One Guiding Principle to help Set the Tone for Positive Staff Morale

I’m using my notes app to draft this blog post as my wife and I are in the airport on our way back home from celebrating our 10th anniversary in Destin, FL. at Miramar Beach. This has been an extraordinary getaway and Destin is home to one of the most beautiful beaches on earth. While scrolling through social media as I wait for the plane to arrive, I came across THIS POST and to be honest, I chuckled out loud as I watched it several times. It truly gave me inspiration for this blog post. I hope you find meaning in it. 

As we prepare to kickstart another school year, I immediately anticipate the stress that teachers will face with new class rosters, classroom sizes, staffing challenges, coverage difficulties, professional learning obligations, and understanding revised policies and procedures. 

Back to school is a challenging time for educators. While school leaders hope that their staff commit to self-care over the summer months, we also understand why some educators choose to work intermittently to ease the overwhelming feeling that comes with the start of a new school year.

One thing that I want to challenge school leaders with as you prepare to welcome your faculty and staff back is one guiding principle that I firmly believe will help cultivate the climate that you want your faculty and staff to experience daily within the walls of your building and it will help set the tone.

As I enter my eighth year as a school administrator, with five years as a High School Assistant Principal and now entering my third year as a Principal, one major concern that has plagued school culture at the onset of a new school year is not providing teachers with adequate time to set up their classrooms during welcome back week.

While professional learning is paramount, there should be a balance between professional learning and flexible time for teachers to prepare for students. If professional learning is occurring daily and all day, then we would expect teachers to have to stay late or arrive early to prepare for the return of their students, including making copies and setting up their rooms. 

My hope is that as school leaders, we empathize with our staff and partner with them in a way that shows we understand the demands and want to help them meet them in a seamless, efficient, productive, and non-stress-inducing manner. I personally want my staff to have feelings of peace when they think of our school, and I believe it’s up to me and my leadership team to spearhead cultivating that type of environment.

I also understand that this may not be a school-level decision, but if it is, I challenge school leaders to find time daily, when permitted, to allow your faculty and staff Flex Time to set up their classrooms, make copies, and facilitate other tasks to prepare for their new students to help ease the burden and anxiety that comes with starting a new school year.

The Learning Environment

The learning environment plays an essential role in how students commit to the learning experience and how they engage with their learning. Teachers must approach room setup with great intentionality. Anchor charts, posters, quotes, equations, texts, images, rules, etc., all play a key role in how students will connect with their teacher and their peers. We cannot expect teachers to complete this with minimal time and expect optimal learning outcomes.

Making it Practical

My general practice is to afford teachers a half day to set up their room daily during welcome back week. This says to them that I understand that this is a priority for them and it is also a priority for me. Sometimes, based on who may be facilitating our professional learning and their schedule, it may not work out daily, but my commitment is to find time on another day to give them more time back. For example, if I have a presenter coming in and they only have one day available in their schedule and they need the morning for their keynote and the afternoon for workshops, then I will dedicate a day to the presenter and may give a full day to teachers the following day to work in their rooms with minimal interruption.

In my school district, we also have a day dedicated for in-service where the district facilitates PD for all teachers based on their needs and interests. Having this knowledge, I know I also have to work around this time, especially if I intend to host an event like orientation, open house, meet the teacher, etc., and the expectation is for parents and students to be able to visit their classrooms.

I understand that with new regulations and policies, this may be difficult, but I challenge school leaders to look for opportunities to allow teachers optimal time to set up their classrooms. It will pay dividends with your staff morale.