How to Design After-School Challenges
- 1). Discuss ideas with staff members. Present the idea of after-school challenges at a staff meeting, allowing teachers and administrators to provide activity suggestions. Brainstorm about the topic and create an extensive list of options to provide to students.
- 2). Gauge student interest. Discover what interests your students by asking them to fill out an interest inventory or gather a group of students to serve as an advisory committee. Provide students with an assortment of possible activities and follow through on setting up the ones that interest them most.
- 3). Locate academic competitions. The list of available academic competitions varies greatly from city to city and depends in part upon the age group of the students. Contact your department of education or your area school support team and inquire about available academic competitions, such as quiz bowl, model UN, mock trial and academic decathlon. Offer as many of these sponsored enrichment activities as possible to your students.
- 4). Organize school-wide endurance competitions. Allow students to test their physical stamina against that of their peers. Offer weekly running or biking races, swimming competitions or weight-lifting challenges.
- 5). Contact area athletic organizations to enroll teams. Contact your department of education if you do not already have information on the division into which your school fits. School enrollment numbers most commonly determine a district's athletic division, so if your numbers fluctuate greatly, your division may change from time to time. Organize competitive teams in as many sports as possible, offering interested students an array of athletic options.
- 6). Advertise challenging options. Promote your programs. Encourage teachers to talk up the programs within their classroom and post advertisements throughout the school, inviting students to take the challenge and participate.
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