Boosting Scholar
Morale
What are
some quick and easy ways to boost scholar morale?
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Ending the School Year with a Bang!
Ending the School Year with a Bang! What are some ways to end the school year on a high note academically, sending scholars wit...
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Achieving Work-Life Balance Healthy Work Habits Healthy Home Habits Remote Balance
Virtual Rewards: https://www.pbisrewards.com/blog/pbis-incentives-distance-learning/
ReplyDeleteTeacher Happy Challenge- https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-THE-30-DAY-HAPPY-TEACHER-CHALLENGE-2228617
We have a share time to where scholars can tell whats going on in their life. As for teacher morale we were told we were getting t shirts.
ReplyDeleteLove your share time. What are YOU doing to fill your own cup? Do you cook, read, decorate...? I hope you are taking care of yourself. :)
DeleteOur Social Emotional time at the beginning of the day is most important. We talk about how to deal with overpowering emotions using song, story, situations and other activities. I think this helps all of us feel like we are an important part of the classroom.
ReplyDeleteS Purdy Trix Academy
Yes! Love that you do this. Most of the time a student simply wants to feel heard. The fact they get a chance to share each day is huge. Great way to build relationships
Delete-Teresa Pope, Jones Clark Elementary, Art
This is def. an important one in my teaching book! I have taught my student a "work hard, play hard" concept. As long as they work hard during our class discussions and introductions, I play music and even tell a few jokes while they are dong independent work. Some of the students like to dance next to their chairs and sing along with the songs. I like to keep a relaxed and stress free environment. I know this doesn't work for all teachers but, it works great for my personality and my students
ReplyDeleteDecorating the hallways has always brought a smile to my face as well as my students and faculty. I tried to keep my hallway covered with student artwork and decorations that match the season.
-Teresa Pope, Jones Clark Elementary, Art Education
I do miss seeing student work in the hallways. I think it's important to keep a stress free environment in the classroom. Every teacher has to figure out what works for their personality but still maintains classroom management.
DeleteHello Teresa, I love the work hard, play hard concept. It promote healthy work and wholesome play and rest. As a former coach I can say it definitely perks the ears of your Scholars to be motivated to achieve as they approach their most desired reward..."to play". Great post!
DeleteI always start the class off with an SEL question and a check in. I make sure that I sound and look upbeat, even if I don't feel that way. The school hasn't done anything for the teachers. However, I don't fault them because of everything on their plates right now. I feel that it's up to us to up left each other and keep ourselves energized. Our school is definitely putting scholars first. I have been journaling and reading to keep my cup full.
ReplyDeleteMelissa Sheriff JRPLA
Abbigail Brantch, 8th Grade Music and HS Choir teacher @ JRPLA.
DeleteLast month they started the "Teacher of the Month" thing, but I am not sure they will continue that while we are virtual. It would be really hard to nominate people since we have such little engagement.
I think that's an awesome way to keep students engaged in the morning. It's extremely important that we're checking in on our students during this time. I have been doing morning meetings and checking in with my students by having them tell me how they are feeling through emojis in the blackboard chat. I also agree that it is important that we as educators try to stay energized and take care of ourselves as well as each other.
DeleteSpecifically, I have been using lesson related videos with music that grabs Scholars attention and kickboard challenges for timely log in's to small groups. Also, I consistently acknowledging Scholars with compliments when greeting scholars who are dancing, or if they have a new hair style as I prepare them to focus and gather materials for our lesson.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, our school is doing teacher of the month and always encouraging through weekly motivationals from our Principal.
V.Rolle, HIAT
I would like to learn more about kickboard challenges!
DeleteHeather Hill
PLA@93
I really like the idea of teacher of the month. We don't have a lot of teacher morale or at least not as much as what I have seen.
DeleteAbigail Wade
4th Grade
GVPLA
I use different strategies, I use music, games, and I do a different class every day. The attendance of my students is very good and they always enter the room wondering what we are going to do today?
ReplyDeleteArlene Mojica Alvarez
Spanish Teacher
Thea Bowman Leadership Academy
I definitely try to mix up my days with activities and games too! That's important so the students don't lose interest.
