In early August, school started back up for me. I put on a professional development for our school staff about what I learned from the Ron Clark Academy. I tried to make it fun and exciting. Most staff had a good time and several changes have already been put into place.
In my other post about how I decided upon these ideas is HERE.
I was pleased with how the presentation turned out. It was fun and joyful and full of me being crazy and the staff getting to get up and move about.
Here is how it went and what will also be my 5 for the linky.
1.
I began with live music. Four teens came to sing a capella for our staff as we began our day. The picture only shows three as those where the kids I had permission to post. The awesome PTA brought breakfast burritos for us all. The information began with me on the tables....of course! Mid-day I had cookies that I was able to get specially made by a friend in the area. I wanted to have cookies just like RCA! These were baseball themed as we are doing a baseball theme this school year.
2.
I wanted to show the staff of our school that I support them. So, I took the idea of RCA's black and white photo wall with quotes and did it at our school. We have a great staff and I wanted to showcase their awesomeness! I was able to take their pics without them knowing what I was doing...and I got their quotes by using it as an exit slip for one of the breaks during my presentation. They had no idea this wall was coming! I set it up with the help of my principal and office staff, the night before the first day of school. It was great!
I introduced the idea of houses and went on about it for a bit...but I heard a lot of crickets for that one. Sigh. I am doing it this year in my room but it definitely is not the same as doing it with the whole school.
3.
The staff played Jenga, adult sized Hungry Hippos, and Headbandz to answer questions and think of ideas for the coming year about how to get to know your students and how to think bigger about class instruction.
4.
Our office staff and principal made these cute baskets for each person and put them out as a surprise at the end of the day. So sweet! I ended the PD with a video from Kim Bearden that she had made for a different conference/professional development but it fit my needs perfectly. What an amazing person! I could listen to Kim Bearden read the phonebook and still be in awe of her fabulosity!!!
5.
The idea of balance was last on the presentation list. I let them know that I am working on balancing my life this year. I work way too many hours for someone who has a family to raise. They should come first...and often they don't. I have 2 daughters and a wonderful and supportive husband and they need me too! So, I proposed a program that allowed people to track/log pts toward various parts of their lives. There are 3 sections: family, self care, and education (which could be professional development related or just trying new and exciting things in the class). Various activities have various point values. Room transformations count for 10 pts, drinking 64 oz a day of water count for 1 pt per day, surprising your family with a fun adventure 10 pts, etc. The points gathered lead to raffle tickets and the raffle tickets lead to prizes.
I had planned to go to businesses to request help with prizes to show support to our staff. BUT magically a wonderful lady from Farmer's Insurance asked my principal if she could donate to our school each month!!!! It was one of those divine moments. My principal organized it with the awesome Farmer's lady. We get several Visa gift cards per month to use in the raffle. We raffle off any other goodies that I might have collected along the way as well. It's really helping me get better at what I need to improve. I leave school at much more reasonable times and actively think about self care and family more often. It's been really good for me. I am less stressed this year than I have been for awhile but I am doing room transformations just as often and still working hard to be a wild and crazy teacher that makes kids want to come to school. Is everything perfect... no. Not at all, but I am working on the most bang for my buck areas and letting the little things go. Not an easy thing for me but I am getting there.
Hope everyone is have a great start to your year!!!
