Hello Friends,
This month, I want to share a fun initiative that started as a special event for my students and, thanks to my colleague Dr. NaMicha Williams, has evolved into a fantastic teacher appreciation idea.
During my time as principal at Hillwood Middle School, we organized hour-long lunches each month for students. As soon as I arrived at Central High School, students began requesting the same experience. To accommodate this, we decided to combine two of our four 30-minute lunch periods into two hour-long lunches. At the middle school, this meant serving around 600 students per lunch; at the high school, it increased to 1,200 students per lunch.
To manage the larger crowd without overwhelming our cafeteria, I invited food trucks to provide meals for the students. Each food truck generously contributed three $10 gift certificates, which I planned to use as incentives for teachers who participated in the event.
The day before our hour-long lunch, inspired by NaMicha's idea, I hosted a fun trivia game over the PA system for the teachers. I asked a mix of school-related questions and general trivia, announcing which caller I was looking for with the correct answer. The teachers eagerly engaged, and the excitement grew as students cheered for their favorite teachers who called in on speakerphone.
The hour-long lunches were a resounding success for both the students and the food trucks, so we will be doing these monthly for the remainder of the school year. This month, I’m thrilled to announce that each food truck will provide five $10 gift certificates for our teachers!
I’m looking for creative ideas on how to distribute these gift certificates each month. If you have any fun suggestions, please share them with me! You can email your ideas to Kathleen.Eckert@iCloud.com.
