Spirit Week…but make it virtual. Normally, Patriot students would be showing off their school spirit and creative costumes at school. However, for the first time ever, Patriot students will be participating in Spirit Week virtually.

The origins of Spirit Week trace all the way back to the first model of Spirit Week, which was known as “Friendship Week” at Palo Alto High School in California. It was intended to welcome back students at the start of a new school year. Later, in the 1960s, “Friendship Week” was renamed Spirit Week.

Since then, Spirit Week has become a common tradition observed by schools all over America. Now, due to online learning, some schools, such as Patriot, are having to make their Spirit Weeks virtual.

Assistant Principal Mrs. Lucas says the Patriot students will be participating in Spirit Week virtually through Zoom.

“We plan to use the month of November to kick-off spirit for Patriot and to encourage students to turn on their cameras during live instruction” Lucas said. “We hope the students will participate virtually via cameras, we will post some pictures of Patriot students wearing spirit wear on our Facebook and Twitter pages as well.”

Many teachers try to encourage students to turn on their cameras during class, but many students remain hesitant to do so. Patriot teachers and administrators hope that encouraging students to show school spirit and show off their spirit wear may be a good way to start getting cameras on.

While distance learning has presented some challenges this year, teachers are hoping that they still get a good amount of participation during Spirit Week.

“I would like to be optimistic and say there will be more participation, so I will hold my hope out for that.  There tends to be more spirit when we have pep rallies–which actually gives me an idea for a virtual pep rally,” Mrs. Lucas said.

Patriot’s staff feels that keeping up the Patriot spirit through this virtual year is important. They hope that students will make the most of this Spirit Week and truly show their Patriot Pioneer spirit.