Starting on Feb. 18, the Taipei American School Upper School will launch into to its annual event of Spirit Week. Students will participate in a variety of different dress up days as well as class games. Today, class games included “Priest of the Parish,” as well as a class dean mystery game of tug-o-war in which students wore silk socks. On Wednesday, students will play scooter bottle and dodgeball.
Activities outside of the official Spirit Week events will also be held this upcoming Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesday, students can participate in a pillow fight activity in the Upper School courtyard, and on Thursday, cartoons will be played in the cafeteria. On Friday, the anticipated winners of Spirit Week will be announced during the final Spirit Week assembly of 2019. Class dances, now named “Airdance,” and class cheers will be performed in front of the whole Upper School, and all four class videos will be played.
This year, student Government made changes to Spirit Week to the point tallying system. Last year, Field Day was 15 percent, and class games were worth 10 percent. Dressup, class videos, class dances and class cheers were all 18.75 percent. Although Field Day remains 15 percent of the total score, dressup, class games, class videos, class dances and class cheers will all be 17 percent.
The changes to the point system were implemented partly because StuGov wanted to shift students’ focus from competing to supporting one another. “One of our main goals of the entire year is focusing on community. That is also why we had rule changes [during] Field Day; [we] want to focus on getting together and not just on [the] competition,” Natalie C. (‘20), StuGov co-president, said.