When students returned to school, administrators and the student services team were looking for ways to help everyone, in school or at home, connect in this ever-changing environment.

“I got the idea for teacher challenges from a campaign that was done at a private school in Maryland,” explained school Counselor Bruce Walker.

The idea, according to Walker, was to generate positive interactions and feelings from students and staff working together in a fun and meaningful way.

“During the pandemic, connecting can be challenging; however, it is great when you can find activities like the Campaign Challenge to bring people together.”

What better way to bring people together than asking teachers to do crazy things? But first, there were some ground rules. You couldn’t just challenge any teacher to do anything because participation should be voluntary. So instead, teachers had the opportunity to opt-in.

There were multiple choices for the teachers, and they were asked to pick three they would be willing to do. Options included learning and performing a TikTok dance, painting your face, singing karaoke, dumping an ice bucket on your head, dying your hair or wearing a wig, eating something spicy or gross, wearing a onesie all day, or cracking an egg on your head, and more.

“No egg to the head or pies to the face for me!” said Ms. Haley, who was challenged to wear a wig and sing a song. Haley decided to combine the two and wore a long blonde wig to sing a
parody of Wrecking Ball featuring FDR’s New Deal. Ms. Haley did a great job singing, and all students had lots of fun when listening to it.

“I thought it was a good way to build connection in a year that was totally disconnected because of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Haley.

From Mr. Bradford’s “Wig-Out” short film to Mr. Huang’s rendition of Eric Clapton’s “You Look Wonderful Tonight,” students enjoyed every minute of the goofiness.