At Joyner Elementary School, we recently have discussed important places within

communities. We want to be able to empower students on how we should be giving back to these

places that make our community a better place. One of the community locations we talk about is

school. School is an important location as it helps many kids as well as adults learn and grow. At

Joyner, though, we have noticed that this wonderful community place is not being kept up very

well. So for our action plan, we want to get the students involved in making the school a cleaner

and better place and encourage them to continue to recognize and give back to the many places

that make the community a great place.

It is important to have a clean and safe space, especially at school. If a space is dirty, it

can not only affect the building itself and its longevity, but also the learning environment for

students. If students are learning with dirt, dust they could have the potential of hurting

themselves by falling or getting exposed to harmful germs and also get grossed out and not focus

on their work. This could also affect certain allergies within the school. Having a clean

environment to learn in can promote motivation in classrooms as they don’t have to worry about

what they are being exposed to and can focus on other aspects of their school day.

Being knowledgeable about the community and how it affects others is a part of global

citizenship. Implementing the cleanliness action plan at Joyner Elementary School creates an

opportunity for students to become knowledgeable global citizens and start recognizing where

they can make a difference within their community. Making an impact in the community can

help students recognize the change that they can make in the places around them for the good

and betterment of society.

Social Action Plan Steps with Timeline:
Week 1:

1. Discuss school cleanliness with our mentor teacher and the school custodial staff

For the first step, we need to speak with our mentor teacher and school custodial staff to

find out more about the school cleanliness. How often is the school cleaned? Do you have

family/student cleanup days? Do you know why the school is not being cleaned often?

What hurdles do you anticipate us facing in trying to implement a family/student cleanup

day at Joyner Elementary School?

2. Call student’s attention to the cleanliness of the school and teach a lesson on keeping

the community safe and clean

To engage the students, we will teach a lesson about the cleanliness of our school and

teach a lesson on keeping the community a safe and clean space for everyone, which will

serve as a jumping off point in the following steps.

3. Engage students in community service and what goes into community service by

reading books

During this step, we want to further students’ understanding on community service and

why it is important. We plan to use a variety of texts and examples so that they can

grapple with the new ideas.

4. Discuss action we can take as a class

After talking about community service and ways that we can help our school community

by keeping it clean, we will engage in a classroom discussion about our next steps to

cleaning our classroom and the school.

5. Have a classroom cleanup day

During this step, we will implement a classroom cleanup day to engage students in giving

back to their community and creating a safe and clean place for everyone in the

classroom. This will help students realize how dirty the school is and deepen their

understanding for the need for them to impact their community. It will also allow them to

see the difference they make when doing simple acts to give back to their community.

Week 2:

1. Discuss action plan with school administration

Before we get started on the school clean up and social action plan, we need to confirm

with the administration about our implementation. We need to make sure that it would

not create issues with school policies and codes. We also need to make sure that the

materials we decide to use for the cleanup are ok to use.

2. Plan one morning school clean up time session for families and students
3. Plan one afternoon school clean up time session for families and students

4. Plan one evening school clean up time session for families and students

It is important to have multiple times for the clean up to occur. This way every family can

try and get involved and they cannot go out of their way to make one time. Everyone’s

schedules are different, many times because of work, so if we have multiple sessions and

different times in the day, we can get more involvement in the plan and clean up the

school even more. If some parents don’t want to be involved, that is ok. We will hopefully

have a lot more involvement by planning multiple sessions. We also want to make sure

the custodial staff are involved as they are an important resource that the school already

has and we need to appreciate them and get them to help as well.

Week 3:

1. Take students on a field trip to a fire station or other community location

By taking students to another community location, they can be able to see first-hand the

impact these people can make on the community. We will make sure to talk about what

the place does to help the community. We will also ask questions about the importance of

keeping that location safe and clean so that the students can see the importance in other

places outside of school. They will then be able to translate it into the school environment

and be empowered to keep the school clean. If students aren’t able to go on the field trip,

we could also have people come into the classroom and speak instead.

2. Have students come up with an action plan to keep the school clean

After being involved in the cleanup, the students should be able to brainstorm ideas to

keep school clean for the rest of their time there. This will allow them to create change

themselves and make an impact on the environment around them.

3. Have students come up with another community service action plan for another

location within their community

To continually empower the student to create social change, there needs to be further

discussion about what students can do after they helped clean up the school. Allow the

students to create their own ideas of ways to help out the community by having time for

discussion.

Involving the Community:

There are many individuals we can collaborate with to implement a cleanup day for

Joyner Elementary School. Some individuals that would need to be involved would be students,

teachers, caregivers of the students, administrators, school custodial staff, the PTA, the Joyner

community, and the district. Key constituents to engage would be other teachers, especially our

grade level team, caregivers of the students, students, administration, and the custodial staff. In

order to engage these individuals, it will be important to keep them informed and value their

input every step of the way. In order to involve the students’ caregivers, the idea would be to

send home newsletters, emails, information on the TV screens posted around the school, and the

classroom website. The idea will also be discussed during a grade level PLT to gain support from

fellow teachers. It will also be helpful to gain support of the administrators which could also be

done during the PLT grade level meeting and discussion explaining the need for change.

It is important to gain support from these groups and individuals, because they will play a

vital role in the implementation and action of the school cleanup day. A community cleanup day

at the school and the implementation cannot be done by a single teacher alone. It requires the

support and collaboration of other teachers to implement it within their own classroom and the

school. It also requires the approval of administration to be implemented. We also need the
custodial staff to show us places around the school that they need help cleaning. We also need

caregivers to assist in a community cleanup day, voicing their support to the administration, and

helping get classroom resources for the cleanliness of the school.

Some individuals may resist the school cleanup day for many reasons. Administrators

may resist the school clean up due to liability concerns or costs of the supplies. Other teachers

may resist the clean up because of the extra time taken from class and after school. Some

caregivers might resist the clean up because of extra time needed from them and they may not

see value in this because the school already has custodians. However, we believe that all these

individuals can be engaged when presented clear facts and multiple opportunities for the

involvement of all parties. Also, because of the change and impact it will make on the school and

the community.

Resources:

To help with the clean up, there will be a variety of materials that will need to be used. There

will be cleaning supplies such as vacuums, wipes, brooms, floor cleaner, and mops for the inside

of the school. The outside of the school can be cleaned with the help of rakes, clippers, and lawn

bags to help with the debris. People can probably bring their own personal resources to help and

we can also use the materials that the school already has. Another way we can continue to keep

the school clean is by having baskets of cleaning materials for each grade level. That way, each

grade level has the resources and ability to continue to keep their classrooms and the school

clean in the future. Here is a picture of what the baskets could look like:
Outcomes:

By implementing cleanliness and community involvement at Joyner Elementary School, we

hope to show students that they can make a difference in the community around them. It is our

hope that the students will become empowered, informed learners that leave our school knowing

that they have the power to make our community a better place. Brining cleanliness and

community involvement to our school will not only be a positive change for our school and the

environment, but it will also give students the confidence they need to engage in the community

and be the change they wish to see in the community.