A little over a week ago, we held our first Town Hall Meeting of the year. Each time we hold a Town Hall Meeting, we choose a topic for the entire school to think about and discuss. Last year’s topic was kindness, and this year we’re focusing on celebrating differences.
We’ve developed the tradition of opening our Town Hall Meetings with some joke-telling, and many of our students jumped at the opportunity to come up to the microphone and tell a joke to the rest of the school. Everybody’s repertoire of jokes should be much richer now!
After some laughs, students gathered in mixed-age groups, with every group including at least two students from each classroom. Staff members also joined a group, giving students the opportunity to spend time with a teacher that they might not see every day. Each group focused on one of the following three questions: What does it look like to have others accept and value me? What does it look like to accept and value others? Why is it important to value differences?
After everybody had time to discuss these questions and share personal stories in their groups, each group created a poster summarizing their discussion and then presented it to the rest of the school. We will be framing these posters and hanging them around school soon.
Finally, to end our Town Hall Meeting, we started a new tradition of holding an all-school sing-along. Elizabeth led us on her ukelele for two songs from our new McGuffey songbook: “I’m Not Lost, I Am Exploring” and “Count on Me.” Students and staff alike had a wonderful time coming together in song, and we’re looking forward to more all-school sing-alongs throughout the year.
