From November 18 through November 22, the staff at Linganore High School participated in an Underground Spirit Week, a trend that was popularised on TikTok over the past few years to help school staff decompress from the anxieties of teaching children on a daily basis. This year, the staff at Linganore decided to create their own version.
The LHS Underground Spirit Week had a variety of simple themes for each of the five days of the week.
Monday’s theme of Lancer Wear encouraged participants to wear Linganore-themed clothing and saw 89% of staff join in.
Tuesday was Socks and Crocs day, which encouraged staff to wear wacky socks and fun crocs or sandals. It brought in the least amount of participation at 63% but was highly enjoyed according to participants.
“I liked the Crocs and Socks Day,” LHS English teacher Alexis Anzmann said. “That was a new one that I liked.”
Wednesday was Blackout day, where teachers dressed in all black or dark clothing. This had the highest percentage of staff participating with 94%.
On Thursday, teachers dressed in patterned clothing in mix-and-match styles, and 80% of staff joined in.
On Friday, staff dressed with a Maryland theme, wearing all types of Maryland memorabilia from different places they had been.
“People had on shirts for events that they’d been to that sparked conversation about the event,” said Marsha Thompson, the Media Specialist at Linganore.
The underground spirit week has been around for a long time but has recently trended on social media, specifically TikTok. With the rise of teacher social media pages directed toward fun activities to engage in as teachers, there have been many of these trends aiming to lift the spirits of staff in schools.
“I’ve seen the underground like trend on TikTok a lot, so a couple of us had been talking about how we thought it would be really fun,” Anzmann said.
The secretive aspect of the spirit week was what enticed some people to take part. It was something that only LHS staff would be involved in, and that is what made it special. Part of the fun for the teachers was seeing if the students would recognize that the teachers were all dressing alike according to a theme.
“We wanted to see will they notice, will they say anything, will there be any buzz at all from the students?” Thompson said. “But, it was kind of nice just to have something for the staff.”
For some students, it was the Crocs and Socks day that finally drew their attention. Some reported to only notice on the last day when all the teachers were wearing Maryland-themed items.
Sophomore Charlotte Long was one of the students who took note of teachers dressing alike and guessed at the underground spirit week.
“I like Maryland Day; Maryland Day was fun,” Long said. “A lot of the teachers dressed up for that one.”
Overall, it was an exciting week for participating staff and for students who were able to find out about the underground spirit week. The staff were able to feel rejuvenated in the lead up to Thanksgiving and the holiday season and are hoping to do more fun things like this in the future.
