Our intention this school year is to dive deeper into how our shared values and scholar values are intertwined.”

Megan Werner | Imagine Prep Surprise teacher and Character and House Committee lead

Students and staff at Imagine Prep Surprise took part in meaningful lessons and friendly competition during the quarterly House Party Day on Oct. 2.

House Party Days give students and staff the opportunity to immerse themselves into the “shared values and scholar values” the school practices.

During this first House Party Day, students and staff interacted with lessons surrounding the scholar value of confidence.

Imagine Schools CEO Jason Bryant was on campus for the day, and he was able to see first hand the importance of these events for the school community.

Bryant said he loved the teacher-facilitated discussions and the focus on character development and scholar values.

Each member of Imagine Prep Surprise is sorted into one of four houses. Many of the activities on House Party Days are focused on collaboration and community amongst an assigned house. The four houses are all types of Storms or weather events; red Earthquake, blue Blizzard, orange Hurricane and green Tornado.

Teacher and Character and House Committee lead Megan Werner said the House Party meets the needs of the school, while focusing and growing our character development.

“Our intention this school year is to dive deeper into how our shared values and scholar values are intertwined, how they build off and onto each other to create engaged participants who desire to do the right thing,” Werner said.

The lessons are curated in a way that encourages substantial conversations between students and staff about what it looks like to be character driven members of our community and society.

Michele Pelletier, a teacher and member of the Character and House Committee, said one of the highlights of her day was getting to have conversations with her students.

“Getting to have detailed conversations with my students about what it means to be confident and how confidence looks different in different settings/around different people,” Pelletier said. “Students were able to reflect on their current levels of confidence with friends, family, at school, and around strangers.”

In between classroom lessons, students participated in games and competitions during middle school and high school assemblies. These assemblies encourage friendly competition between the students and teachers of each house as they try to earn points for their house.

Another highlight of Pelletier’s day was getting to work with her house, the Tornado house, to create a house chant.

“Students were collaborating and so innovative when trying to incorporate characteristics of the house and school into fun chants to boost school spirit and morale,” Pelletier said.