Please forgive my lack of sympathy as this conversation was taking place. I didn't feel well. But after he left I began to think... what about those kids who want to play but don't have a group to join. How can we change how we pick the students who get to participate in our activities? We want to mix the social cliques up.
My Idea: Buy gold and blue beads. Hide them under the benches and ask students to find them. Those who find the beads get to participate. Now.... this would only work once in a while. We couldn't do it every week. I am afraid kids will get hurt searching for the beads. There are details that need to be worked out but its an idea.
Your post this week needs to answer the question above: How can we change how we pick the students who participate in our activities? It should not be a one sentence answer. Think about it thoroughly. Remember... its just an idea.
Posts are due by Friday, 9/23 at midnight.
I believe that maybe each teacher with C period class on Fridays of Spirit Days can choose 1-2 people to play games and they would get a sticker or something that represents they were chosen to participate. This way, the kids with no one willing to be on their team will get a chance. Also, teachers with C period belong to a certain Bear Team, which means winning Spirit games can mean winning points for their team as well.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to add that I saw the kids and I wanted to help them, but everyone seemed so busy. There were two kids without teams who seemed to be "outcasts" and I said you need teams to play, and they walked away. I thought it was pretty sad and I hope this idea can help.
To be honest, I saw the boy that wanted to play. He kept raising his hand in the back, but I guess you didn't see him. He kept raising his hand, so I thought he had a question. If I had known, I would've went and teamed up with a group including the boy. Reading this blog post made me realize that people are being left out just because they don't have friends, or friends in that lunch. I don't think the beads are a bad idea, but I don't think it's the best idea either. I have a few ideas in mind. I think we should allow students from homerooms with the most Spirit Count should be allowed to participate in our games. Also, we should have a specific bear team with the most spirit be allowed to participate in activities. We can also promote our school spirit by having a "Most Spirited" contest each week. Every activity, we will choose a group that is showing school spirit the most. For example, painting their hair, wearing most Spirit clothes, etc.
ReplyDeleteI think we should let all the people that want to participate in the spirit day activity in one big group & then all the leadership kids would split them up into smaller groups. Also, we can have more games so more people can play and won't be sad about not getting picked. For example, we could have 2 rounds of a game and then a championship.
ReplyDeleteI think that the bead idea is good. But, I think that everyone trying to find beads under the benches at the same time would be crazy and someone would get hurt.
I didn't see the boy. But I have realized the issue of students who don't have friends being left out. Possibly, maybe we can require them to have atleast 2 people they don't know join their group. Also, there are those who just sit back and watch the spirit games, maybe we can include them, and mix it up. We can also get the normal, usual teams to come up. But after that, we swap people around. Also, I noticed that there are the usual people that always want to play, but there are sometimes a few new people, who want to try the spirit game out. I think instead of just choosing people right in the front. We choose (first priority) who looks new, and doesn't usually play a spirit game. There can also be spirit games where you just have to get a completely random person you don't know.
ReplyDeleteI think we should have all the people that want to be in the spirit day event go to the edge of the blacktop. Then, leadership kids will pick students and take them to the stage area.WE'LL split them into teams and divide the schools "groups" into different teams. This will help everyone to meet new friends and work together.
ReplyDeleteThe bead idea isn't bad. But, some aggressive people will be willing to push others to find the beads.
Instead, we could go into the crowd and pass out beads to people.
I saw the boy raising his hand, I felt bad for him. People who don't have friends are being left alone. Maybe we could gather up those people and form a group for them. So they have friends and have fun. As Jacqueline said leadership members should pick the people who want to participate. This gives them the chance to make friends or meet new people.
ReplyDeleteThe bead idea is not bad, but not great either. People who are so dedicated to the spirit days might be aggressive. So some people could get injuries and have a hard time trying to find a bead going through the crowd of people.
I think that every time we have a spirit day, we shouldn't always pick the same people we pick every week. Leadership students should help pick out people who want to participate. We should pick others who have never been picked on. But, if they have requested to play, but don't have enough people in their team, leadership students should be able to join in their team. Or, we could try and tell students to pair up with people they don't really know, instead of their usual friends.
ReplyDeleteI saw the boy raising his hand & I felt bad for him because he didn't have a team. I think to prevent that, leadership could students could pick participants, as Jacqueline said. But we would tell the students to be in groups of 2, if possible. So when we chose participants we could chose the students who are in groups of 2 and the students who are alone, but want to play in the game. Choosing the students who want to play depends on how many students are needed to play the spirit day game.
ReplyDeleteThe bead idea is not bad but aggressive people may hurt other students. I think if we apply the "Hands Off" rule then the bead idea would be okay to prevent someone from getting hurt. If the student(s) was shoving or pushing someone then they wouldn't be able to participate in the spirit game.
