Daily Assemblies: Deepening Relationships Through Ritual and Recognition (Transcript)

Tim: Creating this strong sense of community inside our school empowers our students to transform their mentality. Creating that positive culture is something that we’ve done that has been very, very effective.

Every morning we start our school day with something we call community. And really, that’s a celebration of our students’ assets. It’s stand up in front of the entire school, all your classmates, and be applauded.

Gregory: Community is a time for all the young men to gain some sense of self, but also a sense that you’re not in it alone.

Dion: We’re able to see one another’s faces every day, and we’re able to come together as a family. It’s the ritual, it’s the relationship, and it’s also a little respect. The drums start Community. We always try to make the connection with something that is historically significant in their culture. So now we’re going to line up, come to order.

Dion: Good morning.

Students: Good morning.

Dion: How are my black and brown, beautiful and intelligent young men today? Very, very good. Let’s check in.

Quintin: We check our uniforms to make sure that we’re nice and neat. We’ll all walk around and shake each other’s hands and basically greet each other.

Dion: It is time to show your brother some love.

Gregory: The togetherness, that’s a big part of community. It just gives a different type of feel to the connection between student and teacher.

Quintin: Just getting to cooperate with people and seeing them every day and shaking their hands, I start to get like, “Hey, I know this guy. I can’t talk to him in the future.”

Tim: We like to focus on our young men as assets, as opposed to the negatives that society so often focuses on when it comes to young black males.

Dion: We’re celebrating those young men who have reached the 4.0 mark. Give it up.

Teacher: At least three days a week, we distribute gold ties to our students.

Deveon: If you receive a gold tie, that means that a teacher or staff member has recognized you for doing something that was exceptional over the course of the week, so then you get to wear a gold tie for a week.

Dion: These young mathematicians have risen to the occasion when called upon.

Deveon: In my math class, I was seen as an outstanding student and sometimes if I see one of my fellow students struggling, I’ll try to help them as much as I can.

Lionel: We want to celebrate you for being excellent in your classes, for showing academic growth, for being a great citizen, for having a commitment to doing the right thing, for getting accepted to college.

Tim: Then we end community every day with reciting the Urban Prep creed.

Deveon: We believe.

Students: We are the young men of Urban Prep. We are college bound. We are exceptional.

Tim: The creed was developed by our first group of teachers and administrators. We asked ourselves, what do we want our students to believe? And those eighteen lines of that creed are the answer.

Gregory: It’s important that we say it every morning, so that they get in ingrained in their minds.

Students: We are dedicated, committed and focused.

Gregory: Some students see the true value in the creed, instantly.

Students: We never fail because we never give up.

Gregory: And for some, it may be like, why do we have to say this?

Students: We choose to live honestly, non-violently and honorably.

Gregory: It’s all about that maturing and growth.

Students: We are our brothers’ keepers. We believe in ourselves, in each other, In Urban Prep. We believe.

Timothy: As I was going through it, I realized that I was becoming more responsible, and a lot of the core values that we were drilled every day in community were actually becoming a part of my life.

Teacher: When they leave community, feeling good about themselves and being an Urban Prep student, it’s more likely that they actively and positively engage in the academic process.

Tim: If you create rituals within your school that are uniquely yours, a student feels like they are part of something special. It’s an experience they can’t get someplace else.

Lionel: You believe in their greatness and you celebrate them, but you also hold them accountable.

Deveon: If I was to ever slack off, I know that I have hundreds of other people who would get on me about it. We’re all brothers so we just help each other. It’s all uplifting.

Schools That Work

Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men -- Englewood Campus