The Wonderful, Delightful, Very Good Reason to Stay After School

The last thing most teachers want to do is increase the number of days they need to stay at work, after work.  After all, there are staff meetings, grade-level meetings, committee meetings, curriculum meetings, data meetings, parent meetings, etc. that already occur throughout the school year.  Not to mention all of the days teachers need to stay late to get their “regular” work done for a wide variety of reasons – educators, you know what I’m talking about.

However, I am writing this article to convince you that there is at least one very good reason for teachers to get excited about writing in their calendar “stay after school today”.  This reason benefits you, your students, your school community, and it could even benefit the region you live in.   What mythical gobbledygook am I referring to?  

Oh, it ain’t mythical gobbledygook, let me assure you.  It is the…

…AFTERSCHOOL CLUB.  

If these two words immediately send shivers down your spine, I understand.  But hear me out – if you have a subject/hobby/skill that you LOVE to teach about (like the 99.9% of the educators I know) – then trust me, you will love leading an afterschool club. And your students will love the opportunity to learn from you after the school day ends!

How Afterschool Clubs Benefit Students

The ways in which an afterschool club can benefit your students are too many to mention, too many to count!  But I will do my best to whittle down the ways to a few, important, overarching reasons: 

• Students can grow in their abilities.
  • Afterschool clubs can address academic interests, love of the arts, community service projects, hobbies, life skills, athletic pursuits, and more.  Going to school is not a choice for our students, and I’m sure many of you reading this have heard this complaint.  However, afterschool clubs are a choice, and when students commit to being a part of a club that piques their interest, growth in ability happens!

• Students can remain socially engaged after school.
  • I have heard students use the words “YouTube” and “TikTok” and “Roblox” as verbs.  When I’ve asked students what they’re doing after school, I have gotten responses such as: “I’m going to YouTube until dinner,” or “I can’t wait to Roblox.”  More often than that I get the “nothing” response…a lot of our students are going to do “nothing” after school.  Whether “doing TikTok” or doing “nothing”, there are a lot of students who do not have the opportunity, or the desire, to socialize after school – at least not in productive ways.  Providing an afterschool club that encourages growth of a skill, but also nurtures the opportunity to work together with others with common interests and common goals…wow.  Our students can tremendously prosper from healthy, socially engaging activities after school.

• Students can benefit from opportunities that don’t often exist.
  • When students take part in an afterschool program that addresses topics such as poetry, gardening, the Civil War, or basketball skills, they are benefiting from an opportunity that doesn’t normally exist.  Sure, there are a lot of topics addressed in school, but teachers only have so much time to delve into topics of great interest.  Sometimes we can only scratch the surface of a fascinating topic such as the Civil War, or a literary genre like poetry.  Educators also have the opportunity to help students refine skills, like athletic pursuits.  Some kids only like one sport, and when their sport isn’t in season, oftentimes the learning of skills stops – an afterschool club can change that.  
  • These opportunities are limited, and can also be unavailable to children due to the financial costs associated with extracurricular activities.  Not every family can afford to have their kids participate in after school programs, but schools can provide several afterschool programs for students that have no cost, or very limited fees.  

How Afterschool Clubs Benefit the Community

• Several afterschool programs can address community service needs.
  • In my experience, there are innumerable ideas that both students and teachers come up with on how to improve the school, or how students can help community members, but they rarely happen.  The reason why these ideas do not come to fruition is almost always because of lack of time.  Afterschool clubs that focus on community service can bring those ideas back to life and turn them into reality.  Helping the local retirement home?  Spaghetti dinner for bus drivers?  Fundraiser for a new playground?  Assisting the local food pantry?  Creating a positive mural in a school hallway?  These fantastic projects, and so many more, can happen with the effort of an afterschool club.

• Afterschool clubs can enhance camaraderie within school communities.
  • Getting a bunch of students together who are likeminded in their excitement about a particular topic can do wonders for a school community.  Kids don’t get a lot of chances during the school day to discuss, let alone engage in activities that they have a passion for, and doing so enhances student relationships.  Afterschool clubs provide students with the chance to bond and to strive to achieve something together.  
  • When educators, administrators, and students spend time together outside of the regular structure of the school day, stronger relationships form.  Afterschool clubs often allow educators to exhibit more excitement about a topic, focus less on behavioral management, and pay more attention to who their students are.  This, in turn, allows students to see educators in a different light – not just as their everyday teachers and disciplinarians, but as role models who sincerely care about them and about their interests.  

• More afterschool clubs produce more meaningfully engaged citizens.
  • Inactivity in youth can lead to a variety of problems.  Mental health issues.  physical health risks, poor relationships, and risky behaviors can all stem from a lack of activity.  Particularly in today’s world, when a person has “nothing to do”, instead of grabbing a pencil, shovel, paintbrush, baseball, chess piece, or book, students grab for that nearest, shiny object – the smartphone.  Or the remote.  Or the controller.  Or something else that might be dangerously addictive.  Afterschool clubs – particularly programs that aid students who can’t afford extracurricular activities or have a more unique hobby than others – can do wonders for our community’s citizens.  

How Afterschool Clubs Benefit the Educator

• Afterschool clubs provide teachers with the opportunity to teach what they love.
  • Imagine a world in which a school administrator informed you that this year you can teach whatever you want to teach, for however long you wish to teach it!  Sorry – not gonna happen.  But you can teach on that topic you love, for several weeks, to students who also share a love for the same topic, in an afterschool club!  It brings educators great joy to share their passion about a particular area.  It brings the excitement back to your profession – like an espresso shot added to your weekly routine!
  • And it may go without saying, but the more we instruct students on a particular topic, the better teachers we become.  

• Afterschool clubs can enhance relationships with students and families.
  • This bullet point statement has already been addressed earlier, but it is important to emphasize – the afterschool club experience between educators and students enhances relationships.  And these stronger relationships create better classroom environments, better understanding between students and teachers, and an increase in passion for doing well – both in the hearts and minds of students and educators.  
  • Parents and guardians of students who see teachers actively passionate about teaching their children, and see them make a commitment to helping their child grow during after school hours, often grow in their appreciation and respect of these educators.  Plus, the lines of communication often become stronger, too.  

• Afterschool club commitments can provide teachers with a stipend.
  • Last, and perhaps of least importance, dedicating your time and effort to leading an afterschool program can result in the possibility of a stipend.  Not all schools can provide this benefit, particularly schools with communities who might benefit from afterschool programs the most.  However, it is worth a shot to discover whether or not you could earn a stipend from volunteering to lead an afterschool club.  And the reason I suggested that the stipend was of least importance is this – if your goal in facilitating an afterschool program is the stipend, then you’ve lost the point of creating an afterschool program in the first place.  The purpose of creating and leading an afterschool club should be to benefit your students and your community with the knowledge and skills you have.  You will certainly reap rewards of one kind or another by doing so!

Conclusion

My goal for this article was to encourage you, the educator, to lead an afterschool club that will benefit your students, your community, and yourself.  Make up a list of your talents, your hobbies, your skillset.  After that, decide on a specific area you have enough time, energy, and passion for to lead an afterschool club – if your heart’s not in it, you won’t be in it, and your students won’t benefit from it.  Are you excited but hesitant?  Trust me – if you try it, you’ll like it!

Parents and guardians, you might have the ability to lead an afterschool program at your child’s school, too!  Check out what possibilities are available to you.  Or perhaps you could encourage a particular educator at your school who you’d love to see leading an afterschool club!

If an educator has a passion for a specific topic, and has the ability to teach well on that topic,  and has the energy to remain after school for an hour and a half to lead a club, then the sky is the limit for you and your students!