Well first of all, I think spirit day is a great way for people to make new friends, create school spirit, and form a more school wide bond. Despite that, a lot of people enjoy spirit day because they get to participate with their friends. I think some people won't be very happy if they are separated from their friends. Anyways, if the people that don't have teams are paired up with the more "aggressive" people, they still might be left out. However, I do agree with Jackie's idea. If we can pick the teams then we can make sure everyone has a team. This way we can mix the groups and have people make new friends. This is also a good idea because we can make sure the participants have someone they are comfortable with on their team. Another thing is I think we should have more than one round. This way, people who didn't get to play the first time may get to play the second time. I have noticed that the people who participate in spirit activities are mostly the same people very week. So, we should pick the people who don't always come out to play the games.
ReplyDeleteLastly, I do not like the bead idea very much. One of my main concerns is that people may get hurt. Also, I don't the more shy people probably won't want to get pushed around by others or get involved with all the excitement (or madness...) when people are looking for the beads. I am also concerned that people will try to take the beads that other people found and this might result to a fight.
I have noticed that the most people that participate are the "popular" kids. I have noticed some of the "loner" kids (excuse my use of loner) have been trying to participate, but they don't actually get into teams.
ReplyDeleteAbout the bead idea, I really think it will hurt people when they bend over and look up at the bottom of benches. But then, if we put the beads in obvious places, people will fight over them, so that's out of the question. I think that usually, on Spirit Days, we ask kids to wear Spirit Shirts and stuff. I was thinking about if the people who are wearing Spirit Shirts and are willing to participate in the activity, we can group them by the shirts. Then we could encourage more people to wear Spirit Shirts, because: A.) You earn points for your team, and B.) You can participate in the activity and possibly win a prize.
During the spirit day activity, I saw the boy. First, he asked a group of people if he could be in their group. I didn't hear their reply because I was on the stage. He kept on raising his hand to be picked, but he wasn't sitting in a group. To keep this kind of thing from happening, I think that we should pick individuals from a crowd, and make them into a team. So, it's like we choose their team for them. This suggestion doesn't have to happen all the time, because some people want to participate in our spirit activities with their friends. We can use this idea every once in a while, like because the spirit days are every other week, we can do it this week, and then the next week, we can have their own chosen groups.
ReplyDeleteFor the bead idea, it's not a bad suggestion, but it can turn out in a bad way. People who want to play the spirit day activity really bad, might do anything to get to play, like pushing somebody so that they could get the bead instead. I was thinking that maybe a few students from the Leadership class, can go into the crowd inconspicuously, and hand out beads, or something like the beads, or, to include people who don't usually play, we can go into the foyer and hand out beads to random people to that they can enjoy some fun.
I wish I would have seen the boy because I would have been more then willing to form a team with him. These kind of things may happen a lot without us knowing so I am glad we are going to try and fix this problem. I think that the bead idea isn't bad, but I think it can go bad. I think this because I can see kids running looking under seats trying to get the beads, and there could be LOTS of pushing and shoving.
ReplyDeleteSo I think we should maybe call on people individually and then put them into teams. We do not have to do this on all spirit days, but we should give it a try to see the outcome. Also maybe we could pick groups normally where they already have their groups then after ask if someone wants to play, but doesnt have a group. Then whoever raises there hand we can join them together or us leadership students can form a team with them.
I wish that I could of seen the boy. Many things can happen without us knowing. I think that the bead idea is a bad idea because many students can get hurt. Also there will be a lot of pushing and shoving.
ReplyDeleteI think that we should give the people who wants to join in the game the beads and we chose what team they will be in. Then the loner people ( sorry for calling them loner) will be able to join and hopefully make friends. Or if someone who wants join in the game and doesn't have a group/team that we can join in there team so that they can participate.
