Focus on the staff this February

As we continue through a long, cold, dreary winter, I can feel myself dragging.  And see it in our staff and students too!  I was perusing Twitter one day and saw a great idea by Eric Ewald (@ericewald_iowa), principal of Van Allen Elementary.  Each Friday was a special day just for staff.  It gave them something to look forward to and something to bring them together.  I loved it and decide to steal the idea and change it around for our staff.

Staff need incentives and boosters as much as our students.  I have read the book Kids Deserve It and it was filled with so many great ideas to support our students, and some to also support our big kids - staff!  They work hard for our students and if we don't support them, they will not be able to continue to do all that they do for our students.  The ideas are nothing extravagant or expensive.  Just a little something to bring the staff together, get them talking, and build them up.

I also am bringing an idea from another district I worked in that will get our staff talking and building respect for one another.  A traveling trophy for teachers doing great things!  Teachers will present the trophy (actually I think two trophies) to their colleagues who are doing something extra, something extraordinary, something special.  Our Instructional Leadership Team will choose two people to receive the first trophies.  This will happen at our next building meeting.  Then at the following meeting, those winners will pass on the trophies to other staff that they have found doing something great.  It could be something related to PBIS, something related to academics, or just something where they saw a special connection to our students.  It could be for teachers or support staff.

These couple of new ideas for February are sure to get our staff smiling again and keep them working hard for our students.  Kids deserve it and so do our amazing teachers and staff!