We have approached the mid-point of the first quarter. Progress grades will be posted by the end of this week.
Students have settled into their classes. Syllabus and meet-your-teacher presentations and get-to-know you activities have been completed. Students have memorized their schedules, and most no longer feel lost in this huge building.
The first units have finished or are approaching completion. Tests have been taken, and even a few field trips.
Also, Homecoming is here, and with it, many distractions.
This week, classes are shortened and schedules disrupted. Students dress up every day in creative costumes. The hallways are decorated. Kids might act, well, sort of wild. It can all be a bit much.
This week presents a challenge to our administrators and teachers. They must continue to teach their students while also managing a student body that is more excited than usual. But I love it.
To me, this annual celebration of our student athletes and school spirit is a unifying event. Homecoming Week is a celebration of what makes Craig a great place. We celebrate our athletic teams, of course, but we also celebrate all our students. All have an opportunity to participate in the dress-up days and other activities.
I enjoy this week mostly for the effect it has on our freshman class. Before Homecoming Week, our freshmen might feel a bit like outsiders swimming in a sea of humanity.
While our school makes heroic efforts to welcome every freshmen class, from eighth grade visits to the special first-day welcome to the friendliness and support of our amazing Link Leaders, many of our freshmen still might still feel awkward, on the margins. Adding to this awkwardness might be the fact that our freshmen come from every middle school in Janesville, public and private.
They start the year as a collection of strangers, but Homecoming Week is a turning point.
It is during this festive week that ninth graders fully realize that they are an integral part of Craig High School.
It happens gradually. As the week builds, more and more of them participate in the dress-up days. At the pep assembly–the first time they see the entire student body together in one place–they see the passion and spirit of the sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
And after they hear the chants of “Freshmen, Freshman” and see the upperclassmen turn their backs on their banner, the freshmen, instead of feeling dissed or marginalized, feel seen and know that they belong.
Freshmen begin every Homecoming Week as ninth graders from a bunch of different schools. By the end of the week, they are Craig Cougars.
