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National Education Week Activities
by Sarah John

During American Education Week, from November 17-23, activities that celebrated learning and served as learning experiences occured across the country. Just because the week is over, however, does not mean the celebration has to stop. Energizing students is a year-long task.

Many IEPs work on improving students’ communication skills with adults and peers. Initiating some of the activities outlined on the National Education Association (NEA) website can engage students in activities that they feel are meaningful, while involving your school community and addressing IEP goals at the same time. Check out http://www.nea.org/aew/successfulaew.html for some of these ideas. If you don’t think you have anything to celebrate, you can start by looking at pieces of “good news” in PA at http://www.nea.org/goodnews/pa01.html.

For more ideas about things to celebrate, you could facilitate a focus group with your students to get them talking about what is going well in the school. Take the next step and appoint two students to run the focus group while you take notes. Here are some questions they may think about asking to get started:

1. What is something that our school has that other schools only wish they had?
2. If you were trying to recruit new students to come to this school what (truthful) things would you tell them?
3. If you had to move out of this school what would you miss the most?
4. If you were doing a grade card for your school what aspects would get an “A”?
5. If you had a younger brother or sister coming to your school next year and they were very scared, what would you tell them to make them feel better?

Partnering with other classrooms for the celebration activities will help build friendships and mutually supportive work groups, while adding a little spice to classroom projects. With other classrooms celebrating their achievements and promoting positive ideas about school all year long, students could be learning, addressing their IEPs and having fun at the same time.