Last June, I read George Couros’ blog post about Identity Day. George is a principal at Forest Green School in Stony Plain Alberta, and he’s a very important part of my Twitter PLN. At the end of the last school year, all of the staff and students at Forest Green School prepared special projects about what matters to them. Throughout the day, George tweeted out photographs of these projects, and then he compiled these photographs and his thoughts about the day into numerous blog posts on Identity Day. I was inspired!

I thought that this was such a terrific concept that I brought it forward to the staff at my school, and they were eager to have an Identity Day too. Throughout the summer, I shared blog posts with the staff about Identity Day, including this fantastic presentation that George did for the Reform Symposium. When school started in September, we started discussing Identity Day more. Later a committee was formed, and the planning began. Throughout the planning process, other schools such as Chris Wejr’s school in British Columbia had their own Identity Day, and sharing their experiences helped shape ours too. Thank you!

The first week in May is always Education Week and Open House as well, and the committee thought that having Identity Day and Open House on the same day would be a great idea. That’s exactly what we did! Two days ago, Ancaster Meadow School had its first Identity Day, and it was a tremendous success!

Here’s my Top 5 List of What I Loved About Identity Day:

1) It builds community. Everybody at the school created an Identity Day Project. Projects were displayed everywhere – from the ones hanging on the caretakers’ door to the ones hanging on the wall in the hallway to the ones in the classrooms – and looking around the school on May 5th, it looked and felt like we all played an equally important role in the school community.

2) It builds self-confidence. Staff and students were sharing projects about what matters to them, and others were genuinely interested in these projects too. All around, you saw students that are usually quiet and uncertain, smiling, interacting, and enjoying themselves!

3) It teaches you something new about others. All day long, I heard students saying, “I didn’t know that about ________,” or, “Did you know that about ____________?” My class even reflected on what they learned about others based on the Identity Day Projects. I think that what students and teachers learned on Identity Day will help them connect with others for the rest of the year and into next year too.

4) It gets people talking. Oral language is so important, and I know that as teachers, we try to create meaningful ways for students to talk. Sometimes planning these discussions though just makes them come out as rehearsed. Identity Day resulted in real conversations taking place. Students were asking questions and engaging in discussions. What a great day!

5) It’s fun! Identity Day wasn’t about Success Criteria or test scores. It was a celebration of us. There wasn’t one right answer or one way of completing the project. Staff and students allowed themselves to be creative, and the results were amazing!

From the photographs and videos that my Grade 1 and 2 students took on Identity Day, here’s an Animoto Slideshow that I put together about this special day:

Click On The Image To View The Slideshow

A special thank you to all of the staff, students, and parents for making Identity Day such a fantastic day for everyone! Thanks for sharing a little bit of YOU with the rest of us.

What are your thoughts on Identity Day? Would you want to have another Identity Day next year? Why or why not? What could make this day even better? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Aviva