The first Culture Team meeting of the year took place on Thursday, January 7, and brought with it many new thoughts about school-wide activities.  The Climate and Culture Team began as an idea between the school’s facilitators after a leadership summit in October of 2014 led them to think that the subjects discussed at that summit should be continued as an on-going project. The project is currently in the think-tank stage, and works as a collaboration between the administration, teachers, counselors, and representatives from groups such as English Language Learners, Fossil Friends, DLA, Ridge TV, STUCO, Student Ambassadors, and any other students who wish to participate.

Three different sub-groups make up the Culture Team, each centered on an important part of student life – social media, social and civic learning and social/emotional learning. The topics of the sub-groups come from a survey students took during Advisory at the beginning of the school year. Faculty took the three categories that students said they felt the least safe about in the school environment and formed groups around those. The Social Media group focuses on cyberbullying and the student body’s online presence, the Social and Civic learning group on stress management, civic participation, and service learning, and the Social/Emotional Learning group focuses on how students feel connected to their peers and generally safe and happy in their environment.

At the most recent meeting, the Social Media sub-group discussed ideas about creating an ad campaign to educate students on inappropriate online sharing and stopping online harassment. They are looking for platforms in which they will be able to reach out to students and educate them in a way that will make students understand the importance of these issues.

Every student at Fossil knows about the ball pit that Ridge TV and DLA used for Diversity Day in the 2014-2015 school year, and the Social/Emotion Learning sub-group wants to open up the ball pit to students during lunch. They are working on creating fun things to write on the balls, including calming questions/phrases, questions aimed for students to get to know other people, and possibly even words that describe every student in the school. Sitting in the ball pit with another person is a great way to break the ice and learn more about other people, and the fun and silliness that comes along with it is the perfect way to destress. The ball pit will help spread positivity and can make students feel better when they are simply having a very rough day.

The Social/Emotion Learning sub-group is also working on the DARE Campaign. With the DARE Campaign, students can dare their friends or other peers to do something nice for another person, and spread positivity and kindness throughout the school. It will most likely be a part of Unity Week, and participants at the Culture Team meeting bounce many ideas around about how they will initiate the campaign and what it will entail. One big idea was that staff would give out stickers that say “I Dare You” to students, and once they do something for another person, they pass the sticker on.

The Climate and Culture Team is mainly about spreading positivity throughout the school and making it a better, safer environment for all students. Anyone is encouraged to join, and it is one of the best ways for students to voice their opinions and give ideas for ways school culture can improve. Students can share any ideas they have with the sub-group leaders in a very welcoming atmosphere.

Thursday, February 4 in the Media Center from 3:15-4:15 is the current date and time for the next meeting, and the faculty hopes to see more students there.

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