Advisor Advocate
August 2019
BACK TO SCHOOL
The new school year is upon us, and it is time to get started with a new year of StuCo activities. After what should have been a very restful summer, I hope you are ready. Don't worry because GASC is here to help.
In this newsletter, there is a re-cap of the July GASC Executive Board Meeting, an activity for StuCo member recognition care of the phenomenal A'ric Jackson that you can use in your StuCo meetings, a "no assembly required" school climate project idea appropriate for any school level, GASC reminders, and a resource spotlight to help you accomplish your projects and events.
At the very bottom of this newsletter is a link to a short Google Form for feedback about this newsletter. Your feedback will only make future newsletters better, so please feel free to leave comments.
GASC Executive Board Meeting re-cap
Part of this overnight meeting was to discuss and organize our District Conferences (formerly the district rallies). The District Reps from the three districts worked hard to develop a theme and a plan to make sure that each District Conference will be an exciting and impactful experience for all participants. Each District Conference will include a keynote speaker, workshops, competitions including a poster and speech competition, and of course loads of fun. Registration will be $25 per person, including advisors, and the registration forms will be made available on the GASC website in August.
One big change to the District Conferences is the updated Speech Competition. At the District Conference, all participating schools are encouraged to participate. If your student wins the District Conference, they are automatically entered into the State Convention Speech Competition. The school of the District-level winner is also allowed to send an additional participant to the State-level competition.
There are several updates being worked including a new GASC website and changes to the awards programming for convention. As soon as details are finished and ready, they will be shared with all membership.
A motion was made to change the name of two of the GASC Pillars, Connections and Membership, to Networking and Member Engagement, respectively. I voted AYE because this change might heighten the understanding of the purpose of these two pillars for future executive board members of GASC to better serve all our members.
The membership drive for 2019-2020 will end on September 30. Please share this information with any fellow student council advisors to make sure they don't get left behind on accident. It is only through working together that we make our student councils strong for our students and schools.
StuCo Member Recognition Activity- Silent Acknowledgement
In this example, I'm going to explain it as if it occurs at the end of the graduating seniors' last meeting. The seniors would be asked to stand in a circle with all the other members in the middle. The students in the middle are instructed to demonstrate how they feel about the seniors without using their words. For instance, they can hug, handshake, high five, fist bump, or even salute any of the seniors in the circle. It works well with using John Meyer's Say What You Need To Say playing in the background if possible. It was a very positive experience for the BLAST camp participants and the staff members, and every member of the senior staff agreed that this activity would be wonderful to use with a StuCo as well.
No Assembly Required- School Climate Project
The Kindness Crew is an easy way to increase the positive vibes through kindness in your school. With a free login, your organization can complete kindness acts for points. There are TONS of inspirational ideas about how to add some kindness into your school climate through this organization. Some are easier to complete then others, but they each add a little bit more of kindness into the school, community, and world.
It would be simple for a StuCo to create a free profile, pick anyone of the several ideas for kindness, and complete them. As a project, you could ask your StuCo to break up into teams of 3 or 4 and have each team earn a certain number of kindness points or have a competition to see who can earn the most.
GASC Reminders
GASC District Conferences
District 1- September 23, 2019
District 2- September 24, 2019
District 3- September 25, 2019
GASC Fall Summit October 28, 2019
Atlanta, Georgia
LEAD Conference November 14-17, 2019
Washington, D.C.
GASC Convention February 21-23, 2020
Rock Eagle 4-H Camp
National Student Council Conference June 2020
Denver, Colorado
Resource Spotlight- Pinterest for Inspiration
The membership to join is free. My student council executive board convinced me to sign up, and it helped us design our amazing haunted maze we hosted in our auditorium last year. We have used it for inspiration for all our projects since then.
If you haven't already, click here to join Pinterest.
About Me
Besides being the GASC Advisor Liaison, I am also a proud French teacher in Savannah. I have been teaching for over twelve years at my current school, H V Jenkins High School. In 2010, when I found out about cuts to the student activity funds due to the recession, I decided that was not good enough for our students and organized our first school carnival for school clubs to raise money for their groups.
After the successful event, I realized that the work was not done, and I knew I needed help. Since we didn't have a student council at the time, I founded the Warrior Council to act as one. This group has been the beacon for student advocacy and events since its inception. We concentrate on improving school climate as well as trying to making positive impact on our community.
In 2016, I started working towards my EdD in Curriculum and Instruction at Valdosta State University. My dissertation will be a study focusing on adolescent identity and leadership development. My goal is to be done by 2020.
I am always eager to help anyone who needs help, so please never hesitate to contact me either via email or by phone.
Email: GASCAdvisorLiaison@gmail.com
Website: gasconline.net
Phone: 9315881612