At the beginning of the school year I set out Student Council membership papers on the counter in the office.
Students have to complete a series of task within two weeks to join the club.
Here is the form: Task #1: To begin, send an e-mail with the subject line Task #1 and your shirt size as the main message to email address.
Task #2 Please follow @username on Instagram. DM me a fundraising idea (photo, video, message, link) that we could try this year.Task #3 Please send the name and artist of a favorite song (clean version) to play at future events.
Task #4 Go to the bulletin board next to the library. Look for a white paper bag. Pull one name out of the bag. Please create a bitmoji character of this person and dm it to me on IG @username (I put the name of every teacher and admin in the high school on slips of paper in a bag to avoid repeats.)
Task #6 Turn your signed blue paper into the brown envelope hanging on the bulletin board next to my classroom door. Your next task is inside the envelope.
Task #7 Please decorate in red and blue and turn the paper in to me when you finish. (I printed out our school name and mascot in giant bubble letters with one letter per page)
Task #8 Go to the front desk. Introduce yourself to Mrs. LastNameHere and ask her for Task #8. (There was another bag with directions to Task #8 printed out.)
Task #8 Please send @username a DM explaining why Student Council needs you and what you will contribute to our club.
Congratulations you have completed your tasks! Welcome to Student Council.
I keep a google spreadsheet of the tasks and names and checkbox each task as the students complete them.
I change the tasks a little bit from year to year. I've had them decorate shirts, post on insta, make a tik tok, write a thank you card to a teacher, and so on.
The whole point of Student Council is to serve the student body and boost student morale. I need students who are willing to put in effort, can find new ideas, can contact me, can follow directions, and can follow through.
I don't charge dues and I don't require a high GPA. I'm trying to make it accessible to everyone but still narrow it down to students I can count on to do the work.
And most of the students seem to really enjoy it. Our first day of school was Friday and they were already asking me when the papers would be out.