- Invite a current parent or panel of parents to a staff meeting to share how their children are being supported, nurtured, and protected during the pandemic and how they have grown as learners and young people despite the challenges of the past two years.
- Arrange for a panel of recent graduates of your school to reflect on their experiences as students in your school and how staff relationships, guidance, and support have helped them to succeed as learners. Their reflections might be a part of a staff meeting or recorded and shared with staff.
- Work with student leadership groups to plan a surprise appreciation week for staff. Hall decorations, a special assembly to honor staff, and notes and letters of appreciation are some ideas to stimulate planning.
- Invite parents to record brief videos describing the difference school staff have made in the lives of their children.
- Invite students to record short videos describing how staff helped them to have “their best day of school.”
- Invite support staff to a faculty meeting to be honored for the contributions they make to a smooth operating and successful school. Be sure to cite specific examples and describe tangible differences they make.
The Master Teacher Blog
Providing you, the K-12 leader, with the help you need to lead with clarity, credibility, and confidence in a time of enormous change.
Latest Posts
Climate and Culture, In Your Corner, Relationships and Connections
It’s Time to Tap a Powerful but Underappreciated Morale Booster
Much has been said and written over the past several months about the pressures, disappointments, and difficulties educators are facing. They are navigating crisscrossing political currents, frequently changing pandemic mitigation measures, and the conflicting expectations of multiple publics. Any one of these forces can get in the way of doing one’s best work, but the combination can feel overwhelming.
Of course, as leaders we need to do all that we can to shield staff from the distractions and block out the noise. We can provide flexibility in use of time where practical, lighten the load of responsibilities where possible, and provide the support we can where needed. Yet too often this still is not enough, particularly viewed in the context of the predictable stresses and pressures that accompany the final months of the school year.
We might ask ourselves what else can we do to lift spirits, restore energy, and renew hope to carry through to the end of the year? Surprisingly, there remains an often underutilized but powerful source that can significantly lift morale and performance.
For some, the answer may seem too simple or obvious and be easily overlooked. The answer has to do with sharing and receiving gratitude. A recent study on the power of gratitude reported in the Journal of Applied Psychology involved healthcare workers who, as much as anyone, have had to bear the brunt of the pandemic. When workers heard and felt the gratitude of patients, their spirits lifted, they experienced greater satisfaction in their work, and incidents of burnout dropped. Another less formal study at the Warton School arranged for a customer who benefited from the services of a call center to speak to workers at the call center about his gratitude for their efforts and support. The impact of hearing the difference they were making led to a 20% increase in revenues for the call center.
The point is that gratitude matters. During rough times when feelings of appreciation are in short supply, finding ways to help educators and others associated with education feel gratitude can be especially important. The effort may be even more impactful if other steps to improve working conditions and lessen stresses are already in place.
So, what are some ways we might arrange for our educators and other staff to experience the gratitude of those whom they serve? Here are six ideas to get started:
In Your Corner, Student Learning
Why Grade Retention Is Not the Solution
This is the time of year when we begin to consider how the learning of our students has progressed. Despite the continuing disruptions and distractions this year has presented, most students will likely “weather the storm.” Their learning may not yet be where we would like and expect it to be, but their progress has them close enough to continue to benefit from on-pace instruction. There are gaps in their skills and there is content they still need to master, but time and continued support are likely to eventually place them back on track.
However, there are other students whose progress has continued to lag. They may be missing multiple key skills, have had inconsistent attendance, and seem not to be adequately responding to instruction. We may wonder whether keeping these students in the same grade for another year might be the answer.
On the surface, grade retention may seem like a reasonable option. The disruption of the past couple of years have led some politicians and policy makers to advocate for and in some cases implement directives that position grade retention as a solution to counter low academic achievement.
Yet, decades of research have documented that grade retention often causes at least as many problems as it solves. While students may spend additional time in the same grade, there is little evidence to show that repeating what was not successful in the past will necessarily be more successful in the future.
Too often, students view retention as a permanent punishment, regardless of the reasons for their not being successful. They are moved out of their friend group. Their placement with younger students is a constant reminder of their failure and source of social embarrassment. Retained students are subject to frequent reminding that they are not good learners. Further, they typically receive little recognition for the learning they built in the prior year and typically are required to accept instruction on skills and knowledge they have already gained.
Research studies also document that grade retention increases the likelihood that students will drop out of school before graduation. In fact, double retention virtually guarantees it. Internationally renowned research analyst, John Hattie, has found that grade retention is one of a small group of educational practices that has a negative impact on student achievement.
Requiring students to attend summer school as an alternative to grade retention is popular among many educators. The belief, again, is that more time will equal more learning. Yet, a summer school experience that repeats what happened during the year and is viewed by the student as punishment has not been shown to be an effective solution. If fact, summer school is often presented to students as a consequence for not having worked hard enough during the year.
So, what is a better answer? A great place to start is to identify students who are struggling early and not wait to intervene until most of the year has passed. Rarely is the performance of students who are considered for retention a surprise. Typically, multiple opportunities were available throughout the year to provide support and intervention that would make retention unnecessary.
Of course, we need to understand why a student is not progressing and design experiences to counter what is blocking progress. The problem may be missing skills that can be filled in. The absence of a strong adult relationship or feeling of belonging may be getting in the way of learning. Maybe a significant traumatic experience has left the student reluctant to take learning risks and lead them to hide rather than engage. Or, it may be an issue or cause that has its roots outside of school and additional resources need to be engaged. Regardless of the specific cause or combination of causes, early intervention avoids most, if not all, of the negative effects of retention.
Meanwhile, the challenge of what to do now, with a limited amount of time remaining in the school year, endures. A crucial first step still is to gain an understanding of what is standing in the way of learning. If the barrier is social-emotional, more instruction is not likely to help the situation. If multiple foundational academic skills are missing, instruction based on age or grade level expectations may make the situation even worse.
Once we understand the nature of the problem, we can arrange for services and scaffolding supports to address key barriers and help the student to build structures to overcome them, whether social, emotional, academic, or something more. We know that intensive tutoring can be effective when targeted and responsive to learning needs. If learning barriers are more substantial, intensive intervention by a learning specialists may be the answer. If learning is blocked by social or emotional factors, we can design experiences and create opportunities for connections to address needs and build skills to sustain the student going forward.
Once learning barriers and problems have been identified and an intervention plan is designed and implemented, we can develop short term and intermediate goals and progress markers with and for the student. We need to be certain that the intervention is working, and any needed adjustments are made in a timely manner.
Of course, these steps likely will require more time than remains in the current year. We need to arrange for consistent monitoring and ongoing support as the student transitions into a new year. We must be vigilant to ensure that support remains in place and progress is not lost.
In Your Corner, Student Learning
Communication, In Your Corner
In Your Corner, Thinking Frames
In Your Corner, Thinking Frames
Share Your Tips & Stories
Share your story and the tips you have for getting through this challenging time. It can remind a fellow school leader of something they forgot, or your example can make a difficult task much easier and allow them to get more done in less time. We may publish your comments.
Send Us An Email
Climate and Culture, In Your Corner
In Your Corner, Leadership and Change Management
In Your Corner, Thinking Frames
In Your Corner, Leadership and Change Management
We’re In Your Corner!
Sign up to have the weekly publication delivered to your inbox.
"As we enter Teacher Appreciation Week, we want to highlight our year-round appreciation of teachers. We thank each of you for your dedication to and investment in this invaluable profession."
More Featured Articles
Categories