Middle School Gets Creative with Virtual Assemblies

March 4, 2022

Academics

GNS

When the school was forced to return to virtual assemblies, the Middle School administration quickly figured out some creative ways to keep the students engaged on Wednesday mornings. Students took part in various activities based on a variety of topics as a source of learning.

When students first came back from Winter Break, they worked on creating goals. Part of this process involved having them reflect on people they admire are doing to meet their goals.

“Everyone wants to talk about New Year’s Resolutions, so I started thinking maybe we should talk about our goals, but rather just about us, what do we see in other people we admire, so that they can be our inspiration for those goals,” explained Ms. Pagett, Middle School Vice-Principal.

During that assembly, students worked on a sole activity, where they were tasked to colour in a shoe and write down what they saw in other people.

“It’s about the idea of putting your best foot forward,” said Ms. Pagett. “It was a nice time for the students to sit, colour, be mindful and think about who they wanted to pay compliments to and what they wanted to achieve for themselves.”

The shoes can be seen throughout the Middle School as they are placed over the archways, acting as a reminder of the goals they set for themselves.

The Middle School celebrated Martin Luther King Jr Day in January, where they explored the IB Learner Profile Traits—Inquirer, Knowledgeable, Thinker, Communicator, Principled, Open-minded, Caring, Risk-taker, Balanced, Reflective and Persevering—and then selected which four traits they thought could best be connected to Dr. King.

“It had them thinking critically about what each of those traits means and then thinking about his story. They watched a video explaining the civil rights movement and his role and how important of a figure he is. So they had great conversations from that,” said Ms. Pagett.

The four most chosen traits were persevering, risk-taker, communicative and principled.

As a way to celebrate Black History Month, students viewed different videos about famous Black Canadians and different aspects of Black History through a national, regional and local lens. In their homeforms they then discussed four main topics and related them to the videos: challenges/struggles; contributions/accomplishments; inspiration/legacy and new learning.

“I think it was a good day. It caused students to be more mindful of history they should know,” said Ms. Pagett, who has also been putting up posters around the Middle School buildings to keep the conversation going.