Boosting Morale... ONE squad at a time

Over on my Instagram (@farleyfarleyfarley)
I have had lots of questions about my school's
MORALE SQUADS
I tried answering the questions
BUT the overall consensus was I needed a blog post.
AND HERE WE ARE...

 so…

What the heck is this MORALE SQUAD you speak of????

Well basically it is the entire school pitching in to boost MORALE

but in shifts...

Here’s what we did…

ONE -we divided the school into 4 groups…

we are lucky because our school has 4 major hallways and they are color coded…(blue, yellow, red, and green) so no use in making it difficult

 we broke it down by hallways

labeled the squads according to the color of each hallway

and asked those not located in one of the major hallways to sign up with a hallway

so for example my hallway

is the green hallway

SOOOOO we are the green morale squad… duh

in my hallway we have 4th and 5th grade

the dyslexia teacher, 3 rti teachers, and the music teacher

PLUS the best school secretary in the world joined our squad and the 2 gym teachers… because they aren’t located in a particular hallway.

so we have 4 squads… and to the best that I can remember they are pretty much even

on to TWO- 

at a faculty meeting we passed around a sign up sheet…

it was divided into 8 sections

4 on top and 4 on the bottom

nothing fancy… I just folded paper and wrote in marker

each section was labeled with a month starting with September…

obviously if you are going to do this now you would only use the remaining months…

I explained what we were doing and asked a rep from each hallway to sign up for a month on the top and a month on the bottom…

we also asked staff and teachers that are not located in one of the main hallways to sign up with a squad on their months

NOTE*** my squad took  September to be an example of the various things that could be done

and then we passed it around and we took what was left on the bottom…

which ended up being February… Holla that’s a great month to have

and THREE-

so what do we do????

there is only one requirement your squad has to do…

that is provide snacks at one of the faculty meetings… that’s it

YEP that’s the ONLY requirement… not hard right…

don’t be like us and forget the faculty meeting was changed

and I had to call my parents to grab cookies at the last minute…

way to set an example right????

the other squads have done a grand job of snacks…

no pics of this

BUT for October… the blue squad

made a popcorn bar and witch’s brew

they gave us a bag of popcorn and then had lots of bowls out of various candies and you sprinkled your choice of yumminess

in your bag… it was awesome

the witch’s brew was a lime sherbet – 7-up punch

but they added dry ice to make it bubble… so cool

and then for our November meeting 

(yes we only have once a month meetings)

that squad did a nacho bar…

queso can turn a frown upside down for sure

soooooo  providing snacks is the ONLY requirement…

BUT

if you want to go above and beyond

then GO FOR IT

and that is exactly what we did…

my squad decided to do something special every week of our month...

 one of the biggest hits is our snack cart...

and here is what you need for that...

1- get a list of all faculty and staff members so your #2s will be sure to deliver smiles to everyone

2- some cutie patootie delivery kiddos is a must... I made sure they KNOW the school and have personality and manners... I mean you don't want your delivery team to be shy and clueless.
I had these boys last year and adore them... they have been at our school since kinder soooo
they obviously know the school and most of the teachers.
they also are well mannered and can follow directions (one big snack or 2 little snacks per person and one water)
and the BIG THING... they have personality
so when they walk into a teacher's room they are going to bring smiles

3- found an old cart... I want to paint it BUT...
no time
soooooo I just put some nice colorful baskets on it and made a snack cart banner with some left over ribbon
its still an ugly beige-grey color but the banner distracts from it
Hubs has offered to come and paint it for me (insert big happy face here)
plus teachers aren't looking at the cart as much as the SNACKS...right?

4- I asked every teacher in my squad to bring in at least a dozen prepackaged snacks...
anything they wanted
they could spend as little or as much as they wanted...
someone even brought in tiny waters... which is on the bottom shelf of the cart
the middle shelf is the "extras" just in case we run out of a snack on top the kiddos can refill it

5- add a cute banner
and because I want to help you on your journey to boosting morale...
I have added the banner into my store...
as a FREEBIE!!!
click HERE to download it!!!

**** NOTE****
after the kiddos delivered to the entire school
we had a ton of snacks left over and so....
we did another delivery on the last day of our month

 the snack cart was such a hit...
the Blue Squad decorated one up for Halloween and delivered spooktacular treats...
they kept the same delivery team... because... why not... they know what to do!!!!


Snack cart deliveries were not the only thing we did to deliver smiles...

 my squad divided the faculty and staff list up
and we each got 3-5 people make their mailbox happy...
we made sure to include our squad members on the list too
because... HELLO we deserve smiles too.
so we could do whatever we wanted to bring smiles using the faculty mailboxes as our delivery
as you can see... the person that had me... decorated my mailbox (and 3 others too) and everyday I had a little treat inside... I still have my little pennants up!!!
I delivered little treats with messages to my recipients twice that week
and I know some others got hand written notes of appreciation and thanks
and others got a survival pack for the week full of snacks and treats...
I loved this idea because it doesn't require a lot of money
and each of us could put our own spin and personalize our deliveries

another fun idea is...

 the blue squad... had a guess the number game set up in the office area...
super simple BUT so much fun!!!
and some other ideas...

for Fire Prevention week we got tootsie roll treats...

for Halloween the Blue Squad talked with our admin and were able to gift us JEAN PASSES

and right before Thanksgiving break... Yellow Squad delivered turkeys with popcorn.

