Rockwell Elementary's Friday Assembly and Citizen of the Week
By Katelynn KillmoreThis article was written by Katelynn Killmore, Principal of Rockwell Elementary in the Onondaga Central School District in New York. Katelynn is a Rockwell parent and a Teach For America alumna. Rockwell holds a schoolwide assembly every Friday morning where students present the week’s character strength and one Citizen of the Week is announced.
Every Friday morning at Rockwell Elementary, something special happens. Our entire school gathers for a weekly assembly where students celebrate character, leadership, and The Positivity Project (P2) character strength of the week.
P2 is built on 24 character strengths drawn from the VIA Classification, strengths like perseverance, gratitude, integrity, and kindness. All our classrooms work through one strength each week, so every student in the building is thinking about the same idea.
Throughout the week, classrooms explore that strength and discuss what it looks like in action. On Fridays, those lessons come to life.
Students Lead the Assembly
Students help lead the assembly by presenting the weekly strength through performances, skits, or presentations for the rest of the school. This tradition reinforces our shared language around character and helps students see these strengths modeled by their peers.
The presentations change from week to week depending on the strength and the students leading them. What stays the same is that the whole school is in one room, and the students on stage are the ones teaching instead of the teachers.
Citizen of the Week
One of the most meaningful moments of the assembly is our Citizen of the Week award.
Each week, one student from the entire school is selected for this honor. Students can only receive the award once during their time at Rockwell, and not every student will earn it. That rarity makes the recognition deeply meaningful.
How a Student Is Chosen
The selected student has exemplified the strength of the week while consistently demonstrating other P2 character strengths.
The student’s teacher writes a reflection describing why the student was chosen and how they embody these strengths in their daily actions. During the assembly, the teacher reads that reflection aloud to the entire school community. The student receives a certificate and takes on special leadership roles throughout the following week.
The certificate is the smallest part. The teacher, who knows the student best, writes the reflection, and the whole school hears it.
What Families Tell Us
What makes this tradition work is the buy-in from our students and families. Parents often share that their children talk about P2 character strengths at the dinner table and reflect on which strengths they are working to demonstrate, hoping to one day earn Citizen of the Week.
Those conversations happen at home, organically, without a teacher assigning them, which shows the impact the lessons are having.
More Than an Award
Over time, this tradition has grown into a meaningful way for our entire community to celebrate character and live the values of P2 every day.
Students who have been at Rockwell for a few years have sat through dozens of Friday mornings. They have watched classmates present nearly every one of the 24 strengths, and they have heard dozens of teacher reflections read out loud about students they know. That adds up to a shared understanding of what character looks like at our school, and motivation for students to win the Citizen Award.