Dress up in ridiculous costumes to show school pride during Spirit Week.
Photo credit: Flickr CC user Kentucky County Day
It’s homecoming week here on the Treering blog, and I can’t talk football and dances and tailgating without bringing up another tried and true homecoming tradition: Spirit Week.
As a teacher or adviser, it’s up to you to help keep spirit morale up and encourage your students to get involved in the fun times–even if they seem resistant. Trust me–they’ll thank you in 20 years when they’re browsing through their yearbook and laughing over those hilarious group shots of them and their friends dressed up as an ‘80s hair band in an amazing yearbook spread.
Different schools tackle this tradition in different ways. For example, my high school spirit committee made sure you didn’t forget for a second that it was homecoming week. Every year we would have five themed costume days (usually coinciding with Halloween) and five spirit assemblies throughout the week leading up to the big game. Students loved it. Inevitably, one day was always pajama day, which was awesome. You could just roll out of bed, theoretically at least. I’m pretty certain most of us still took time to get ready. Even the teachers and administrators let down their hair on these days–metaphorically and literally–and had some fun with us students.
Campuses show their school spirit in many different ways. Some, like my alma mater, encourage costumes, while others use the week to volunteer for different community organizations, have team building assemblies, or come up with different ways to get the entire student body to band together for the cause.
No matter how your student body celebrates their spirit, it’s important that the yearbook committee is right there in the daily action–documenting events for the archives and a great yearbook spread. Not only are students making memories, but by showing pride in their school they’re creating important bonds as well as making the school day more fun for everyone (you included).
I always loved seeing different groups of people come together during this unique week to take pictures and complement each other on their costumes. There’s a certain level of bonding that can only occur when everyone is dressed up as their favorite cartoon character during fourth period chemistry.
As a yearbook adviser, it’s up to you to be on top of Spirit Week coverage. See if you or one of your students can sit in on a student council or social committee and get the inside scoop on what’s in store for the week. Talk with your student body president and ask them how much planning goes into each event and how they come up with each theme. Do the themes have to be approved by the higher ups? How many people get to vote? Pick their brains and get a sense of the entire process.
During the actual week make sure a staff photographer is on-hand to document all the events–from the crazy costumes to assembly antics. Make sure they keep track of everyone’s names, ages, and school year along with each photo so that everyone is properly ID’ed within the yearbook.
Go, team, go!
