I’ve had 2 focus areas for our professional growth this year; PLC’s and UDL.
Realizing the need to get creative in how we explore and experience Universal Design for Learning this year, trying to satisfy the requests for relevant, purposeful, and differentiated PD, and wanting to get into classrooms on a more regular basis, I think I’ve come up with a mutually beneficial approach.
COMMITMENT:
You will start to see me in each of your classrooms multiple times throughout the rest of this school year to embed personalized PD during the work day – in real-time, and individualized for you!
I’ve started conducting 5-minute walkthroughs using Katie Novak’s Universal Design for Learning (UDL) look-fors as a reference guide. I’ll note the day, time, activity, a few noticings, and highlight the elements of UDL best practices for inclusive instruction that I see/hear during that 5-minute observation. You will receive a photocopy of the form/notes within 24 hours. This is not evaluative – it is for your personal reflections and professional growth. I’m more than happy to debrief my observations, discuss the notes/form I share with you, or help you dig into the UDL elements that are not yet highlighted (and keep in mind, these are super short snapshots – please don’t expect to have everything highlighted each visit) – just use my calendly link in my email signature to set up a time to touch base.
ALIGNMENT:
I’ll be looking holistically at the trends that arise throughout our K-4 classrooms, share them with the K-4 learning community, and use that to help us determine the next steps in our UDL exploration.
I’m really looking forward to seeing all of you ‘in action’, doing what you love – teaching and learning with, from, and for students!
Hey there! Feeling overwhelmed by an overflowing email inbox? You’re not alone – I’ve been there and I’m here to help! Thanks to the gift of time during lockdown, I have found some incredibly helpful (long-lasting) digital tools to help reduce the stress of one of our biggest forms of communication these days, and give you more time in your day! Now, who wouldn’t want that – less stress, more time?! What are you waiting for? Get into your comfy clothes, grab a beverage of choice, and let’s get into it!
Use your emails to help prioritize your schedule (time management needs), DON’T use your inbox as a “To-Do List”. Build time in your schedule (I prefer to use Google Calendar) to block out time to check emails AND time to respond to specific emails. You can even link the email to your calendar event so it’s accessible right when you have time blocked out to review and respond to it. Check out Tim Ferris’ YouTube video about this helpful strategy.
Organize your Google Email dashboard with labels (you can name them, nest them, and even color-coordinate them)! This way, you can ‘file’ your emails to reference at a later date, and quickly clear out your inbox daily! Can’t remember where you ‘filed’ or ‘categorized’ an email – no worries, just use the search bar to quickly access any email!
Regain control of what lands in your inbox by setting up a free Unroll.me account. You can quickly unsubscribe to “junk” mail, or things you once thought were cool and have since learned you just delete (before even opening the email). I, personally, get a lot of satisfaction from unsubscribing to the clutter – and this digital tool makes it SO efficient! Another feature of this app is that you can assign specific emails to get lumped into ONE daily or weekly email in a ‘roll’ – this automatically condenses what lands in your inbox. I use this feature with those ‘just for fun/when I have time’ emails that still bring me joy, but are not urgent or time-sensitive. This helps me highlight the important emails that need my attention, versus the ones that can wait.
Effortlessly manage your emails, tasks, and team workflow using Sortd.
Don’t forget to set an automatic vacation responder in your GMail settings.
In your settings, turn off notifications when you would like to set clear work/life boundaries.
I’ll be adding more videos, tutorials, and suggestions to my blog as I explore more digital decluttering solutions worth sharing…
I hope these tips help lighten your inbox, reduce stress, and give you more time in your day – these were game-changers for me!
If you are at the beginning stages of trying to implement Universal Design for Learning (UDL), this post will help you figure out how to get started. Many people point to establishing relationships as the place to start, but I would suggest starting with identifying how you want others to feel when they spend time with you and when they are sharing a space with you. I would suggest starting with designing a learning environment with this in mind, first. This is the first, and sometimes last, impression people will have of their time with you – and this can make or break the next steps in your relationship-building. Consider your office space, building layout, classroom designs, etc.
