One of our more asked about classroom events is our weekly Dress To Impress initiative. This blog post explains this school-wide initiative.
Dress To Impress: The Origin
Several years ago our school started “Bowtie Tuesday” and we encouraged boys to wear bowties and ties. Our principal and the few male teachers all participated. After the success of this, we decided to make it all-inclusive for boys and girls and started “Dress To Impress” Tuesday. We encourage students to wear ties, bowties, and dresses.
The Benefits Of Dressing Up
- shows people you take care of yourself
- draws positive attention
- improves self-esteem
- helps communication
- shows self-respect
All of these can lead to improvements in behavior. This initiative is also a great community-building tool. As you walk through the building each week, the students are proud of their outfits and they want to talk about it. And we all know the importance of relationships and language development for our students.
Dress To Impress: The Rules
We get asked, “how do you know who is dressed to impress?” For us, it’s easy because we have standard school attire. Students are required to wear jeans or khakis and solid color shirts. That means it’s easy to see who is dressed to impress.
Are students required to participate? No. It’s a voluntary initiative. Over the course of the year, every student will participate. Some do it every week, some occasionally.
What about students who’s family can’t provide clothing? Again, this is voluntary so it’s not something that we want families or students to stress about. If this is an issue or if it’s something to a family shares with me, we make sure to find clothes/ties/dresses so the child can participate.
For more on our classroom, check out these posts:
