Getting Started with Rock Your School
The GYTO team is so excited to bring you Rock Your School, Reimagined - coming to you February 8th through 12th. Rock Your School is Reimagined this year to meet the needs of all educators, whatever your circumstances may be. We don’t want this to be just one more thing on your plate, we want it to be a source of joy, renewal, and of course, FUN! Our team has created a toolkit for you to use in planning and executing your own Rock Your School, Reimagined vision - with an amazing design thanks to our very own Sarah Dlouhy. Whether this is your third time doing Rock Your School or your first, there’s something for everyone!
First Things First
The first thing you want to do - after registering your school, of course! - is get all of the free resources Team GYTO has created for Rock Your School, Reimagined. (Head here to download all of the elements.) There is absolutely everything you need to get started in planning and executing an amazing Rock Your School experience for yourself and your students! For the complete toolkit you’ll want to download the Rock Your School Starter Kit, Rock Your School Graphics and Backgrounds, Rock Your School Letter Templates Bundle, and RYS Piano Activity by Sarah Dlouhy. And don’t forget - you can also access all of the sessions that were shown during the Rock Your School rally on January 16th!
Communication Templates
As with any event, communication is key. We’ve included templates for just about every possible type of communication you might need to have as you plan our Rock Your School event: administrator, colleagues, community members, and families. We’ve got a few tips for you in making the most of these communication templates!
Make them your own! While these templates are absolutely ready-to-go, adding a personal flair is a great way to increase the success of your communication! This might mean changing some of the wording to better fit your relationship with whom you’re communicating - for example, you might be a little less formal with your administrator than the template is written. Call-out specific events or traditions that perhaps your school is missing out on during the pandemic that you can reimagine as a part of Rock Your School.
Be specific in your “ask.” For some administrators, and certainly for community members, knowing details is important prior to committing to something. Make sure you are clear and concise in your requests, as well as offer opportunities for flexibility. Remember that both administrators and community members are likely overwhelmed and may not be able to fulfill every request for support. 💡 Tip: Encouraging their presence, if nothing else, is a great way to begin building partnerships for future endeavors (and Rock Your School days)!
Utilize the media press release template and engage your districts’ communications department. If your district has a communications department or communications/public relations officer, be sure and reach out to them (with your administrator’s blessing). Public opinion and support of schools has sadly wavered during the pandemic. Use the media press release template to work with your communications department to loop-in local media, generate buzz (and maybe some more community involvement!) and even draw in more schools to participate in your district!
Involve families as much as possible. Families, just like the rest of us, have experienced some level of isolation. Most schools have not held assemblies or other events that families can participate in. Consider the ways in which you might be able to involve or provide access to Rock Your School activities, and how you might leverage family participation. As with administrators and community members, be specific in your “ask” of them - whether that’s ensuring their children are prepared, or if you’d like them to donate time, supplies, or money.
Backgrounds & Graphics
Can we get a round of applause for the one-and-only Sarah Dlouhy?! Sarah (of Creative School Daze) is seriously a creative genius and we would be lost without her! She truly outdid herself with this pack of graphics and backgrounds for your classroom use. There are endless uses for these backgrounds and graphics, but we wanted to give you a jumping off point for their use in virtual or in-person environments.
Harness the power of a background! Changing something as simple as a background can change the entire mood or feel of something. Use the backgrounds Sarah’s provided as your virtual background in Zoom, new wallpaper in your Bitmoji classroom, or as slide backgrounds. 💡 Tip: You can create stationary for student writing by embedding the backgrounds in Google Slides/Docs for students to write on, or by printing them out at 50% transparency for in-person writing.
Spruce up your virtual or in-person environment. Print out smaller graphic elements in full-page size and use them as temporary decor in your classroom, or change up the theming of your virtual Bitmoji classrooms, Google Classroom pages, or Canvas courses by using them as buttons, accents, etc. 💡 Tip: You can combine various graphics and elements in something like Canva to make your own banners and buttons.
Swap out virtual or physical manipulatives. If you use virtual manipulatives on Google Slides, PowerPoint, or SmartNotebook, swap them out with some of Sarah’s incredible graphics to go along with the RYS theme. You can also print the graphics multiple to a sheet (follow instructions in this WikiHow for PC or Mac) and cut out to create paper-based manipulatives for each student that you don’t have to worry about getting cross-contaminated. 💡 Tip: Students can easily cut out their own - as they finish work early, during breaks, or as bellwork.
Give students creative control. Provide students with access to the backgrounds and graphics and let them run wild in creating their own Rock Your School content! Students can create their own “tour poster” documenting a timeline of their life, their own “album cover” autobiography, or “set list” for goal setting. 💡 Tip: Start with a Google Slide or PowerPoint template and make a slide with all of the graphics you want them to have access to. Teach students to copy, paste, and resize the graphics, and boom! It’s like their very own digital sticker book.
Starter Kit Activities
Inside the Rock Your School Starter Kit PDF you’ll find activity suggestions for both students or staff. As we’ve said before, we don’t want this to be *just one more thing* on your plate. It’s up to you to decide what will allow you to feel the most joy and fun with the least amount of added stress.
The Rock Your School Week Set List is a great place to start if this is your first year participating and you aren’t sure how much you can plan on your own. These five no-cost, impactful activities will definitely do the trick in bringing a little something different - with a whole lot of joy - to your classroom!
Check out The Scale of Rock to get an idea of what types of activities are most labor intensive and least labor intensive. These are a great jumping off point for brainstorming, particularly if you aren’t sure how much time and energy you can dedicate to planning and executing your Rock Your School week celebrations. 💡 Tip: This would be great to include in initial communication with your administrator or colleagues; it will help them see the spectrum of possibilities and determine to what degree they can commit to participation.
Use the Rockin’ Acts of Kindness for Students and Teachers to keep your celebration relationship and community-focused. Above all, Rock Your School week is about relationships and being together (even if we must be apart). These simple, no-cost suggestions are a great way to ensure that everyone leaves Rock Your School week feeling seen, heard, and appreciated.
Sarah Dlouhy’s Piano Activity is a home-run for Rock Your School week! Check out Sarah’s mini-PD session on how to best utilize it during your instruction. The best part? This works regardless of your instructional model and includes EVERYONE whether they’re 6-feet in front of you or on your Zoom/Google Meet screen.
We would love to hear from you about how you’re utilizing these free resources to make this year’s Rock Your School week the best one yet! Fill out this form and your ideas might be featured right here on the blog or on one of our social media channels.