During the spirit days many students are eager to participate in the activity and I see that the students pick the people closest to them to be on their team. Usually the people around them are their friends. I think that before each spirit day there should be a list of the different kinds of people that could be on one team like find someone with long hair, find someone with glasses, or find someone sitting alone too shy to ask to be on a team. Its like a treasure but finding common people. Then after they find their team they could give you the list and there a team has formed. I know this may be more work but I think we can do it! :D
ReplyDeleteThats a terrible thing that the boy wasnt chosen because no one wanted to be in his group. we are always supposed to be happy to invite people who want to eagerly participate in activities and games. I think we should gather up all the people that want to be picked and tell them to get into one big line and we should just do the thing that most people do when choosing a group for a game. count them out. first person is #1 second person #2 third person #3 fourth person #4 5th person #1 and so on. its simple and easy. or we could just give them all a little card with numbers on them. and tell everyone with the same number to gather up in their team and then we can play our games. and we should also play some games that dont involve too much people once in a while. for instance a game with just a pair or maybe even just one person. i will try to pitch these ideas to my spirit committee.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's horrible that someone was not able to participate because no one wanted to be in their group. On spirit day someone did approach me after the game was over and asked why he wasn't chosen to play, I told him that he needed a team of four just like Bottis did and he replied with the same answer. I don't know if it was the same person, but I know the person that told me this is someone I know from my classes and that many people see him as an outcast because of his height and speech. Sorry for the long story, I just wanted to let you know that there was the same situation. Anyways, I think that everyone should get in pairs of 2 or 1 if they cant find a partner, then we will randomly pick and choose the people they are with. So that even the kids who can't find a group can get to play the game. Another way to get everyone involved is set a number of people that need to be in a team to participate and then ask who was not chosen that wanted to play, and add the people equally to each team. I hope we find a solution quick so that no one else feels left out.
ReplyDeleteI wished I would have seen the boy I would have been in his group. I think all of your ideas are great but if we did the bead thing there would be some kids who aren't afraid to push :(.One idea i have that could work is that each teacher can pick 2 students to participate and then at lunch they will have to pair up with someone they don't really know. I like Sarah's idea also about how we can give them a sticker to know who was chosen. On Monday I will share all the ideas and possible things we can do.
ReplyDeleteAdding to my comment, I now recall seeing the boy standing on a bench waving his arm frantically for us to choose him. I also did see him go up to Bottis and ask something. I wish I had the opportunity to team up with him.
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ReplyDeleteAfter reading this comment it made me realize that there are students that are left out just because they donj't have many friends. I believe that the bead idea is a great idea but i think that there is a beeter idea that we can come up with. Such as all the kids who want to play shouild line up on the black top. Then kassie and I will assign up to 4 to 5 leadership students that will have 4 braclets of different colors (such as blue, yellow, red, and green) to hand out. This should mix up the students who want to play in different teams with different students. Also the leadership students will have to choose students who don't usally play but would like to play.
I feel so sorry for the boy. I didn't see him. Our Spirit Days are supposed to be for school bonding, and yet something like this happens. I think that this has reminded all of us about how Leadership should work together to provide a good example of how all students should accept each other and be willing to reach out.
ReplyDeleteI think that when we have a Spirit Day activity, we can continue to let the interested kids come to the front, and we should also encourage the shy kids who look like they want to participate to come to the front by going up to them. Then we could assign the kids to different teams. The good thing about this method is that there won't be people with no one on their team, like this boy. It's possible that they will be a team with their best friend, or with a complete stranger, but this way kids will have a chance to meet new people and be closer to other kids in school, especially for the shy kids.
If there are not enough kids to form a complete team (e.g. we need teams of four and there are two more kids with no group partners), then the Leadership kids should go down and make a team with them so they can still play.
I think the bead idea has good parts and bad parts. On the negative side, I can see kids bumping their head on the benches or running to find the beads. And as some other people said, some kids will really push others in order to get a bead. But on the good side, the Spirit Day activity could be searching for a treasure or something like that. In that case, we can control the people searching. There will only be a limited amount of kids in small groups searching. It'll be ordered chaos. :D I think it would be a pretty interesting activity, too!
Sometimes we don't have enough supplies for every kid to participate (like, not having enough balloons or razors). If there are kids who want to play, but we don't have enough supplies for them to play on that particular Spirit Day, then we could give them a piece of paper with a special stamp on it or something (a.k.a. a rain check). Then on the next Spirit Day we'll choose the kids who have the piece of paper first.
Also, we can put out an empty tissue box and some paper on a table or something on Spirit Days so kids can write out their opinions and put it into the box. Then we can get to know what they think about Spirit Days and use their input to improve our Spirit Days. Some Leadership kids can be assigned to watching over the box, assigning groups, maintaining order in the game, etc.
This Spirit Day is a reminder of how we can (and should) lead the students to work together, respect each other, and be like one big happy family at Alvarado that leaves behind wonderful memories. This is also what I think we have to try to accomplish.
I saw the boy go up to Mrs. Lucero to ask something but I never knew it was about him not being able to find a group that wanted to be with him. I was thinking on getting people to get in groups that have similarities related to their birth dates or other stuff they would have in common with like Nancy said. But I realized that they would still get in groups with their friends only and would leave out other new people. So I just think it's best and easier if a few leadership students choose the team members in an orderly way, so we could mix people up. We should try to choose people who haven't participated as often, and I do agree that the bead idea would get a little crazy. So I think we should just try to choose people and see how it goes and if they actually go along with it.
