During the October PD day, the idea of a winter concert was brought forth – an apparent tradition at Summer’s Corners, historically run by the music teacher. Given that all extra-curricular events had been put off during COVID, the school was eager to resume some of their traditional after-school activities. The only problem was that the music teacher was currently on leave and no one had volunteered to run the event.
On my drive home that afternoon it occurred to me that volunteering to run this event would be a great learning opportunity for me – and, given that I had none of the typical responsibilities of a classroom teacher at the moment, I had the time. And so, I volunteered to run the event!
I will not say that this experience was easy and smooth sailing; nothing ever is when you are trying to organize different people and ideas. This winter concert was definitely not what the school had experienced in the past, but it was a lot of fun and it turned out to be an excellent community-building event!
My first step with this process was to get organized – I needed to know what people were interested in participating, what kinds of things I needed to get in order, and then have a way to make sure that I stayed on top of everything. This is where my google drive came into use where I could store things such as google forms for staff input, posters to advertise the event, pictures for our slideshow, our trivia game, etc.
For the purposes of this event, I was a one-woman machine! There were several components that I wanted to include, and that others had shown interest in being involved with. Our assembly had several different ways for students and staff to participate:
- We had some perform live in either a singing performance or a dramatic reading
- We had two brave solo artists singing a song
- We had the music teacher lead us in a ukelele sing-along of some well-known Christmas carols
- We had others pre-record a reading of a story which we played during the assembly
- We had a winter holiday trivia game – the questions for which were derived with the help of an intermediate class. Each class answered the questions and the winning classes received a Hot Chocolate Party complete with hot cocoa, marshmallows, candy canes and sweet treats
- We had a picture slideshow where we showcased all kinds of student fun and learning in the winter season
Another way in which classrooms could be involved was to create some artwork to help decorate the gym space for the assembly. Below is a video that I took of the space after some grade 8 students helped me to put up all the artwork the day before.
Despite all the trials and tribulations; all of the roadblocks and expectations, it was all worth it for me when the assembly went off without a hitch and the students presented me with a giant card thanking me for all of my hard work. This was the kind of experience that I had hoped to create for the school community and to take part in for my professional growth. It was not easy pulling all of these elements together, but the result was worth it because everyone had an awesome time!