In my school, we’re at the beginning stages of implementing UDL and getting a better understanding of how UDL provides inclusive learning experiences for all, while also offering ways to reduce adult stress and improve time management. At a recent faculty meeting (which we call Colleague Connections), we went back to the beginning and focused our time on designing the learning ENVIRONMENT. I tried to set the stage (and jog our memories) of what UDL is by providing a hot cocoa bar – a little something for everyone – marshmallows, whipped cream, caramel sauce, sprinkles, etc. (as well as flavored sparkling water, chips, and popcorn). (I did NOT anticipate that we would have 45-degree, sunny weather in the middle of January in Vermont, 🤣.) We reviewed the concept that UDL is a fixed goal with flexible pathways – and to be truly inclusive we need to try to anticipate the variety of needs within the room. I also dimmed the lights, played soft jazz music in the background, and provided snacks to help set the tone for the afternoon. We briefly talked about the concept of Hygge – a practice I’ve been obsessed with for the past few years – bringing comfort, warmth, and simplicity to spaces and relationships.
REFLECTING on INTENTIONS
We began this session by reflecting on our learning/working environments and compared our beginning-of-year intentions for our spaces with the reality of how our learning/working environments are currently functioning and feeling for ourselves and others who enter these spaces we’ve created. Our classrooms, workspaces, and schools look orderly and pristine at the start of the year, and then, kids come into the picture and start living in these spaces. This is the true test of whether or not we’ve designed appropriate environments conducive to the learning and work that needs to take place in the space. I asked each person to write one word on one side of an index card describing how they would like people to feel in the space they designed. Then, they flipped the index card over and wrote their definition of that feeling – how the design supports that feeling (or not). Everyone handed in their index card, and we’ll circle back to these personal design goals as we do walkthroughs and offer feedback to help support these goals moving forward.
LEARNING BY DOING
This session occurred just as we just returned from the December break so we welcomed everyone to 2024 and took this mid-year opportunity to focus on decluttering. We discussed two surface areas to focus on that afternoon…vertical spaces (aka walls) – ensuring you have current, relevant, and inclusive materials posted on the walls (ie student work, anchor charts, etc.), and/or take inventory of your horizontal surfaces (counters, desks, etc.) and consider removing everything from the surface and only returning what you actually need and use regularly.
People were provided with the option of going back to their space to roll up their sleeves, get a trash can, and start digging into the physical process of decluttering,
OR, they could find a colleague they don’t typically have an opportunity to connect with and walk through various classrooms and office spaces throughout the school to get inspiration for their personal decluttering and design practice.
Decluttering is a practice that can provide immediate satisfaction (instant rewards), alleviate stress when you are leaving and entering a space, increase productivity, and it can give you back more time in your day for the things that matter most to you (professional/personal life balance). When we have less materials, we have less to manage. Now that you’re feeling lighter…it’s time to reconsider our organization systems, and routines – which is what we’ll work on together at our next PreK-4 Colleague Connections on this UDL implementation journey.
If you’ve been working in the educational field for a while, you are probably all too familiar with the cyclical nature of our terminology and buzz words. If you’ve ever worked (or dabbled) in the world of design, you’d refer to these as ‘trends’. One of the most common trends in educational design right now is “developing needs-based PD”. The Professional Teaching and Learning Cycle (PTLC – cause you know how much we love using acronyms in education) is a process that can help us develop our professional development. If you have established PLC’s in place already, you’re in great shape to incorporate PTLC within the PLC. This PD process reminds me a lot of what we used to call ‘action-research’ and what our district calls ‘the studio model’ for job-embedded coaching. What is really attractive about this process is that it provides tangible suggestions to implement directly with students the very next day, and has built-in support from colleagues along the way.
Our district has been focused on literacy as a PD theme for the past six years. The district paid an outside agency to conduct a literacy audit for the district and we’ve been working on implementing their suggested action steps from their report ever since. There have been many people who have asked why we continue to focus on literacy when our literacy data indicates we’re doing really well in that area.
As we continue to build a learning community with an evidence-informed culture, it will be imperative to look at district, school, and grade-level data trends over time to identify areas to focus on for professional development. In my district/school, when we look at our inventory of curricular resources, it is evident that we have a lot more instructional resources for SEL and Literacy, and not nearly as many resources available in the areas of Math, Science, and Social Studies. We then take a look at our district’s assessment plan and it is again quite evident that we have minimal amount of data points in the areas of math, science, and social studies. When we look at data trends over time, it is clear that math is an area that we could improve schoolwide. Once we have a consensus to shift our PD focus from literacy to math, we can then zoom in on specific areas of math, and build a multi-year PD plan to embed ongoing PD through PLC’s, early-release time, book studies, inviting outside guest presenters, sending teams out to trainings, etc. All faculty and staff members need to participate in this training, so they can build an understanding of how these math skills can be applied to areas like art, music, PE, library, literacy, etc. Some of the pushback comes when people feel that the PD content is not directly relevant to their specific role.
