Re-Imagining Givens
Re-Imagination Blog
We are so excited to announce the mascot that will represent Dr. Henry Givens Jr. Elementary starting with the 2021-2022 School Year!
The Givens Community has selected our new mascot and it is…… Ha, you thought we were going to share it. Join us on January 26th for the big reveal (information below).
Our students, led by our student committee, worked together to select a mascot that will represent our school starting in the 2021-2022 school year. We started with about 20 nominations and narrowed it down to 6 choices on the ballot. We spent a lot of time learning about various animals and how they interact with other animals and their habitats. This helped us select the options that would represent our school well.
We shared the ballot and video with those students that would be voting and students campaigned for the one they wanted to win. Check out some of the cool posters they made.
We held or election and there were 2 choices that rose to the top. We can’t wait to share them with you on January 26th at 5:30 pm. Join us on Zoom! We will post the reveal video after our reveal. See you soon!
Our Student Committee also had the opportunity to work with Mr. Jake Simon, a graphic designer, and a Givens parent. He told us all about how he works to tell stories and explain ideas with pictures, shapes, and colors and showed us how we do the same. He told us about all sorts of cool jobs artists use their skills in. Finally, he shared with us some important tips to remember when selecting our mascot and logo designs and utilized our feedback to start creating our new logo for our school. We enjoyed Mr.Simon and appreciated his words, “No one else is exactly like you, so anything you create is special and important.”
Mr. Simon and Ms. Cook, our Givens Art Teacher, will be collaborating with us to design our mascot and logo graphics. There will be a sneak peek on January 26th.
Zoom Information:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/93671722118?pwd=MTZRL3pnTEtGTjUzeFl5VElRVUJvZz09
Meeting ID: 936 7172 2118
Passcode: 4Py0aB
Hello Givens Community! Everyone has been pitching in to prepare for our transition. Our student committee has been hard at work, and we almost have our new mascot selected. We wanted to share our journey with you.
Five students, nominated by their teachers, were asked to represent the voices of their peers in electing the new mascot for our school. During our first meeting, we learned all about the importance of a mascot and how they work to represent the business or school they stand for. We then planned out the lesson that all students would receive before we opened for nominations. They wanted to include two important pieces of information:
- An opportunity for their peers to learn about the role of a mascot in representing the business or school they are chosen for.
- An Opportunity for students to understand the Guiding Principles we have been using in our work.
Each classroom teacher used the slides created by our committee to teach the mini-lesson to their students. There were opportunities for virtual students and future students to participate in this process. After that, we started collecting nominations and received about 20 different entries. Students had to submit the mascot choice and evidence that connected to our Guiding Principles. We saw some very creative entries.
Our committee met, and narrowed down the choices using criteria we came up with together:
- The mascot can not be the same as another school within our district.
- It must be a mascot that does not show disrespect to any person or group of people.
- The evidence must connect with our Guiding Principles
- The animal must be viewed in a positive light.
We narrowed our ballot down to the six choices below. All Current and Future students will get the opportunity to vote (Future students will receive an emailed ballot). Voting will open on December 18th and close on January 7th. Students may choose to use the upcoming week to campaign for the mascot choice they would like to win.
Following the election, we will share the winning mascot on January 12th. Our student committee will then work with a logo designer to help create our new logo. We are excited about this work and meeting our goal of including our peers and staff in our process.
Next fall, as you know, Dr. Henry Givens Jr. Elementary School will transition from a lottery-based school to a neighborhood school for the 2021-2022 school year.
We are reaching out to you today to let you know about a special opportunity to learn more by attending a Zoom meeting for families. You’ll be able to meet Ms. Beecham and members of the staff, take a virtual tour, and participate in a question and answer session.
We’re looking forward to Fall 2021 and the new Dr. Henry Givens Jr. School. We hope you’ll join us on Zoom as we prepare to move forward.
To sign up and submit questions, follow this link: https://forms.gle/qzDmQKjpnMemjU7Z6
We will email you the Zoom link to join.
We look forward to seeing you soon!