Friday mornings are anything but ordinary at Wayside: Altamira Academy.
The school buzzes with excitement as scholars and some of their parents gather in the cafeteria, anxiously awaiting the weekly assembly. Before things kick off, students dance along with videos on the big screen. Then, Dan Horn, Altamira Academy’s principal, starts the morning by leading scholars in the pledge.
Altamira scholars have been practicing their pledges all year. During Friday assembly, they recite three different pledges, in both English and Spanish.
They begin with the Pledge of Allegiance in dual languages, before continuing with Texas’ pledge in both English and Spanish as well. Finally, they conclude with the Altamira Academy pledge. In addition to two languages, they also use hand signs during this pledge.
“We’ve been doing the pledge in English and Spanish, but this year we added the hand signs for the school pledge,” Horn said. “Our scholars picked it up incredibly quick. It’s a great way to end our week.”
After announcements and birthday songs, scholars await the day’s most exciting announcement. Horn reads off a list of classes that had perfect attendance for the week. As the assembly ends, those classes get to stay for attenDANCE, a 10-minute celebration dance party.
A new feature this year, attenDANCE is a reward for classes who demonstrate the Wayside Way of being both prompt and principled through their perfect attendance. Prompt and principled are two of the 5 P’s of Professionalism that all Waysiders strive to achieve.
AttenDANCE is wildly popular with the Aviators. Alongside their teachers, they freestyle dance to popular songs, from Imagine Dragons to Justin Timberlake, with a bit of Disney thrown in.
“Altamira Academy is a place for our scholars to learn and grow,” Horn said. “But, it’s important to reward hard work, and our Friday attenDANCE proves Aviators can work hard and play hard.”