Student Council Recap
By: Kendall Haney,
iGlobe Student Council Correspondent
At the third meeting of the first ever K12 International Academy high school Student Council meeting, moderators and Student Council leaders, Ms. Oates-Robesch and Mr. Hassler, led an exciting meeting, filled with interesting information and amazing student inclusion.
The meeting started off with Ms. Oates-Robesch explaining the agenda. After starting off with the usual round of icebreakers, the students completed a leadership building activity. Teachers and students alike then reviewed the draft of the constitution. After that, they discussed different leadership opportunities that the student council would like to provide for its members. Finally, they wrapped up with an open question and answer session.
Ms. Oates-Robesch introduced the icebreaker, created by Lauren Smith. Attendees were asked to write their names on a picture of different superheroes that were different colors. Colors like green, purple, red, and orange were a few of the options. After that, if an attendee picked a certain color, he or she was asked a question. While students completed the icebreaker, Mrs. Oates-Robesch expressed her amazement at the diversity in the club and how happy she was to have different people in her club. However, it is noteworthy to see that attendance has dwindled from over thirty participants in the first meeting down to 13 in the last meeting.
After the icebreaker, attendees moved onto the leadership building activity created by Hanan Ali. She explained that her activity was mostly about how leaders get into power, and what their principles are. Things like “Do they deserve their power?” and “Are their arguments valid?” came up during her presentation.
The teachers changed slides, and Hanan explained the second part of her activity. She asked students to think of one leader, any leader. They don’t have to be a world leader, just anyone, maybe a teacher from your school, and then she wanted them to state one principle they admire in that person. Different names like Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Abraham Lincoln, and many more popped up as students explained one of the reasons they liked that person.
After that, teachers moved onto their constitution. They explained that they had already made several different changes to some of the articles in the constitution without student help, and told everyone what changes were made. Afterwards, they asked students if there were any changes they would make to the constitution. Interestingly, no student suggestions were written on the board, and the buzz in the chat box was relatively light.
Mr. Hassler then clarified the changes the teachers had made to the constitution. He shared his screen with the meeting, and in detail described what was changed in the draft. After the explanation, the teachers hopped back to the slide where students would write up any ideas they had or changes they would make to the constitution. No students made any recommendations on the board, but some ideas revolving around clubs were tossed around. Specifically, members wanted the ability to start their own clubs. Soon enough though, they moved onto the next part of their meeting without reconciling whether or not this would happen.
The teachers changed slides, and Ms. Oates-Robesch introduced them into section 4 of their constitution. Mr. Hassler took over and began explaining the different responsibilities, perks, and other things involved with being in the student council. The hope would be that by reviewing this students would come next month and bring ideas of their own for the constitution.
Mr. Hassler quickly showed another slide, which was the second part of section four. He didn’t read it out, saying that they were running out of time and that students could read for themselves. After that, Ms. Oates-Robesch took over and they talked about sections 5 and 6 of the constitution.
The class connect was wrapped up soon after. Ms. Oates-Robesch brought up a slide, explaining that the next meeting would include any ideas students had for both the sections covered, and they would go over article 7, the final article.
During an unrecorded part of the meeting, moderators asked students if they had any good ideas for the Student Council. Different ideas were thrown about, and one was mentioned by our very own Editor-in-Chief, Kimia. She proposed the idea of making and printing a Student Council logo on t-shirts. Money gained from the sales would be sent maybe to charities of the Student Council’s choice, or it could also go to scholarship funds.
Overall, it was a very productive meeting.