DARE Program

In 5th grade we have a DARE program that we use. Our officer usually comes into our classroom once a week (for 10 weeks) for about an hour and tackles 10 lessons. The lessons cover everything from stress to confident speaking to staying healthy. This year he joined our TEAMs meetings to deliver the lessons. Kids had to be responsible to fill in their workbooks at home. 

It’s a big deal.

In a normal year we have a lot of community building and community service activities that we complete. Walking field trip to the park to clean it up, a bus field trip trip to a local nursing home, and then a lot of food and clothing donations. Kids earn community service points. 

All students must participate in a DARE Idol competition. They work together in small groups to take a song, and change the lyrics to make it DARE related. To show off some things that they learned.

When we tackled it this year we were still in full distance mode. We had already tackled Book Clubs in special channels, so I had the kids do the same thing. We picked groups, then daily I started meetings for them in these channels for them to work on their song. 

We were given a date to have all groups share their songs with the class and with our DARE officer. The kids met with me the week before and I used Screencast -o-Matic to record them. I simply put the record screen over the TEAMs meeting screen (while I was in large gallery with my camera off) to be able to get the kids as large as possible. It worked great! 

Even in this crazy year, the kids still completed the other requirements. Our officer still had them fill in their workbook lessons, complete their DARE essay, and tackle their DARE homework. The kids had to turn in their workbook and essay to the office for him to pick up and read. They had to have a passing grade on the homework and complete the requirements to be eligible to graduate. The simple thing of turning in a completed workbook to the office really showed their amount of dedication. 

In a normal year our graduation is a big celebration. It’s usually in the packed gym with parents, grandparents, and extended family there. Kids are presented with their awards, there are speeches and presentations, kids sing the DARE song. Parents tear up. 

This year was a lot simpler, more low key, but definitely more personal. We had a drive thru graduation. Kids wore their DARE shirts. Parents drove through our front driveway, we had balloons tied on chairs. Kids were announced over a loud speaker boom box as they drove up. They were handed their certificate by our officer and police chief. Some got out of cars to pose for pictures with them. Teachers waved. It was nice. It was nice that something was simple this year. 

Do your DARE too?