I hope to shift the mindset that professional development only takes place off-site, or led by an outside presenter, or only takes place during our early-release time. When we are mindful, reflective, and fully present we are engaging in opportunities to improve our teaching and learning. The truth is, we are developing professionally every time we meeting in our PLC’s and Collaborative Team Time by reviewing data, reflecting on teaching, revising/refining/developing lessons, updating curriculum maps, implementing a new platform, software, program, teaching strategy, discussing student progress/regression, etc.
One common conundrum is this idea of teaching SEL/behaviors vs teaching academic content areas – which comes first? If we provide rigorous, engaging, differentiated academic learning experiences, will we still see behaviors get in the way of learning? Or, if we support explicit instruction in SEL/behaviors, will students be more available to participate in academic learning experiences? Do universally designed lessons meet both of these needs simultaneously?
Let me know what you think in the comments sections below. Thanks!
The process of changing the culture of any organization begins by changing the way in which the people of that organization behave.
Knowing your audience (aka staff) is the MOST important part of implementing change and shifting the culture of a community. As a school leader, you cannot (and will not) force people to behave in certain ways, but you can support and guide them in having a better understanding of the culture the learning community is trying to build together. There are absolutely those who get energized and excited about the opportunities and limitless potential that change can bring to a community. These people like to take risks, push the status quo, and seek continuous improvement and innovation. I happen to fall into this camp – which makes sense that I am in a leadership role. (My one-word goal last year was “better” – I’m always striving to ‘reflect to refine’.) In my six years as a school administrator (and working with a staff of about 150 adults), I have learned that many more people view change as intimidating and overwhelming. Some people fear the unknown and the unpredictable nature of change. Educators tend to be planners, and thrive on consistency and feeling like they have a sense of control in situations – the idea of change moves us from a state of comfort to a state of challenge. As a lifelong learner, I know that growth and improvement can only take place when there is an appropriate level of challenge – and to me, if I’m starting to feel ‘comfortable’ it means I’m content (and possibly confident) but not necessarily growing or improving.
It’s incredibly important to identify early on who your “champions for change” (or change agents) are on your staff, because you’ll need to lean on them to support the slow and steady shift in culture over time. We’ve all got champions on our teams – these are the people who are positive, optimistic, and willing to try new things. It’s also important to know who on your staff is going to be the most resistant and reluctant to something that feels ‘new’ or ‘different’. These staff members will need more time to process, more opportunities to discuss and ask clarifying questions, and possibly will need some exemplars or testimonials to begin to see the vision and purpose of the upcoming change. The goal here is to help people believe-in (as opposed to buy-in) the reasons for the cultural shift and help them work towards being active participants in shifting the school culture.
When I first joined the PreK-8 school as the PreK-4 Co-Principal back in 2017, I inherited a very fragmented group of educators who worked in the same building but was certainly not a collaborative community focused on continuous improvement. There were highly qualified, effective teachers who worked independently or with a partner teacher at this school. They had access to a wealth of resources available in the newly consolidated district.
My first year as principal, I was charged by the Superintendent at the time to help co-lead a Configuration Study. There was a confusing configuration in place due to some historical tension among staff members and administrators (at the time). The schedule provided a lot of autonomy, but not a lot of opportunity for collaboration or common planning time. There was no coordinated curriculum or cohesive PD plan. Some professionals (not all) used to participate in a team meeting that went by an acronym that no one knew the meaning behind. There was not a lot of value placed on collaborative team time – when I would show up to a team meeting that was on the schedule, many teachers would tell me (or sometimes ask me) that they (teachers) decided not to meet.
This blew my mind because I came from another district, that had Professional Learning Communities well-established and was the foundation of the culture of the community. I was the PLC Facilitator for our K-2 PLC when I was a Kindergarten teacher, and I helped coordinate/lead PLC’s when I was an Instructional Coach as well. We were student-focused, and evidence-driven – sharing the responsibility of ensuring high-quality instruction and learning for all – we were in it together.
As a new administrator, in a new learning community, I knew it was imperative to develop a long-term plan to bring Professional Learning Communities to our school which would help us start to shift the culture over time.
