Has you child run for student council (4th grade)?? Advice needed

[Octobermommy]

My dd came home today & wants to "help the school" and run for student council. We haven't even been in this district for a year & don't know the ins and outs yet. This is the first year they will be having a student council at her school. She is itching to begin making posters & such but I don't really think she knows what all is involved. If your child did this, what campaigning did you do?

Also, I am concerned b/c she isn't well known( just moving to the district mid last year) & she is very quiet & shy. She is a great student but I'm concerned that this will be a popularity contest & she won't win & she will be crushed. I am honestly surprised she wants to do this b/c she has a hard time speaking up. We are working on this daily! I am so frustrated b/c she lets others push her around & she is so sweet & doesn't want to rock the boat she doesn't demand to be treated right. Can you tell I am frustrated?

What can I do to help her? I don't want to talk her in to something she really wants to do but I am concerned that she doesn't really know what this entails.

Any advice?

[Thatchermom]

DS ran for ASB president during 4th grade for the 5th grade year term. He is a quieter, somewhat geeky kid that was at the school in a two-year gifted program and not even in the mainstream school population. I figured this
was going to be a total disappointment for him and sort of discouraged him from running at first.

He insisted, so we looked up fourth grade campaign speeches on YouTube. He was able to see clearly what worked and what didn't, took some notes and built a speech around that. He gave his speech in the primaries and I was stunned when he moved on to the main election.

He built a campaign on three easy,
memorable and attainable points (something he picked up from our YouTube study) and we made posters. He was only allowed two per school rules, so we rocked them. I made them in photoshop with his picture and points. They looked like the Star Wars rolling intro with a
Starry background. We printed them as picture posters at Costco for about $6/ea. They were really awesome! On Election Day we were allowed 40 other "items". We made a "DS for President" tshirt that he wore (printed our own iron on), brought 4 balloons to add to his posters, then made 35 "DS for President" stickers that he handed out in the halls. All were ideas from my sister, a veteran elementary teacher. She also suggested sidewalk chalk "posters" but it was rainy here. Apparently this is a bigger deal where she teaches - no one else did anything on election day!

He practiced his speech tons. And tons. And he rocked it in front of the school. He won in a landslide vote. Blew me away - and taught me a major lesson about underestimating what my kid could do. He loved the experience and plans to run for council at his new middle school.

[Octobermommy]

That is awesome, Susan! It sounds like y'all had a great plan. I will google those videos & look at them with her. We don't know the rules yet, honestly I don't know if there are any since this is the first time they have done it. What did your son do while he was president?


Any other btdt or advice?

[arivecchi]

DS ran for ASB president during 4th grade for the 5th grade year term. He is a quieter, somewhat geeky kid that was at the school in a two-year gifted program and not even in the mainstream school population. I figured this
was going to be a total disappointment for him and sort of discouraged him from running at first.

He insisted, so we looked up fourth grade campaign speeches on YouTube. He was able to see clearly what worked and what didn't, took some notes and built a speech around that. He gave his speech in the primaries and I was stunned when he moved on to the main election.

He built a campaign on three easy,
memorable and attainable points (something he picked up from our YouTube study) and we made posters. He was only allowed two per school rules, so we rocked them. I made them in photoshop with his picture and points. They looked like the Star Wars rolling intro with a
Starry background. We printed them as picture posters at Costco for about $6/ea. They were really awesome! On Election Day we were allowed 40 other "items". We made a "DS for President" tshirt that he wore (printed our own iron on), brought 4 balloons to add to his posters, then made 35 "DS for President" stickers that he handed out in the halls. All were ideas from my sister, a veteran elementary teacher. She also suggested sidewalk chalk "posters" but it was rainy here. Apparently this is a bigger deal where she teaches - no one else did anything on election day!

He practiced his speech tons. And tons. And he rocked it in front of the school. He won in a landslide vote. Blew me away - and taught me a major lesson about underestimating what my kid could do. He loved the experience and plans to run for council at his new middle school. What a cool story! You did great as his campaign manager! :)