A Healthy School Tree
Let's turn our focus to a few of the top healthy elements within a school families tree.
I much prefer to focus on the positives. It comes naturally to me to want to have a positive attitude. Maybe, that is because I'm lazy. I was always taught it's much easier to be positive and I still believe that...most of the time. Speaking of positive, I happen to teach within a school family that I am truly fond of being a with. This being the case, it's easy for me to come up with some driving factors for retaining a healthy school life. The number one factor is sincerely caring about one another. What better example can we as adults show our school children than to sincerely care about one another? Once again, this has nothing to do with being everybody's best friend or even liking everything about everybody. This has to do with human kindness, caring, and empathy.
My school has a social committee. Everyone is invited to be a part and nothing is decided upon that would make it financially or socially uncomfortable for anyone on our staff. For example, we give baby and wedding showers at school, preceding the weekly Staff Meeting. We have made it a point to not allow our celebrations to become a burden in any fashion. Therefore, we have great support, attendance, and most of all lots of fun!!
We have a network, through text, e-mail, or calling, to let our Staff Family know when one of us has suffered a loss, a medical emergency, or any other catastrophic incident. We make sure to communicate our concern for those individuals. Once again, the glue that holds this gesture in place is sincerity. Nobody is talking about getting full on into someone's private life. This isn't being nosey, gossipy, or impertinent. I'm on the turf of caring.
Here is a stand out element. We try our best to pay attention. "Pay Attention", you say. Yes. The school day isn't about the kids at all times. Not at a healthy Happy School. The day is also about noticing how our school family is doing/feeling. We can all pass each other in the hallway and be busy in thought or have kiddos we are trying to herd into straight lines. "Give me a bubble", "Purple line-purple line", "I'll wait"..... and before we know it, we realize we haven't even noticed the adults passing us. Happens to me all the time. But, when we pass a co-worker that has an expression of sadness, worry, frustration on their faces that should stand out to our hearts. It will, because we know that person well enough to understand something may be hurting them. We pay attention to our peers. A family cares about each other. A healthy school environment is filled with compassion.
We never know what our peers may be going home to in the afternoons. They may be struggling through a bump in their marriage or worse, they may be facing divorce. They may have recently lost someone dear to them. They may be suffering with health issues, a spouses' job loss, an abusive spouse, or have someone in their family that is ill. They may simply be exhausted from being up all night with a new baby then coming in to teach wiped out day after day. Or, they may be a single parent, who is trying to get their master's degree and be the best at their job everyday. My mother did this. I still don't know how she did it with three children. My boss does it with two teens. I admire both of these women so much.
Let's all pay more attention. Make a point to let others know you care. There are endless ideas for expressing concern. I think this is a great idea. Take the time to slip an encouraging note in their box. One of my friends did that for me at the first of the year. She was paying attention and felt an encouraging note would lift me up. It did. I put that card in a special place and it gets my attention daily. My school staff is amazing at doing those caring gestures and it makes a proactive, positive difference in our overall morale. You never know when a little piece of chocolate or a random hug is just what a person needs to get through their day. Or, like on of my peers does. Whisper something hilarious as you pass by your peer in team teaching. Gets me every time!
Come on!! When you've got a healthy morale among the staff, you've got some healthy roots for that School Tree. And, when these key elements are added into the mix, we come up with a proactive staff environment from which children and adults can flourish. Here's to keeping our school families happier! Happy Schools Rock!