DeleteI try to keep my lessons engaging as possible. Students pick and choose different brain break and activities that they show interest in, along with games and dancing videos. PLA103 does a great job communicating and collaborating with everyone. Working with my team definitely helps boost my teacher moral.
ReplyDeleteCaroline Friedly
1st Grade PLA103
I try to do as many fun activities, songs, games, etc. as possible to keep the scholars engaged and having fun! They love when I start dancing during our brain breaks too!
ReplyDeleteOur school does teacher and support staff of the month and just overall encourages self care throughout the month!
Heather Hill
PLA@93
At the beginning of each day, we have morning meeting where the students get to interact with each other and also another staff member. This staff member is important to these kids because they really look up to him due to his background. I think we could do more for teacher morale. I only talk to a couple teachers daily.
ReplyDeleteAbigail Wade
PLA GVP
4th Grade
Abigail,
DeleteI loved having morning meetings with my scholars. They always loved this time. If time would allow we would also end our day with a community meeting to make sure that we were all okay to go home and to make sure that any problems that may had come up during the day were resolved before going home. This was such a special time with the scholars. And I feel like made a huge impact in their life.
Jenina Sorenson PLA@103
My scholars perk up after they have opportunities to share.
DeleteAbbigail Brantch, 8th Grade Music and HS Choir @ JRPLA
ReplyDeleteCurrently I am trying to use Kahoot! as my motivational tool. It allows the scholars to compete against one another (in a friendly manner), shows them a podium of the winners, and still does the content I need to cover. The only real problem I am having with this is that I have poor class attendance in general and the competitive edge of Kahoot! is more fun when there are more people. Something I have been doing all year to is "Birthday Bios" of some of the scholars' favorite artists. At the start of the year I had them fill out an introduction survey and asked who their currently favorite music artist was and now when it is near their birthday we dedicate a lesson to their background and listening to their music. It is harder for some of the artists either because they are relatively new or less know so there is not a lot of information OR too much of their song material is not school appropriate. I do what I can to find clean versions but the scholars don't usually like those.
The school started a Scholar and Teacher of the Month award right last month right before switching back to virtual. I am not sure if that will continue now that we are not together. It is also hard to elect a teacher of the month when so many of the staff are new and now virtually there is almost no interaction.
I've used Kahoot before too! The students always seem to like it. :) And yes, I even forgot about the teacher of the month... since it is voted on, really only those who already knew each other will probably get it. It doesn't really do much to boost the morale of those of us that are new. (in my opinion)
DeleteI love that you make it personal for the students and incorporate their favorite artists. What a great way to engage the scholars and show that you are listening to them!
DeleteBrianna Bennett
PLA 93
I make sure to start every lecture by seeing how everyone is doing at home. We discuss what we did last night and anything fun or otherwise that they want to share. During the lecture, I try to incorporate funny memes or cartoon depictions of the current topic. Then at the end of the lecture I make sure to let them know how much I miss them and that I love them. I don't believe the school has done anything to boost teacher morale.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree that boosting teacher morale is vital. I believe we all have been so focused on providing every ounce to our scholars and not being reminded that we can't pour from an empty cup! Be blessed.
DeleteKei'Anna Anderson- James and Rosemary Phalen
Teaching in school we start everyday with daily affirmations and our "Hello" song that gets them dancing. We take lots of brain breaks with GoNoodle, and they earn more when they are doing well. Virtually, I do small group and I make sure to tell them I can see how hard they are working and what improvement I've seen and how proud of them I am. I also call small group game time. They like playing the games and don't realize that it's a lesson.
ReplyDeleteFor myself, while we are virtual I'm making sure to keep a schedule and make sure that I'm making time for myself and staying active. It's easy to stay in front of the computer all day.
Brianna Bennett
PLA 93
Brianna,
DeleteI love daily affirmations. And I use to have a number of different songs we would sing in the class at the start of the day. The scholars loved it. What a great way to keep the positive alive in the classroom.
Jenina Sorenson PLA@103
I love daily affirmations too, and having routines is great too!