ReplyDeleteI saw the boy and his name was Joshua. I felt bad that I couldn't pair up with him like last time. So an idea I have is we randomly pick people who want to participate from the crowd and group them up. As a result, the kids who don't have partners will have a chance to play. Another idea is that we get lists of kids who want to play during spirit counts and we randomly pick the names up each week (new names gathered each week) and the winners get to participate. Just an idea :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't see the boy, but I guess it was sad. I think that when we have team games, that we should pick random people in each team. This will lead them to making new friends and show team efforts. There are some kids who wants to participate, but are shy to come up, so I think we should tell them to come up and participate. That will make the kids feel included and not be left out. We should also remember who got chosen to participate so we can choose others who hasn't played in a Spirit Day game.
ReplyDeleteI think the bead idea is pretty good, but people will run and trip all over the place, or hurt each other when getting the beads. It would also break the hands off policy from the school.
I didn't see the boy, but he must have been really sad when he was told that he couldn't play because he didn't have a group of four. To prevent this from happening again, my suggestions are that when we play team games, we can tell them to partner up in two's. After that we can partner one team up with another. This way, people can still play with a friend, but they can also get a chance to meet new people.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that we can do is get multiple colored beads, and pass them out to random people who want to play. Then the people who have the same colored beads would be put in a group together. This way, no one would get left out. People would also get to meet new people.
In my opinion, the beads are a great idea. But just as other people have mentioned, people could trip and fall. Some people may also get pushed around from all the excitement and get hurt.
Even though I didn't see the boy, I feel sorry for him. Those people without that many friends are usually left out in Spirit day activities just because they can't find a partner. One way we can pick people is to have them(or us) choose people who are wearing the same Spirit shirts as them. So this is not only a way to randomly choose people but a way to also increase school spirit.:)
ReplyDeleteStudents shouldn't be left out just, because they don't have as team or friends. I did see the boy raising his hand. I think we should pick the students and put them on random teams. All the ideas work and maybe we could use it for different spirit days. Sometimes the leadership student could fill in for student who don't have a team. This way no one will be left out.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see the boy, but it seemed sad that he wasn't able to participate in the activity. I think a good idea for all the students to participate is for the people who have been in a spirit activity to give another person a chance to be in one. So, that means that whoever already was in a spirit activity already has to let another person try. This will eventually lead up to everyone being able to be involved in at least one spirit activity. We can also try to have more people involved in an activity. We can do that by having more people in one activity other then jst 3 or 4 people a time. Sometimes its better to pick randomly from the people raising there hands and putting them into random groups, this way it's better for people who can't find partners. Other then that, I think everyone should get to have a try, and I hope this idea would improve on letting people get a turn on the spirit games. [:
ReplyDeleteI didn't see the boy, but I still feel bad for him because as leadership students it's our job to make sure all of the students at Alvarado are happy, or at least enjoying themselves. Maybe we could do something like what Jackie's idea. Also, maybe like once the groups play one round, you could switch up the groups even more and have people get around and meet more people. And maybe if there is like a person or two people who are really enthusiastic like the boy we could have them pair up and have leadership students fill in the gaps. This way, people can participate and still have fun and maybe even make some more friends. I would say that we should pick the teams for them, but some of the kids might not like that idea and might not participate in spirit day games. But, if we were to have two rounds, the first with assigned teams, and then the next could be their choice.
ReplyDeleteI really don't think the bead idea is a good thing. There are a LOT of rowdy kids that like to participate, and they will try and rush and push people out of the way and that could result in all sorts of injuries.
Well, I didn't see the poor kid. It must have been pretty sad for him not being able to participate, since he really wanted too. I don't think the bead-thing is a bad idea, but there's a high chance for kids getting pushed or shoved around by the bigger, rougher students. We can pick the teams ourselves, but I don't think the students will like that. Maybe the Leadership students can participate with the left-out kids so they won't feel bad. At Spirit Day, people usually enjoy playing the games with friends, and if we change this, students may stop participating in our games altogether. So again, my idea is that the Leadership students can participate in a game with the kids that really want to play, but can't.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the kid, I felt really bad that he didn't have a team and didn't understand. One idea that would help prevent this situation is to draw student's names. We would have the students write down their names and randomly pick them out. This would help students socialize with different students and make sure that everyone else plays.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea I have is to give out designated numbers to the students. The students will then get together with other students that have the same designated number. This will also help students socialize with other students that they don't know. Students will also get the opportunity to participate.
Once the groups are established, the students can explain to other students in their group, that don't understand, the rules.