1. RECONSIDER CONFIGURATION
We started our shift toward PLC’s by working with our Program Council members to review the current configuration and its effectiveness. We researched and explored various configurations and weighed the pros/cons of multi-age, looping/non-looping, generalist teaching vs. content-specific teaching, class sizes, embedded models with special educators, etc. This year-long process helped us design a more cohesive configuration for a stronger foundation to develop grade-level and department teams. This helped us view our whole school as one large learning community that provides a thoughtful and intentional PreK-8 learning journey for students and families. We incorporated all stakeholders’ feedback and input to come up with our final configuration plan. It appeased the majority, but certainly rattled a few veteran teams who had been well-established and content for the past few decades.
2. ESTABLISH TEAMS
We then met with individual faculty and staff members to get a sense from them what grade level and instructional model they felt would be a strength for them. Getting the right people, in the right positions, with the right expertise, will yield strong results for students. We had some voluntary reassignments which of course went really well, because it was their decision and had some sense of control in the situation. We also made some intentional decisions to reassign individuals to different teams for a variety of reasons. Some of these moves worked out really well, while others resisted and eventually moved to different schools or positions within the district. As a school community, we are working on how to have difficult conversations with one another – this is something that many of us try to avoid or ignore, but then there is a lot of built-up resentment and toxicity brews. I think it goes back to establishing a healthy way (aka protocols), and opportunities (aka space and time), for adults to communicate in professional ways while staying focused on the shared goal of supporting all students. When professionals have attempted to do this and there is no improvement or change, then I can step in and have conversations with individuals. Being in a very large school, it can be difficult to either make things feel a little more intimate and team-focused while also providing an awareness of the full school community and the inter-relatedness of all community members. Developing teams is an ongoing process, and here’s how we kicked off this school year with our staff to help re-establish connection and trust so that we can move towards collaboration and interdependency for horizontal alignment and vertical progression to provide equitable learning experiences for all.
A group may have a common purpose or interest, but individual members may have different goals and objectives. A team has a shared purpose and specific goals that all members work together to achieve.
3. INTENTIONAL FACILITIES LAYOUT
Our next step was to review the school floor plan and re-envision a more thoughtful layout. We considered what the learning experience would look like and feel like from the perspective of a student (and their family) throughout their PreK-8 school experience in our learning community. We were intentional about making the layout the most efficient for adults to connect with other adults throughout the building as well. We moved all teachers in the same grade level to the same pod area (or, nearby). We spent that spring/summer/fall physically moving almost every teacher into a new classroom, and embedded a Special Educator onto each grade level team (ie converted the team’s former walk-in closet to the Special Educator’s office/teaching space). Of course, we dream of the day we can truly redesign the building, but until then, we’ve had a sustainable layout for the past six years (and more).
4. DEVELOP SCHEDULE
We made sure to prioritize providing the maximum amount of common planning time for grade level teams, and ensure at least one collaborative team time per week during the school day, as well as one hour per week dedicated to grade level/dept PLC meetings during our early-release PD time.
5. PURPOSEFUL PD & BUILDING CAPACITY
We started from the ground up when it came to introducing Professional Learning Communities to our staff. In my first year as principal, we hired an outside consultant to lead our full PreK-8 staff through the foundational elements of PLC’s and develop a shared understanding of the purpose and principles of PLC’s. We invested a full year with the consultant who led professional development sessions for all staff and joined a few different PLC meetings to offer feedback and coaching along the way. This was a wonderful way to have a unified shared learning experience and get to know various faculty and staff members in the school. In my second year, I took a more active approach – and attempted to flex my ‘tight’ leadership skills – creating PLC agendas, notetaking docs, facilitating every meeting, etc. In my attempt to model and coach teams into my vision for our PLC’s, it back-fired because I was doing the work “for” and “to” the teams, and not “with” the teams. My third year, I took a big step back, and practiced my ‘loose’ leadership skills – I assigned a PLC facilitator (aka these are my Champions for Change) for each grade level/dept and let them ‘run the show’ – and, I did not attend the PLC meetings. This backfired as well, because the facilitators didn’t want/or know how to hold teammates accountable so teams would not meet, would not stay focused, did not bring data, etc. In my fourth year, we finally found the right balance – teams appreciated the consistency of universal agendas, notetaking docs, roles, meeting times, etc. and I would join the meetings to help guide and coach the facilitators so I could be the one to help hold teammates accountable for showing up to the meetings, starting on time, bringing data to the table, etc. The pandemic threw us off for a few years, but we’re building back our momentum now. Last year, our PLC facilitators participated in the virtual PLC’s at Work Conference together to review the purpose and principles of PLC’s – keeping our work student-focused and evidence-driven to answer one of four questions at every weekly PLC meeting. With this renewed energy around bringing our teams back together for collaborative work, we were ready to start the year with a primary focus on re-prioritizing our PLC’s. This year, I had hoped to continue digging deeper into PD that would focus on Data Analysis with all of the PLC Facilitators, and pay them an additional stipend for their leadership roles on their team, but only two people chose to participate in this option this year. Another great lesson learned – it’s okay to go slow and start with those who are willing to try something new, and then build/expand from there.
