High school’s SHOUT Club spreads positivity notes
Courtesy of Canon-McMillan School District
Kayla Guyton, co-chair and CM SHOUT founder, writes a positive message to her fellow students.
Courtesy of Canon-McMillan School District
Post-it notes with positive messages written on them that were spread throughout the high school.
SHOUT stands for Social Handprints Overcoming Unjust Treatment, and its goal is to help foster and celebrate diversity, inclusion, and equity in the school and local community. SHOUT is entirely student-run and collaborates with students in SHOUT chapters in neighboring districts. C-M’s SHOUT Club just started this year, so they are starting from scratch.
C-M SHOUT students wanted to spread positivity Post-it notes to all of their classmates, especially the seniors presenting their graduation projects in their exit interviews on a Friday In-Service Day in March. Graduation projects are a huge deal, and many students were feeling incredibly stressed on Friday. This is also a day where some fully remote students were likely coming to school for the first time in a year. The club hoped that the encouraging notes made the students feel confident and appreciated! This project was purely donation-based and student-funded. Whoever had the means to bring in notes, markers and tape did so. With school increasing to four days a week, the club felt as if the staff and students could use an extra positivity boost.
The club even challenged people outside of the club to put positive Post-it notes somewhere in the school for someone to see it. They have an Instagram account (@cm.shout) and encouraged people to use the hashtag #postitnotepositivity and tag them to be featured in their story on the social network.
Students also targeted specific teachers by writing notes in different languages for the foreign language teachers and content-specific messages for various content areas. Kathryn Crago, High School English teacher and advisor for the club, said they all were all excited and had fun with this project,
“One fully remote student was so excited to post a positive message for his favorite teacher, Mr. Sohyda, knowing that he would be surprised to see a hand-written note on his door from a remote student. We had a blast!”
SHOUT is also a student leadership organization, and Crago is continuously impressed with her students in the club.
“My SHOUT students impress me every day. This is a special group of student-leaders who are committed to our mission of inclusivity, equity, and true change. We are just getting started. Follow our Instagram page @cm.shout to stay up to date on our upcoming events and initiatives.”