Don’t Forget the Fun…..Staff Morale Boosters

Do you ever feel like the month of March inches by, as if Spring break will never come? I certainly do, and with four days remaining until this long awaited vacation, I decided to do something fun for our staff as part of our Recruitment and Retention committee....our first annual staff Easter egg hunt!

I thought the egg hunt would be a great morale booster for the last few days, as I believe one essential aspect of my job is to contribute to a positive school climate.  Each day, I think about what I'm doing to help kids be excited for school from the moment I go to morning carpool duty and start smiling and waving to each car (EVEN when my hands are frozen in 30 degree weather) to the moment I say goodbye to my last carpool student in the afternoon.  When I run out of steam at bedtime, I often think about the amount of energy I expend being enthusiastic and positive with the people around me.  And don't get me wrong, there are definitely days where I don't feel "up", but I do my best to find the good in what's happening around me.  Luckily, I work with a FANTASTIC staff that makes it a lot easier to feel great at school, and I wanted to focus on doing something fun for them.

To get started with the egg hunt, I raided my children's Easter egg baskets for some plastic eggs and got candy as well as more eggs donated by my principal, co-counselor, and other staff members.  Then, I had some fun with the "Hey Teacher" quotes that have been made so famous by Ryan Gosling.  I took the school appropriate comments and printed quote strips, shortening some that would have otherwise been too risque for school purposes.  If you have never been to the Hey Girl Teacher Tumblr website, click below to see tons of examples.  They are a MUST READ for educators!


               

Next, I added a quote and piece of candy to each egg.  My co-counselor and I had a great time hiding them in classrooms and in each hallway of the school. We will refill and re-hide the eggs as staff members turn them in so we can make the egg hunt last all the way through Thursday. 

And, if an Easter egg hunt isn't going to work for your school, consider these other morale boosters shared by the "Connected Principals" blog, which is a great source for getting different perspectives on schoolwide issues and ideas. I particularly love this You Tube Validation video that could be shared during a staff meeting.  After all, what staff member doesn't need more of that?!!  Happy Counseling!
Angela