I’m not going to lie – our PLC journey has taken a lot of time, energy, enthusiasm, and commitment – and it was not easy. I experienced a lot of pushback and resistance along the way – from both sides, my district leadership team and my faculty/staff. There were certainly times I wanted to throw in the towel on the concept of implementing PLC’s in this school – because that would have been the easier thing to do. But, I refused to give up. I know this is what is needed to help shift our school culture in the right direction. And, doing the right thing, for the right reasons, requires hard work, dedication, and time. I’m here to tell you, it’s worth it.
I am both proud and relieved to reflect on our PLC journey over the past six years and recognize that;
People see the value of PLC’s – they enjoy learning from and with their colleagues, they want this time built into the schedule (in fact, they want more time)
PLC’s have remained focused on answering one of the 4 main questions during each of their meetings
We’re still figuring out the tight/lose balance of creating agendas and timelines
We are getting closer to having a data/evidence-driven culture (this is a work in progress)
A HUGE thank-you goes out to the various PLC Facilitators (aka Champions for Change) who have volunteered to be in this role doing this difficult work with me and helping our school community to get to the place we’re in today.
My PLC goal for the remainder of this school year is to help our learning community understand and view PLC meetings as embedded professional development and coaching cycles with colleagues.
Once we have productive PLC’s established, we have built a strong foundation to design horizontal alignment and vertical progressions within a coordinated and cohesive curriculum. We can enhance our instructional practices and strategies, and develop common formative assessments/evidence of student learning to review as a collaborative team. There’s limitless potential ahead…so find those Champions for Change and go after it. You’ve got this!
For many, January is a refreshing start to a new year – a time to reflect and reset. There’s a sense of hope, anticipation, and aspiration with unlimited potential in the days to come.
As educators, we typically do this at the start of the school year in August/September, so January feels like a great midpoint to reflect on what we have in place, what we’ve accomplished, and evaluate some new action steps to get us closer to our end-of-year (or future) goals. We are extremely fortunate to work in a field where we are given an extended amount of time “off” at the end of December, which lends itself naturally to be a time for deep reflection. Be sure to take time to celebrate the wins and continue to reflect and refine as the year progresses.
Inspired by George Couros’ recent podcast as a reminder to continue being observant and mindful, I’ve been paying close attention to the climate of our school building. It is evident that the majority of our faculty, staff, students, families, and administrators (both local and district), are completely exhausted at this point. To be honest, I’m not sure if we’ve acknowledged (and accepted) the new realities in education post-pandemic. Teaching is different. Parenting is different. Learning is different. We’ll get there, but this process will require patience and grace along the way. As a school principal, I am constantly asking faculty and staff for feedback and suggestions on ways to improve staff morale, wellness, and the overall climate of the school.
I’m not sure if this will resonate with other school principals, but we typically receive suggestions/ideas that are not as constructive because they are not within our local control such as; increasing the pay rates, providing more time, making it a 4 day work week, hire additional people, etc. We also receive suggestions that are contradictory such as; trusting us to be professionals by letting us have more ‘teacher-directed’ time and giving us more time to connect with colleagues by bringing the full community together more often. Provide a shared learning experience to create unity and cohesion among the full faculty and staff and we need differentiated professional development that is specific to individual roles and responsibilities. Sometimes we receive actionable suggestions, but they fall flat because they are only surface-level solutions such as providing food, playing games (with adults), incentivizing us, providing wellness activities during contract time, etc.
