Week 7 Discussion - Recognizing Staff Accomplishments

     The way teachers are recognized at my school is primarily through the weekly newsletter that is created each Monday by our Principal.  She has a special “Spotlight” section that she uses to highlight accomplishments of staff members.  For example, she might inform the staff that a teacher has had a Donor’s Choose grant fully funded or she may offer public thanks to a staff member that organized a field trip.  Someone is included every week, so sometimes she has to dig a little bit and be creative with some of her praise, but it is always there. 

     Both of the readings mentioned the value of personally written thank you notes.  I believe these have the highest value when an administrator is seeking to build positive culture. The power of the written word cannot be overstated.  Thank you notes give teachers something tangible to let them know they are on the right track.  Having received notes like this myself, I have also found that they can provide encouragement on rough days when a teacher is ready to throw up her hands. 

     One of the ideas mentioned in the article is to generate letters of appreciation on school letterhead and have them added to employees’ permanent files.  I would love to do this in my future school.  Too often the only items in those files are demographic information and negative letters.  I think it would mean a lot to teachers to know that there were positive reports about their work being collected at the district level.