DeleteMegan Skaggs GVP
I love that! Daily affirmations are such a great way to kick off the day!
ReplyDeleteStudent morale is so important. It is directly related to how engaged they are and how they learn. I like to incorporate breaks in our learning. We play games like Kahoot and at the start of class I like to share good news. The scholars like to tell you about what they find exciting in their lives.
ReplyDeleteI began some of my class sessions with an off topic/ random Do Now question. Students love these, and I know it because of their lengthy responses. They tend to like when we show interest in them as a human rather than student. Also, I do virtual Gallery Walks to showcase their work. This not only boost their morale but also helps to encourage students to produce quality work, because they like to be celebrated in any way. This week I did a student shout-out to a scholar who I noticed had a major improvement for the past two weeks! Being extremely positive during this time is my goal every day because this keeps them coming back and logging on:)
ReplyDeleteKei'Anna Anderson- James and Rosemary Phalen
There are numerous ways that I boost scholar morale. Since I work in 13 classrooms, with around 80 scholars I work hard on greeting each one of them when I take them into a breakout room. We also have some share time so that they can share out. Throughout the lesson(s) we celebrate each other with different celebrations. I also work really hard on having the scholars recognize and celebrate each other.
ReplyDeleteOur staff at PLA@103 has weekly shout outs in our staff meetings that we have on Monday mornings. We also celebrate those in our PLCs. Before going on virtual staff members were handing out You've Been Caught slips to one another. When you received one you took it to the office for a reward of your choice. I am sure that I am leaving a few off, but it is a great feeling to know that you are being reward for a job well done.
Jenina Sorenson PLA@103
I like your emphasis on greeting each scholar individually. Definitely shows them that you notice them and they aren't just another name on a screen to you! Great way to start building intentional relationship in the classroom.
DeleteSamantha Burns-PLA@93
There are a couple of ways I try and boost scholar morale. Every morning we have a morning meeting. This gives the students to not only interact with me, but also their classmates as well. I chose random questions to discuss which allows us to get to know each other more. I also try to incorporate interactive online review games, and assignments. I'm not sure what all has been done for teacher morale, but I'm looking forward to it when the time comes.
ReplyDelete-Taylor Madison
GVP
I try and plan a fun Friday activity as a celebration of making through another week teaching virtually. I do find that my attitude can rub off on the scholars, so I also try to remain upbeat.
ReplyDeleteTo boost scholar morale, I include daily shout-outs as part of our end-of-the-day routine, which they look forward to and remind me if I ever forget. I also have a zones of regulation check-in so that they have the opportunity to share how they are doing and discuss for a minute or so what may be going on in their lives that day. This really has helped us build a supportive classroom community as I see more and more students willing to share as the weeks go on.
ReplyDeleteAs a school, 93 also incorporates staff shoutouts into our weekly notes, as well as a teacher and support staff of the month. They also include a getting to know you portion into our weekly note, as we have many new teachers and this year hasn't allowed for us to intermingle as much as I'm sure we may have in the past being in-person. This has helped me feel even a little bit more connected to the staff that I work with, even though I haven't seen many of them face-to-face. I think it is very important for school/work to first feel like a welcoming, community-centered environment for ourselves and for the scholars, which is something that I see at my school.
Samantha Burns
PLA@93
To boost scholar morale, I try to create as many opportunities for scholars to be engaged as possible, especially virtually. I started doing polls to make sure all scholars get to share their responses to questions. We are also having sharing time during morning meeting and doing go noodles that teach stretching and relaxing skills. I am trying to provide plenty of positive feedback and have created virtual stickers to put on their virtual assignments as they complete their work.
ReplyDeleteI also used polls and even Google forms to gather data. They work for SEL checking too!
DeleteTo boost scholar morale i try to use virtual games and coding club activities as an incentive.
ReplyDeleteThe school boosts our morale by doing SEL check ins with us.
DeleteTo boost scholars morale in my class I try to make each one of them understand that they have a value and it is my honor to teach them.
ReplyDeleteAndrea Latimore Phalen Leadership Academy
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ReplyDelete