
Teacher Appreciation
April 2023
Stay with me as I start this newsletter on a soapbox...
Unfortunately we have become a society that is quick to complain. Plus, it seems like most of the time when we get a complaint, the person complaining has forgotten about social etiquette or they simply never had any to start with. Meanwhile, we have made it very easy for people to complain. They can call the school, email us and EVERYONE above us all the way up to the superintendent, there are quick links to complaint platforms on our webpages, etc.
If you are on a campus with 1,000 students, the reality is well over 950 of those parents are happy and even love your school and staff. But we let those with complaints impact our perception of education, our school, and unfortunately even ourselves.
This leads me to something AWESOME I stumbled across on the Lafayette Parish School System's website.
- It goes without saying to advertise it in your parent communications.
- Create a QR code to the link and plaster them around your campus for students and staff to use.
- At the end of any parent event on your campus have the QR codes everywhere and ask the parents to submit one shout-out before they leave. This could be PTA meetings, theatre performances, band and choir performances, open house, athletic events, etc.
- If you are secondary and students can have their phone at lunch, once a week encourage students to submit a shout-out.
- If you are elementary, once a week during flex time have the students use their chromebook or iPad to submit a shout-out.
- Post QR codes in the front office and have the front office staff encourage parents to submit a shout-out when they are dropping off items or picking up students.
- Start or end each faculty meeting or professional development session asking staff to submit a shout-out.
Create lots opportunities and ways for shout-outs to be submitted. I once heard that for every negative comment it takes ten positive comments to over power the one negative comment.
Let me know how it goes!!! Kathleen.Eckert@iCloud.com
Bring me to your district!
I am available to work with campus leaders on teacher appreciation and teacher retention. If you would like me to come work with you and/or your district let me know. You can find more information about presentations and workshops on my webpage.
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I am always looking for teacher appreciation ideas. If you have any you would like to share email me at Kathleen.Eckert@iCloud.com
Thank you for loving teachers,
Kathleen Eckert
Follow me on Twitter @EckertKathleen