In the good old days, the morning announcements were a vital part of our early hours here at North Atlanta High School. Suddenly, however, the return to the building saw that warm Warrior welcome being taken away from us. Do you ever get the feeling that the mornings are bland and underwhelming? Maybe the long break from in person schooling has something to do with it. This time period definitely affected the way the administration did their jobs in regards to the morning announcements. In fact, no administrator was even motivated to manage a morning announcements routine this year. 

Luckily, in their place, peer leaders here at North Atlanta made it their goal to facilitate student led morning announcements. With good spirits and high hopes for the process, North Atlanta’s head of athletics – Coach Regan – assembled a dependable team to help them execute the idea in the right way. Together, the students did what any teenager would do, and made a group chat titled “Morning Announcements.” This group chat is the morning announcement crew’s main method of communication. Every morning, a JROTC student joins the crew in saying “good morning” in a variety of languages, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

 If anything, at least we know that there will always be a greeting and a pledge because it’s actually mandatory for select JROTC students now. “The more voices, the better” quickly became a saying associated with the morning announcements because it can be mundane to hear the same voices everyday. However, communication is lacking in a few areas. Though these technology prone students are used to texting in a group chat all day, there can be miscommunication in who’s doing the announcements for what day and what those announcements are going to be on that particular day. Let’s say a team member is absent from school one day because he/she is out sick. If not communicated through the groupchat, the others have no way of knowing that information and as a result, last minute accommodations have to be made to fill the void. 

In other instances, there may not be enough people on announcements as it’s nearing the ‘24K Magic’ song that is the 8:45 bell. Composing a script each day is less work for the crew and more so for two of its powerhouse members. The script is formed from the lengthy list of announcements sent to the designated email address, [email protected]. The personalities take over with how the announcements are conveyed and how they end. Every part is important and everyone has to be a team player. 

Obviously they’re not perfect, but in their defense, it is their first rodeo and they are still building the foundation of what the morning announcements could be. So yes, it is a work in progress, but the morning announcement crew is on it. New recruits are trickling in and new personalities will be brightening your days at North Atlanta High School.