Principal Tracie Anderson Swilley gets first-day jitters right after winter break, just like her students and teachers. She knows that the school’s climate, right at the beginning of a new year, depends on her mood.
“I’m going to be the first voice they hear on the [morning] announcement. I make sure the energy is up, that music is playing,” said Swilley, who leads Fairfield Central High School in Winnsboro, S.C. “I greet the kids with excitement when they come in, because if you want them to get excited, you have to be excited.”
There are personal preparations to be made, too—meals planned and packed, and clothes ironed for the week. “Every January, we have to make the decision to eat better,” she laughed.
Principals across the country welcomed back their students this week from their winter breaks. The start of a new semester and a new year, though, can be sluggish. Some students might be anxious or worried to come back to school after an extended break. Students might struggle to get back into a routine, or be faced with academic gaps they need to make up.
School leaders must keep all these barriers in mind when they plan their back-to-school activities.
When coming back from break, it’s important to reinvigorate the bonds between students and their teachers, said Chase Christensen, the superintendent of the Sheridan County School district in Wyoming. Building confidence first is key.
To do that, Christensen, who is also the principal of the 80-student K-12 Arvada-Clearmont school in the district, plans to offer self-defense classes every two weeks. These self-defense classes will be paired with a Toastmasters International workshop, where students will gain important communication skills they need to be competitive in the job market.
“We held off telling students about these [classes] before they came back from break. It built a little bit of anticipation,” Christensen said.
Principals need to set the right tone
Some principals put their schools’ social media accounts to work to help welcome students back. Suzan Harris, the principal of Henderson Middle School in Jackson, Ga., filmed herself going around an empty school before the break ended.
“I did a Facebook video where I’m in the building dancing and playing in gym by myself. And then I wrote a letter to my parents that said, it’s boring here without the students. They need to send them back,” Harris said. The post garnered over 2,000 views.
“I’m the thermostat of the school,” Harris added, “and people are really picking up on the energy in the video.”
But beyond the welcome hugs, the pump-up music, and the video messages, principals also have serious mandates they want to lay down.
Swilley, for instance, had to enforce a new, statewide ban on the use of “personal electronic devices” during school hours starting Jan. 1. The new policy restricts students’ use of cellphones, headphones, and smartwatches, as well as other personal devices that can connect to the internet.
Swilley said her school already had a policy in place restricting the use of cellphones in classrooms. The new, broader policy, though, had made both students and parents anxious—there were widespread discussions on social media about how schools would implement this plan.
Swilley knew she had to defuse the tension before the new term started in earnest.
In the first morning assembly for the year, Swilley stressed that the ban only added an extra 55 minutes to the time that students couldn’t access their phones.
“I had braced myself for a mass revolt. But I think taking the time to talk to them, preparing them, worked,” she said. “And when they thought about it, they were like, it’s really not a big deal.”
Students are still getting used to not wearing their headphones, Swilley said. She’s given them a grace period to adjust: The first few infractions for headphone-toting students in the hallways or at lunch will be forgiven, before more serious consequences, like parent conferences or in-school suspension, come into play.
The morning assembly is part of a larger plan that Swilley, teachers, and student leaders put into motion back in September. To keep students engaged during lunch or other breaks in the school day, the student leaders have brought games like Connect 4 and life-size checkers into the cafeteria.
The students have also planned activities like a karaoke session, bingo, and friendly competitions to keep themselves occupied in the wake of “no TikToks,” said Swilley.
Principals want students to take stock of their performance in the new year
Swilley, who was named the National Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, asked all her students to set personal or academic goals for the year.
Some students, on track to graduate high school this year, resolved to complete a certain number of college applications. Others aimed to have fewer disciplinary incidents, while some have set their sights on the honor roll.
For Swilley, it’s not about whether the students meet these goals, but more about setting a standard of achievement for themselves.
Evelyn Edney, the principal of Early College School, a public charter high school at the University of Delaware, created a back-to-school workshop for her students that helps them take stock of their performance in school. “Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself,” named after Ice Cube’s 1992 hit, helps students “look into a mirror” by going through their transcripts and reports on what their behavior was like in previous terms.
“It’s like a credit record. They look at where they faltered and why. If they did well in a subject, [the workshop] helps them figure out why they shined,” Edney said. “Did they love the material? Or do they just love to learn? They talk about all this in groups in their class.”
Each grade in her high school goes through this exercise, Edney said, as it helps them make plans for how to improve their performance in the new semester. Some students, in past workshops, have successfully identified fixes—making up a missed assignment, or getting a tutor for a subject they’re struggling with, for example.
Harris, from Georgia, has also set an ambitious target for her middle schoolers in 2025.
“I want students to take ownership of their own performance this year,” Harris said. “Students need to know how they’re performing, so we are putting their data into their hands.”
The idea is that through two student conferences, planned for the end of the month, students will talk to their parents about their performance, and the areas they need to fix. If there’s a learning target a student missed last semester, they are expected to plan with their parents to overcome that barrier. Students can look at their data to compare their performance across semesters.
“You can’t get mad at students if you don’t reinforce what you want them to do,” said Edney. “It’s our fault if we don’t lay down the expectation of them owning their own learning.”
