Twice a week we file into the auditorium to hear the latest events from around the school. We hear tales of victory, promises of thrilling entertainment, and the exploits of our fellow students and friends.
So why are announcements such an ordeal? Even at their best, announcements are simply tolerated and suffered through. Despite the good news that’s being presented, we tend to feel like announcements are a waste of time.
But announcements don’t have to be that way. If we all followed these simple rules, we could do away with the assembly angst.
Respect the speaker
If someone is speaking, listen quietly. It’s simple – we learned this sort of thing in Kindergarten.
Attempting to talk over the speaker creates a worse experience for everyone. It causes people to miss crucial information and makes the rest of the crowd think that it’s fine to talk as well. Even when you and your friend are talking about something completely unrelated to the speaker, you make the speaker self-conscious, causing him/her to stumble through the rest of the announcement and further deepening the already painful experience.
Respect the audience
This one is a little more complicated because it involves making a judgment call. The key to respecting the audience is making announcements that people care about or need to hear. If your club has four people in it, then you don’t need to spend five minutes of the entire school’s time with information that only pertains to them.
Always try to keep your announcements concise. For every ten seconds you speak, you lose roughly a third of your audience. The more efficiently you deliver your message, the bigger the audience you’ll get.
Have a good attitude
Assembly should be a time for us to come together as a school and celebrate the triumphs of our peers. We shouldn’t look at it as some sort of chore.
If you walk into the auditorium like a man condemned to death, you’re going to have a bad time. Keeping a positive attitude about announcements and going in with a respectful attitude then you’re going to have a much better assembly experience than you would have had otherwise.
