Ambassador Program
I recently posted a video with one of my 5th grade Ambassadors doing a Greeter training (click link to see the video). This prompted a lot of questions about Ambassadors, Greeters, and how I set this all up. For all those wondering, here you go!
What are Ambassadors?
Ambassadors are a special group of my 5th graders who are expected to be representatives of my school. They conduct tours for guests, attend community events, attend district recruitment events, and partake in other events that require representation.
How do you become an Ambassador?
At the end of their 4th grade year, interested students have a week to apply for the position. The application is simple: obtain signatures from their homeroom teacher and three of their specials teachers (art, music, PE, etc.) and write an essay on why they believe they would be a good Ambassador. Based on the completed applications, my leadership team selects the top 15-20 to interview. For their interview, the student meets with my leadership team and is asked a series of questions (e.g. Tell us about your greatest strengths that would make you a good Ambassador. What is your favorite part of Moore and why?). We are not so much concerned about what they say, but how they think quickly on their feet, remain calm under pressure, and speak clearly and fluently. After the sit-down interview, the student does a mock tour down the hallway with members of the leadership team, explaining the school to the best of their ability in a short amount of time. Again, we’re not concerned as much about what they say as we are in how they hold themselves, speaking voice, remaining calm, etc. In the end, 6-8 Ambassadors will be chosen.
How do you train Ambassadors?
Ambassadors begin training at the end of their 4th grade year. They begin learning the way to greet guests, talk about the school, differentiate their conversations depending on who is in the building, and building confidence in their skills. Much of this is modeled at first by the outgoing 5th grade Ambassadors, who also do one-on-one training with the newly inducted Ambassadors. During the summer, I bring in the Ambassador for at least two or three “boot camp” training sessions, where we dig in deeper and begin the real tough training. I admit, I fuss a lot at these sessions because the Ambassadors are the face of the school, and I need to ensure that they are top notch. Once the school year starts, training continues for several weeks with intense scenario role plays. All of the training is based on a system I created called S.P.E.C.I.A.L. You can read more about it here.
What are Greeters?
In addition to my Ambassadors, every K-5 classroom in my school has two important jobs: classroom greeter and hallway greeter. The classroom greeter is an assigned classroom job where anytime a person walks into a classroom (administrator, school guest, parent, etc.), that student walks over to that person, shakes their hand, and greets them. The greeting usually goes along the lines of “Good morning, my name is _______. Welcome to Ms. ______’s room. Today we are doing _______. It was nice to meet you.” The hallway greeter has the same idea, but is done in the hallway. A pre-assigned student approaches a guest or administrator in the hall, and greets the person. You can see a video about Greeters from a local news station here.
What is the secret to successful implementation?
Solid training and constant feedback is necessary in order to make this program successful. If teachers are not bought in and held accountable, and administration is not firmly behind the implementation, then this will not work. It is best when consistent messages and modeling are heard and experienced.
Need help making this happen?
I am currently booking professional developments for the fall. If you need help bringing this to your school, you can contact me here.
Also, check out Abe Hege and my book, The Limitless School, which is all about building positive school culture. It has an entire chapter on making positive first impressions within your school!
