When pandemic response measures caused school closures and remote emergency learning, our modus operandi as school leaders and educators shifted in unprecedented ways. How would we maintain our strong sense of community and stay connected with our students and families? How will we maintain positive mental health networks amongst students, parents, staff and administration?
As school leaders of an elementary school within the Limestone District School Board, we agreed that consistency, creativity, familiarity and fun would be required to engage our students and families during remote learning, and though physically apart, feel together and connected. To help foster this connection, we shifted our daily morning announcements to a virtual platform, providing students with some humour and positive messaging first thing every school day. These announcements, which reported on school news, upcoming events, birthdays, and asked us all to stand for O Canada, allowed us to keep routine during a time when normalcy for children seemed impossible. The announcements were light and entertaining, and had many students and parents tuning in to see what silly endeavours their administration were up to each day.
After a couple of weeks of making our 3- to 5-minute daily videos, we decided to reach out to local celebrities and influential Canadians to be “guest announcers” for our daily morning announcements. Lo and behold, many of them agreed.
Our first guest was Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who greeted our school community “press-conference style” from the Queen’s Park in Toronto. Indeed, it was endearing to watch Ontario’s Premier wish Kennedy in Grade 1 a Happy Birthday from his podium perch. The video racked up over 11,000 views within hours and created quite a stir in our school community. Our project really took flight then. Our followership increased exponentially, and teachers, staff and community members worked together to find connections and enlist other guest announcers. At a time when there was so much gloom in the world, our community rallied around this fun-filled mission to seek out local and national celebrities to deliver our positive daily messages.
The list of guest announcers became impressive: Canadian Olympians Hailey Wickenheiser and Jayna Hefford, tennis phenom Bianca Andreescu, Canadian rock icon Paul Langlois of The Tragically Hip, Kingston’s Mayor Bryan Paterson, children’s musician’s Splash and Boots and Fred Penner, Queen’s University Principal Patrick Deane, Kingston Frontenacs hockey players, local firefighters and police officers, local television and radio personalities, even a safari guide from South Africa appeared with elephants, lions and cheetahs, to bring our students our daily morning news.
Enlisting celebrities made our ‘click count’ skyrocket. Even students who were reluctant to engage in online learning logged on to their virtual classroom first thing in the morning to see who we managed to enlist that day. In addition to increased student engagement, parents, guardians, friends, family and community members were viewing and commenting on the videos too. Local media outlets picked up our 'feel good story' and helped further rally the community to our cause. Relative to our school size, our project made huge ripples, and in the process, brought us closer together at a time when we all needed it the most.
As the months rolled on, we upheld the initiative, interspersing blockbuster names with appearances from staff and students, sharing jokes and anecdotes to keep the spirit alive. At the end of the year, after over 50 guest appearances, students voted on their favourite guest speaker. Despite all the famous people to choose from, students overwhelmingly chose our beloved school secretary as their favourite. Mrs. Blower had been the voice of our in-school announcements for the last 17 years, and although the grandiose acts were well-received, students identified and appreciated most the familiarity and comfort of seeing and hearing from someone they knew and loved.
In normal times, would Doug Ford, Bianca Andreescu and Fred Penner have been able to make a video for elementary students and staff at a small elementary school in Kingston, Ontario? Perhaps no. But for us, this initiative highlighted the need to innovate the tools and mechanisms that we use to communicate, and more importantly, that a connected school community can play a critical role in all of our well-being in the face of uncommon and unprecedented times.
The complete collection of 2020 Welborne Virtual Announcements can be found on the Welborne YouTube Channel.