One of the first things I was told during my student teaching was to befriend the office staff and the custodial staff, as these are the people who keep the school operating behind the scenes. After all, who is going to help when you need emergency copies made or help cleaning up a spill in your classroom? That's right the amazing office & custodial staff!
Because of my love of arts and crafts, we are constantly cutting and pasting, which in turn means a lot of paper on the floor. Despite having trashcans around the room, we can always find remnants of our creations on the floor, along with highlighters, glue sticks and markers! Many days I'm found working in our classroom, with a group of students way past the 3:50 dismissal bell. As the kids are working, I usually am sweeping up our mess from the day. After all, it's not Ms. Brenda's job to clean up after us! I also know how hard it is to get around the groups of desks, so I try to sweep it all to the area by the trashcans.
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| A sweet note from Ms. Brenda |
Over time, kids have begun to help sweep our room, without being asked. It's this ownership of behavior that makes my heart happy! They know how much it helps others, as well as how happy it makes everyone. Why not make somebody's day just a little bit brighter?
During the third six weeks' our Falcon Way group, Courage House, focused on appreciation! We chose to show our appreciation for our custodial staff. Students collaborated and shared ideas about how they could help and one was to start a trend of cleaning up after each lunch.
Students quickly signed up for a time to help and encouraged their classmates to also join in helping. The timing of this effort couldn't have been better planned as our head custodian was out on medical leave and Ms. Brenda was having to man the cafeteria by herself. It was all hands-on deck from my 4th period as we always pick up trash on our way back to class! In fact this is part of what "the dream team does," according to a few of my girls :)
I'm proud that so many of our kids don't even question picking up somebody else's trash or mind helping clean up in the cafeteria. Again it's the small actions of one that brighten the lives of so many others!
After Winter Break, all Courage House members helped create a video of appreciation! It took a few recordings, but the kids were amazing. In fact they did such a great job, that Ms. Brenda was brought to tears!
How do you show appreciation for those you work with at school?
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