacher position, I came up with the idea of doing a school-wide scavenger hunt. I worked alongside another LTO teacher in our building to create this fun, engaging event for everyone who came into the building.
The Setup
During the Event
The Prizes
