School leadership is so big! It is incredible to think of all of the moving parts that are involved in leadership and what you need to oversee in a day. I so often talk about leadership in schools as administrators leading teachers. But today, I want to take a deep dive into how administrators can support and inspire students. I’ve got some tips and tricks that have really worked for our leadership team in our school that I would love to share with you.
Our students are the whole reason why we do the things we do around here. I think it is so important to make your office space so much more than a ‘getting in trouble’ space for the kids. In fact, the office can be an extended learning space and a hub for connection and inspiration if done intentionally and consistently. The best part of the tricks I am going to give you is that they are simple and effective.
- Build a club around your passion. We all know that extra-curricular expectations comes with the job of a teacher or a leader. Why not make your extra-curricular expectations a doorway to connect with the students by teaching them something you love! This club doesn’t have to be every week but rather you can make it fit your schedule but it is important to make it happen consistently. You will be amazed at how teaching kids about a passion of yours will build connection. I am obsessed with podcasts and wellness so I decided to use that passion to make a podcast with my students in my podcast club. Now they are writing the podcasts, recording them, and I get to produce them. We do them when we can and set a goal of trying to release at least 2 podcasts a month. The students also learn more about you when they see you beyond a school role and that is powerful when it comes to making connections.
2. Make your announcements entertaining. This is a massive opportunity to make an impact that we so often overlook. Announcements are often filled with housekeeping stuff and a half hearted remark to have a good day. Often, the announcements come off kind of like Charlie Brown’s teacher (you know the “waaa, waaaa, waaaa.”) Why would we waste that opportunity each day to not make an impact or at least an attempt at connection? What if it became a chance to inspire them, make them think, and make them laugh each day? Use the announcements to fight for something you believe they need. It may just be telling them a joke just to make them laugh, but remember that builds relationship and connection. Perhaps it is a quote and a pondering to inspire them that day. It could be a story or something you noticed a student or a teacher do. Maybe you blast an excerpt of music that day and have a random dance party! Tips and tricks and trivia are also a fun way to connect and build joy in your school to start the day. Whatever it is, it always helps to have a system to manage this. Set up a system such as Mondays – quotes and inspire, Tuesdays – jokes, etc. and this will help you to manage and automate it. Simple but oh so worth it!
3. Make your office an extension of a classroom during specific times. Set up a space in your week or day where you dedicate that hour to celebrating the work of teachers and students. Let your teachers know this time and invite them to send students down to show off their work, ask questions, get help with questions or learning during this time. This is huge not only to make connections with the kids but also to make connections with the teachers. The students love to come down and show off what they are learning and the teachers love it too. Often, I send them back with stickers all over their face or if they are older, a wash off tattoo or quote card and they love this. By setting intentional times to make this happen, it actually makes it happen and controls the flow of traffic in and out of your office so that it isn’t going on all of the time. You can mention their great work during announcements too! It transforms your space into an invitational and celebratory space rather than just the place where you go when you get in trouble.
4. Make supervision a chance to connect every time. We all have mountains of supervision and so often it is absolutely awful. I know I get it. I have those same feelings for supervision too….However, after years of going through the motions with supervision, I started to experiment with a few things and realized these are missed opportunities. Think of a way to connect with your students while you are supervising them. For example, if you are monitoring classrooms or hallways for lunch, tell them a story, leave a quote and talk about it, challenge them with trivia, set goals, etc. This distracts them from perhaps doing something they shouldn’t be doing, builds relationship with them, and passes the time. I even talk about podcasts and then set wellness challenges for them such as, “every time I say the word , ‘OK’, you have to take 5 sips of water from your water bottles.” Super simple, yet so effective! If you are outside, have a chat with a student who may need connection, bring a blue tooth speaker outside and have a freeze dance party (or play the fart machine…), play some soccer, hide some things and have students try to find them (this one is super easy and passes the time.). The sky is the limit for how you could make this work and it really does make supervision a little less painful.
5. Set up an “I noticed…..” bulletin board. Set up a bulletin board where there is a lot of traffic with the words, “I noticed…” As students come to celebrate work with you, you can post it up on that board and write something that you noticed about their work to celebrate them. Perhaps it is pictures that you have taken of teachers or students doing some amazing work that you might post with what you noticed. Maybe it is a thank you to someone for citizenship. This board is meant to celebrate and showcase the amazing work or citizenship that is happening in your school from teachers and students. What is different about this board is that you are also adding to each sample about what you noticed about that work. It is a powerful and simple way to let your teachers and your students know that you see the work they are doing and that they matter.
6. Set up a student leadership team. Leadership is your thing, so why not use it to teach students how to lead too! This is huge in a school and it gives you a chance to empower others and reach more students through the student leaders. You can set up this team however you wish. Some ideas for ways to lead are: getting them to write inspirational quotes around your school, teaching them how to lead lunch ‘n learns about their passions or academics, having them lead social activities, writing announcements, designing fundraisers, etc.). There are so many opportunities to connect with students through your student leadership team!
7. Set up some fun events throughout the school year. This one is always a hit but it does require some work. That is where your student leadership team can help. Think about some fun activities that you can host throughout the year that will boost school spirit and create some fun. Some ideas might be to host a school wide Survivor or Amazing Race game, morning trivia where they have to be the ninth caller in to get a class prize, a school wide easter egg hunt, etc. Whatever you decide, I can guarantee you this will work and will build some fun and school spirit into your culture!
Well, there you have it! Some really neat ways for administrators to build student connection and make an impact on the students each day. I would love to hear how you build connection too! Email me at jacealynh@gmail.com so I can learn from you too!
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