An AMAZING Race

Not going to lie...surviving my first week back with my staff as a brand new principal has been exhausting. When people I follow talk about "principal tired", they certainly weren't kidding! It's a thing. Go ahead...Google it! :)

I feel like the week before and this week were "crunch time" for us, as leaders, and then that stress switches to the staff. Either way, we all have a million things on our plates, and we were feeling the pressure.

Part of any "traditional" back to school teacher week involves some sort of "Nuts and Bolts" back to school meeting. Coming so recently from the classroom, I remember how much I despised "sit and get" types of meetings. With this in mind, I was determined to make this meeting fun and engaging for my new staff.

Enter...THE AMAZING RACE! Kate and I did something similar when we were in the classroom for another similarly boring unit (Regions of the United States...click to go to our classroom blog about it). So, I took that concept and tweaked it to meet a staff meeting need!

What to Cover

I needed to cover a number of less-than-exciting topics. Can you relate?:

• How to enter an absence
• How to use the in-house Google Calendar
• How to enter a discipline referral
• Updates on playground supervision (some changes were made)
• A new coordinator in our district wanted some time with the staff
• One of my amazing secretaries wanted some time with the staff to cover
• Field trip forms
• Tardies
• Copy Toner
• Purchase Orders, etc.
• How to schedule maintenance needs
• How to schedule rooms/locations

So, I reached out to a few people and had them make some screen cast videos of a few of these topics. My secretary and I made the rest. We used QuickTime for this. We, then, uploaded the videos to YouTube and turned them into QR codes (using http://www.qr-code-generator.com/).

I then got to work making clues!

The Clues:

Based on the things I needed to share with staff, I managed to lump them into 6 different "rotations." Each rotation needed: A Road Block activity, a Detour Activity, and a clue for the next location. I also numbered the corners of each clue and clue envelope. This helped me keep track of which clues were part of which "stop."

At each destination, I also had a list of directions for each team to follow:

Challenges:

We just started a school Twitter page (and other social media accounts) with my arrival, so what better time to have staff practice using it?! They had to video/photograph/post all sorts of crazy activities. Silly things I had my staff do:

• Crab walk down the hall
• Wheelbarrow race
• Hula Hoop through the cafeteria
• Jump rope 10 times each
• Playground selfie
• Photos with their favorite books in the library
• Cram into the health room bathroom and take a selfie
• Sing a song together (I learned there is a school song! I must learn it now!)
• Change the copy toner and photograph proof
• Hold up a sign that read "I solemnly swear to send my master schedule to Pam by September 8" (Pam is my administrative assistant)
• Count biographies of George Washington in the library
• Fill out their emergency contact cards
• Complete important events in our school's almost 100 year old timeline.

I was specific in the locations that I chose my staff to go to. I also strategically split up my staff (all new people were separated, and I also made sure that teams were split up). This allowed people to visit important places in the building, while also getting to know those they don't work with regularly on a daily basis.

The Logistics:

I'm not going to lie...this took a while to put together. Cutting apart all the clues and envelope covers took quite a bit of time, as did gluing the envelope covers on. Each envelope was labeled with team number and location. 6 teams x 6 location x 3 clues each = A LOT of envelopes! At each stop, I had piles of clues for each specific team. The first team back won "$100,000" in the form of 100 Grand candy bars. All other teams got pieces of Dove chocolate (We're ALL winners :)

One team in my office watching a video about entering discipline referrals.

A Few Highlights:

There were so many to choose from! Definitely check out our school Twitter Page to see more fun! @shorewoodLB

@shorewoodlb Mike is so crabby! pic.twitter.com/V7ko2VudQD

— Jessica Hau (@JessicaLHau) August 30, 2017

Blurry, but such a great, laughter-filled memory! #winners

FUN!:

Needless to say, my hallways were filled with laughter, screeching, and cheering. New friends got a tour of the building and met more staff. Other staff reconnected with teammates they don't get to work with often. I had so much fun running around my building, following the fun! And our Twitter feed is hysterical! I love that our families can see our team building efforts and smiles on our teachers' faces! One of my veteran teachers pulled me aside afterwards and said "In my 20+ years here, this was the BEST back to school meeting I've ever been to!" <sigh> I call that a success. #HeartOfficiallyWarmed

Can't wait to see what this year brings with this truly exceptional staff! Here is to 2017-2018

~Angela