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In an effort to provide more support to you in the field, Joy Rose, retired secondary principal, and Theresa Kucsma, retired elementary principal, will be offering bits of advice each month. We can also respond to specific questions that keep popping up on the blog. From our combined “X” years of experience (over 70 but we are not sharing just how many!), we will also be offering suggestions that we consider timely, and some will be connected to the monthly theme.
Lighten It Up
by Theresa Kucsma
Levy losses, school closings, staffs reconstitutions, low test scores—so is there a little negativity in your building? There are so many reasons for you and your staff to feel so overwhelmed that you all just want to give up. But then, you walk into that classroom where all those students have needs that only you and your special talents can address.
This scenario can wear down any staff. The worst thing is that there is little you can do in the short term to lift spirits enough to be able to take on the long term. However, there might be a few little things you can do to lift spirits for at least a short time.
Look for the some little positive thing that is going on now, or was going on, in your building and “grow it.” In one school I know, an aide and one of the “lunch ladies” were having a good-natured debate on whose brownie recipe was better. To settle the issue, they had a bake-off, putting their submissions in the lounge where volunteers sampled and voted on their favorite. A small plastic trophy now sits in the winner’s room only until there is another challenge and perhaps a different winner. This staff is finding a way to reestablish some fun in their day. Guess what—it leaches over into the classroom too!
Another simple (and really keep it simple) way to make fun might be to reinstitute the attendance/spirit/citizenship trophy that you might have put in a classroom because of exemplary performance for a week, month, or grading period. Very inexpensive but certainly a positive celebration.
When was the last time your staff really enjoyed a staff meeting? Is there one that you could do on paper so that you could just commit 45 minutes to some camaraderie? Order something tasty for munchies, and spend the time listing the successes you and your staff are having (even the littlest ones); do an icebreaker that gets people to talk to staff outside their circle; have teachers share their most memorable moment in the classroom; have them put what they hate the most on a piece of paper, put it in a box, and bury it. The more you think about this, the more ideas you will generate.
Remember to look around the school too and make the most of the little pockets of positivity that you see. Even the most negative situation has a little ray of sunshine somewhere, so watch for it. Then tend it to help grow it. The result of these kinds of tension releasers for your staff is that they will feel a little more ready to tackle the overwhelming challenges that they face every day. You will too!
