In response to Howell’s in-person homecoming spirit week, English teacher Chelsea Eifert organized a virtual spirit week for virtual students set for Oct. 19-23. 

“The idea started the first week of school when one of my hours discovered a lot of them were into cosplay and said ‘That would be so fun if we dressed up’,” Eifert said.

The idea of doing a group cosplay was put on the backburner until homecoming spirit week started. Freshmen were disappointed in missing out on their first high school spirit week and Eifert came up with the idea of holding a virtual version. 

Eifert announced on Canvas saying it was up to the students to create ideas for different themed days, and from there, students posted their ideas and had others comment and like their posts. Whichever posts had the most likes got selected by Eifert for the upcoming spirit week.

With assistant principal Jessie Altman’s approval, Eifert spread the word through Facebook in a virtual teacher group and emailed other online teachers throughout the district. Head of the virtual classes Luke Lamers, sent out an email on Oct. 15 to all high school level teachers about the spirit week.

The goal of the virtual spirit week is to bring a sense of community to the online students who don’t get the opportunity to participate in school spirit activities.