TL;DR:
- As the year comes to a close, find ways to celebrate and appreciate your staff.
- It has been a difficult year for everyone, and acknowledging and supporting your staff can go a long way.
In the next month or so, the 21/22 school year will come to an end. In this blog post, I will share some strategies to help leaders end the year strong with their staff. This could take place in an all-staff meeting or during short check-out meetings with staff before they leave for the summer.
Acknowledge wins of the year. This may have been a tougher year than originally expected. The staff deserves to be celebrated for the positives that have come out of the year. Click To TweetAcknowledgments Are Key!
- Acknowledge wins of the year. This may have been a tougher year than originally expected. The staff deserves to be celebrated for the positives that have come out of the year.
- Acknowledge challenges that have been overcome, whether these be in terms of issues with a student, staff illness and the lack of coverage, or lack of student engagement. If staff had a successful year in overcoming any or all of these challenges, they deserve to be acknowledged.
- Leave staff with an idea of what goals, incentives, curricula, and other decisions have already been made for next year. This way, they won’t be back in the fall without initial knowledge of what to expect starting the 22/23 school year.
- If you have staff who are moving on, be sure to have an exit interview. This was a topic that came up recently in an ed leader mastermind I’m in. There are many effective leaders who conduct these to get a better idea of the employee’s reasons for leaving and where they plan to go next. Unfortunately, these aren’t too common in schools. Of many schools I’ve taught at, only 1 principal took the time to conduct these. It made me feel like, although I was leaving, I’d been an integral part of the staff. And he took interest in finding out what my future plans were.
Betterup has a great blog post with ideas for exit interview questions and what an exit interview is if you’ve never conducted one before.
Class Coverage – Don’t Overwhelm Staff at the End of the Year!
As you plan for the weeks leading up to the last day of school, remember not to put too much on your staff’s plates. Yes, this is a time of year when teacher absences are greater. Thus, the need for class coverage is greater. Consider having a member of your administrative team cover part of or the full day for the teacher who didn’t get a sub to pick up the job. Everyone on your team has a lot of work to wrap up this month. When they are unexpectedly pulled from their regular duties to sub for a day, it throws them off.
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Ideas to Have Teacher Appreciation Last All May!
You can also make Teacher’s Appreciation Week last more than just one week. Consider having potlucks provided by the PTA, free chair massages, and small treat baskets for teachers at anytime during this most stressful month of the year. Your staff will be uplifted by this small act of acknowledgment.
About Dana Goodier
Dr. Dana Goodier has 20 years of experience in education. She has taught World Languages and English and worked as a middle school administrator. She completed her doctorate degree (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership early 2020. For her dissertation, she researched reasons parents were opting their students out of high-stakes testing at middle schools and how that affected the district accreditation rating. She often speaks at conferences, providing educators with techniques to minimize off-task behavior and to increase time on task. She is the host of the “Out of the Trenches” podcast, which features educators who share their stories of resiliency. Follow her on Twitter @danagoodier and visit her website at: www.danagoodier.com
