If you read a previous post, “Death of an Awards Ceremony“, you are well aware of the change that Kent Elementary School made this past month.  The staff decided to abolish all the awards and honour roll recognition and replace this with an honouring/recognition ceremony for ALL our grade 6 students.

Although the conversation started about 3 years ago (with the previous principal), I continued the conversation and happened to be principal when the decision was made; due to this, I kind of took the weight of the ceremony on my shoulders as I wanted it to be so successful that people would wonder why we ever did the awards ceremonies in the first place.

So how did it go?

Rather than trying to summarize the entire afternoon event, I will discuss a few key bits of information as well as the moments that stood out to me.

  • We have 4 grade 6 teachers at our school this year (with splits and shared teaching loads).  Each teacher spoke about the student in their class for about 30 seconds and the best part was that they spoke in their unique style.  One teacher listed off the many positive qualities and key moments she had observed throughout the year, two other teachers (who shared a class) shared a short and entertaining poem about each student, and one teacher entertained the students and audience with his wit as he spoke of how he pictures his students using their strengths in the future.
  • In past years, we normally had an Awards Ceremony for students in grades 4 through 6 which  included about 175 students. We set up 100 chairs and that usually sufficed.  This year we were recognizing 55 grade 6 students so I figured 100 chairs would be plenty.  By the time the ceremony started we had added another 40 chairs and by the time students were recognized, there was a wall of people standing at the back.  I did a scan of the audience and as far as I could tell, every single student had someone there to observe he/she get honoured by their teacher.  In the days leading up to the event, I even had some parents ask if their child was going to get an award because they wanted to know if they should take work off; I loved responding to these questions (yet another reason why this format worked well) and saying that each child would be recongnized.
  • I taught half of this grade 6 class last year so there were many great moments for me; however there were two that summed it all up. A student, Andrew (pseudonym), was called up to be recognized.  The process was for the student to stand, listen to the comments from the teacher and then shake hands with a few people and receive their certificate (which stated their strengths and interests).  While the teacher was speaking, a slide would show with pictures of the student and a list of their strengths.  Now Andrew is an extremely quiet child that is not the best athlete nor is he the most academic; he is, however, a great kid.  As he was called up, he checked at the slide to see the picture of him and read his strengths.  At this point he was trying to hold back a slight grin.  When the teacher said that he was a gentle guy, he tried to bite his lip to stop him from smiling.  When the teacher commented on his skills in technology, he could not hold back the grin much longer.  When the teacher said he is the “man with the swagger” and a “true gamer” and one who will be working for EA Sports (video game designer and producer), Andrew let out a grin and a laugh that I will never forget.  I taught this child for an entire year and I have never seen him beam with pride like that.  The other moment happened the day following the ceremony.  A girl, Tanya (pseudonym), was recognized the day before and one of her strengths was that she was ‘quiet, clever’.  The next day, this individual was helping me to clean the gym and out of nowhere, this quiet girl asked, “Mr. Wejr, do you think I am clever?”  I smiled and stopped for a moment and said, “Tanya, the greatest thing about you is that because you do not speak often, when you do speak up, people listen.  They know that what you have to say must be important and that what you say is, in fact, clever”.  She responded with a quiet appreciative grin with a glimmer in her eye and continued on helping me stack chairs.

Although there were many proud and emotional moments in which parents, staff, and students held back their tears, the moments with Andrew and Tanya completely summed it up for me.  Had we carried on with the traditional awards ceremony, Andrew would have sat up there and watched as a few of his classmates received awards.  He would probably not even have cracked a smile.    This year, Andrew grinned from ear to ear and even leaned back and laughed as the cameras of his family took photos to help cherish the moment of recognition.  The conversation I had with Tanya would have never taken place and I would not have shared a memorable moment with a ‘quiet,clever’ student.

There has been an overwhelming response to the previous post on the decision to change the ceremony (once Alfie Kohn tweeted it, people from around the world stopped by to read it).  There is obviously a huge interest out there around this topic.  So my question is: why are we still having huge ceremonies that award a select few and fail to recognize so many strengths, talents, and interest of our students?

Parents of students at our school, I would love for you to leave your feedback about the 2010 Kent Year-End Ceremony.

To read my Farewell Speech to the Grade 6′s, please click here.

I look forward to witnessing the growth of this event and Kent School in the coming years.