Cate Reed, seasoned administrator, current Senior Vice President of Teach For America, and Possip Reporter, explores ways school leaders can increase the extracurricular opportunities for their students.
Families are always eager for their students to be involved in activities outside of their regular core academics. As we highlighted in our blog post, “Back to School: Anticipating Parent Concerns – Event Recap”, extracurricular activities are top of mind for families headed into this year, which is not surprising as things get closer to normal after the height of the pandemic.
Offering extracurricular opportunities can meet many needs:
- A robotics club can help students build skills that they can use in their core academics.
- A field hockey team for kids who love sports can provide an added incentive to keep up their attendance.
- A cooking club can unlock a career path for a middle school student.
All of these things can provide a safe space for kids after school and give them the opportunity to connect with peers and with a caring adult outside of the structure and rigor of school.
However, in a world of limited budgets, tight schedules, and competing demands, it can be challenging to offer these “extras”. Often, particularly in the younger grades, those opportunities can be limited. Plus, in a world of short staffing, finding people to run them can be even more difficult. Here are some ideas for how to build up your extracurricular offerings in school using some outside-of-the-box ideas:
Survey survey survey! (Hint: using a Possip bonus question could be a great option here!)
Ark your families and staff what they’d love to see and where they can help.