As school principals, you can feel like you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to improving school climate. We did end up incorporating some of the ideas above, but with a twist, so they made more of a lasting impact…check out details of what we do at our school below for some tips & tricks.
Every adult in the building chose a Committee Workgroup (and the categories of committees were selected by the faculty and staff as well – Positive Behavioral Interventions and supports (PBiS), Social, Wellness, Sustainability, DEI, Lunch/Recess, Student Leadership, Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO), Program Council, Book Buddies/Mentoring, and Family Engagement/Communications) that was of special interest to them personally or professionally. These committee workgroups meet monthly during our early release time for an hour. During this time faculty and staff are in mixed groups, connecting with colleagues while actively working to improve our systems, practices, and community. This has helped to increase faculty and staff voice and provides opportunities for their input in decision-making.
We have asked our Food Service Team to provide coffee & carbs on a cart twice a month, which are delivered by students on the various Student Leadership Teams. (We originally put out a spread in the cafeteria and invited adults to come pick up their own snacks, but then learned that teachers and staff couldn’t make it to the cafeteria during that time in the day.)
To model and encourage students to incorporate healthy nutritional habits, we have moved towards non-food-based incentives in classrooms, but our entire school community (including adults) celebrate monthly with a sweet treat from our Food Service Team. (These are also delivered to adults throughout the building by students, and students receive their treats during their lunch block in the cafeteria. We make sure to provide sweet treats that are inclusive – considering allergies, dietary restrictions, cultural/family values, etc.)
Grade-level teams and departments send out a Wellness Challenge for other teams/departments to complete such as; counting how many squats a grade level can incorporate into their day for movement breaks and sharing that out with the full school community via email, then another team is invited to come up with the next Wellness Challenge.
Our Essential Arts (ie Art, Music, PE, Library) teams provide opportunities for the whole school community to get involved in a competition or communal activity such as a bulletin board with a trivia game, a student vs. adult basketball game, drum circles in the music classrooms, etc.
CAUTION: A year ago, I learned a very big lesson the hard way. I was trying to think outside-of-the-box, and arranged to have local stand-up comedians perform for our faculty members during an early-release (PD) time before we went to a staff social off-site and began our winter break. The hope was that some laughter and non-school-related entertainment would be an uplifting community-builder. Long story short – people were offended by the content/material and filed a formal complaint which resulted in unpaid admin leave, a year-long unresolved restorative process between admin and anonymous staff members (and the union). Lesson learned – innovate INSIDE the box, not outside 🙂
Needless to say, I was a bit reluctant to provide anything unique for our faculty and staff this year – so I stuck with my annual tradition of donating to a local non-profit organization on behalf of our school staff and left it at that. When we returned from the recent December break, I was expecting to welcome back enthusiastic, re-energized adults to the building, but was surprised to discover that the morale was still really low. It was evident that people were sick over the break, or taking care of people who were sick, were overwhelmed with their plans for the break, disappointed with how their break went, etc. It was hard to believe we had just taken a week off from work. This is when it hit me – what the faculty and staff really need/want is for us to provide the space and time for adults to self-care. This (and my current obsessions with Hygge) sparked the next idea…
“Why not follow the Danish example and bring more hygge into your daily life?”
I decided to transform my intimate office space into a Serenity Space as an extension to our existing Staff Lounge area. Unlike our current Staff Lounge, my office has a door (for privacy), a large window (for natural light, and a view of kids playing at recess), dimmable lighting, soft background music, and comfortable accent chairs with a footrest. I have a Keurig coffee/tea/hot cocoa machine and a water dispenser nearby. I also brought in some of my personal games, puzzles, activities, magazines, books, soft tissues, and adult fidgets from home to encourage a positive and peaceful break space to help adults rejuvenate during their breaks/lunch, connect with colleagues, or have a private break space. It is a warm and cozy retreat from the fast-paced world beyond this space. I shared an email with all faculty and staff inviting them to use this space whenever they need it. I received a lot of positive feedback, and ‘thank you’ emails for providing this space for them. I’m curious to see how often it will get utilized (my first year I had a foot massager and back massager available for faculty/staff to use – but no one took me up on the opportunity at that time).
*We also encourage faculty and staff to reach out to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which is a confidential, complimentary resource to get support for a variety of life needs, and First Call (Howard Center) resources for crisis support.
If you have additional ideas/suggestions for ways to improve school climate and staff morale, please share in the comments below. Thank you!
