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Is it that time?? Look around your building… is everyone on edge? If you answered yes, you need a morale booster!
What is a Morale Booster Anyway?
These are fun ways to get everyone smiling again. The purpose is to create a sense of togetherness and unity among the staff. It doesn’t have to be anything big (simple examples below). All it needs to do is get everyone on the same page and having fun!
Why Should I Use a Morale Booster?
Research shows that teachers and staff who are enthusiastic, genuinely happy and enjoy their job get better academic results than compared to teachers and staff who are not. In any business, low morale can be detrimental, leading to low cooperation among staff and lower productivity.
This is important to keep a note of all year long! Work with your administrators to develop a plan to keep morale high and spread these out over the course of the school year.
Also, taking the time to build relationships with staff is just as important as building relationships with students. You may be lucky enough to have a co-counselor, but some of us (uh hmm) is the only counselor in the building. This makes it extremely important to branch out to all the grade levels and develop those connections in order to help serve students.
Plus… when you do something nice…
It just feels good! Spreading cheer to someone else becomes contagious and a ripple of goodness starts to make everyone smile!
Examples of Morale Boosters
Ignite Their Passion
Help them remember what it was like to be on FIRE for their position! Take them back to that time when they were just getting into education and help them remember their “why”. You can do this by having kids write letters, put together a sappy appreciation video, or even promote giving away “starfish” awards!
Spend Time Together
No one likes the words “after school meeting” but sometimes, talking is the best medicine! Work with your principals to have designated times for teachers to share frustrations as well as, celebrations. Design these times to be “safe sharing sessions“, where staff can be valued and heard. Sometimes, there is no answer for what we face in education… however, allowing staff to communicate their frustrations in a safe place keeps everyone on the same page and less venting will happen in the hallway (fingers crossed)!
Also, another way to spend time together is to have staff outings! Go somewhere with them! Do a team-building exercise somewhere in town, go to a painting class, or put on fundraising activity in town for something special happening in your building! It doesn’t really matter… just spend time together!
Have Fun
The whole idea of this is to have fun! Be creative and optimistic that everyone will enjoy it! Create a school-wide BINGO game, MYSTERY GIFTS or SCAVENGER HUNTS… these last longer and get staff very involved and excited!
Another way to have fun and create a little healthy competition is to offer small prizes! These could be given out for the winner or even randomly from a drawing throughout the week as you play!
Use Staff Interests for Something in the Community
At my school, we do “Action Teams”. The teachers decide on something that interests them personally (photography, music, dance, magic tricks, art, etc.) and then they develop a plan to teach it to kids and get them excited about it. We do this every fourth Monday of the month for about 40 minutes.
The trick is… every Action Team must be tied to a service project in our community! This is so amazing to see because teachers are excited to teach kids something fun and then go into the community and show them off!
Talk about igniting passion!
We had Kindergartners singing to the elderly, Second Graders making hot chocolate at the nursing home, and Third Graders making birdhouses for our school grounds! The teachers and students both light up on Action Team Day!
Need More Boosting?
Pick a few of these and do them randomly throughout the year!
- Handwritten Appreciation Notes to Staff
- Cute Morale Booster Game off TpT (See mine HERE)
- Treats in Staff Mailboxes
- Jeans Day!
- Host a Teacher BBQ or Cookie Exchange at Your House
- Set up a Relaxing Workroom Experience with Neck Massages
- Set up a Rotating Potluck Schedule
- Be a Positive Role Model
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Remember Enthusiasm is Contagious!
Shhh… I am putting together a little video surprise for my teachers using this book! I can’t wait to tell you more about it… Get updates on my Instagram Page!
I would love to hear if you have any more ideas! How do you boost morale at your school?
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I created a friendly competition for Teacher Appreciation Week last year and had a $100 as the prize. I asked teachers to fill out a google form with 3 of their “bucket list” items (this form just came to me). I then chose one item from each of teacher and created another form – sent to everyone who participated – asking teachers to match a bucket list item with the teacher whom they thought it “belonged” to. It was a fun way to get to know each other better and motivating to win because who doesn’t want cash?!
I love that idea! Totally doing that this year! Thanks for the feedback!