Critical to Achieving Balance - Celebration!

Through appreciation and celebration we show people that they are significant and their contributions are vital to our overall success. Soumya Mitra, MC Corporation (The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes & Posner).

It seems we are often too busy to have fun and play games. However, if we don't take the time to celebrate, one will begin to wonder - what is this all for anyway. Why are we working so hard?

At school, we are working hard to differentiate instruction, provide reading interventions, and get through the curriculum. The students are working hard to stay caught up, learn new skills, and become better citizens. Isn't celebrating as a community a skill? I think so.

So how do we celebrate and still give credibility to the work that is being done. Kouzes & Posner state that the recognition has to be personal and celebration must be done in a spirit of community. They also state that "public celebrations of accomplishment build commitment, because they make people's actions visible to their peers and therefore difficult to deny or revoke." :-)

In order to create this spirit of community, we have to work on spirit building. Taking time to visit each others' classrooms, giving each other a high five at the completion of a project, and sharing success stories in the staff room are also about spirit building.

I've been working at making the staff room a place to share success stories instead of a place to complain, and I am in the process of looking for some meaningful posters to hang up in the room that would encourage more positive conversations. I may end up making some of my own so that they are more personal. I will also be asking the staff at the next staff meeting what ideas they have for making the staff room a positive place to hang out.

Ideas for celebrations include: assembly presentations, cupcake Fridays, honour roll and attendance certificates at half time as well as at the end of the year, fun activities planned by kids for kids, contests that involve the instructional focus, awards, and just applauding our accomplishments.