Morale is such a hard thing to keep up and running... by breaking into Moral Squads... my school's morale has been boosted

it's easy to do and the rewards are beyond measure...

I am going to keep posting what my school is doing to boost morale over on my instagram so you can get some more ideas... I will also hashtag it #teachermoralesquad 

if you have ideas for boosting morale at your school feel free to leave a message here... or even use the hashtag... and tag me TOO!!!

Why my rubrics don't add up to 100

So I have been thinking about doing this for a few years now and BAM
this year is the year I decided to do it.

It all started with our READING LOG…
I only require my kiddos to read 20 minutes a night…
and that is Monday - Thursday so if I added all that up…
it would equal an 80…..
SO I decided to add that the highest grade you can earn is 105
if you do the bare minimum you get an 80… go above and beyond and you can get up to 105
It has really worked out well and it is quite EYE OPENING to see which kiddos
DO NOT go that extra minute or two to earn a higher grade.
If you truly TRULY think about it… it ONLY requires them to read an extra 5
YEP FIVE minutes a night to earn the 100!!!
some seem to be totally OK with the 80…
while others not so much and are always getting the 105
some even read up to 200 minutes
WOW!!!

I even tried it with one of our projects.
I made it very clear the rubric only added up to 80...
and going above and beyond would be the only way to score above an 80.
I also made it clear... they had to think OFF the rubric.
For example... a title was needed to get 5 points...
I did not give extra points if they had a light up title with glitter... that isn't going off the rubric.
The rubric didn't state "to get 5 points you need to have a WOW factor"
it said... 5 points for a neat and correctly spelled title
if little kid A wrote his title on his box in pencil and it was neat and spelled correctly he got 5 points...
just like little lady B with lights and glitter.

You are probably thinking WOW that's harsh...
BUT IS IT????

little kid A doesn't get help from home bc his mom and grandma work 2 jobs each and his older siblings take care of home stuff
... his family is on free and reduced lunch and they live pay check to pay check...
I am not about to compare his project to little lady B
who comes from a totally different home environment.
Her mamma could have her own crafting channel... heck so could little lady B...
this family enjoys at home projects and puts education as a priority...
these two little kiddos have different home environments as do ALL of my kiddos...


In the past I would send home a rubric that aded up to 100 and give bonus points for "WOW"
but what was I giving "WOW" points for... glitter, lights, the cool things....
I know I did give points for amazing presentations
BUT that is where it stopped... really since I was telling them how to get 100
all the projects kinda looked the same...
I could totally tell you before the rubric was handed out which kiddo would get the 100 plus WOW
based on home life...
I was giving WOW points for looks and not content
soooooooo
I started thinking... year after year... and project after project...  what can I do to spice this up...
change this up...
instead of me telling them here is your 100... let them decide how to earn those extra points...

and after reading a book by Ron Clark I was like YEP
make my rubrics worth 80...
the kids at first were not happy...
they were like... WTH really
kids these days are use to getting the here's your 100 rubrics... it doesn't really require them to THINK

wow imagine that...
so I began to tell them... you have to THINK off the rubric...
you can do the rubric to the best of your ability BUT that only gets you a 80
BUT if you think off the rubric... that will get your WOW points

this was a hard concept for the kids and parents too...
my hope for this was that each kids' personality would shine


some kids' projects tried the whole glitter and lights to the title thing
BUT that wasn't off the rubric...
a title spelled correctly and neatly was on the rubric...
so little kid a and little lady b scored the same points

also on the rubric was to create a map showing the location of their indian tribe...
and it had to include a key and compass
little kid a - drew his own map of Texas (kinda wonky but still Texas like) on the side of the box...
it was hard to see it through the giant Nike Swoosh, but everything required on the map was drawn in brown colored pencil...
he even put a spiderman sticker where his tribe was located
and then he showed the migration pattern of his tribe with glued on string
labeled his map as winter grounds and summer grounds and then had pictures of the animals that were hunted in both winter and summer homes around his Texas drawing... he had a correct key (with a spiderman) and a nice compass
little lady b had a beautiful map of Texas that was printed or purchased...
It was a beautiful map and it was displayed perfectly on top of her box with a piece of foam board...
everything requiring a label was done with sticker letters and
 it had a pin where her tribe was located... her compass rose was done beautifully in puffy glitter glue...
and her key was color coded with metallic paint
it was stunning...

which kid got bonus points???
little kid a- he went off the rubric he had migration patterns and pictures of the animals hunted
little lady b - did what the rubric asked for


another requirement was they had to make the dwelling in a diorama with examples of their food, transportation, and clothing
little lady b -  wowzers... looked like the best teepee diorama ever...
looked like real animal skin teepee, had a little fake candle thingy to represent the campfire, the clothes were hung on a line as if they were drying and over the fake flame was a sculpted out of clay carcass to represent the food
she also had a fake plastic horse to represent transportation.... did she go off the rubric??? no
did it look amazing.....YES

little boy a... used writing paper for all of his things... so everything had blue stripes
he divided his box in two with tinfoil
and on one side had the winter home... again made out of writing paper that he had colored
and on the other side he had the summer home
both sides had writing paper animals that were taped to the back to represent the animals they hunted and
he had a travois made out of toothpicks... he also had his tribe members clothed appropriately for each season... again done with striped paper but colored with crayons or colored pencils
sounds like he stayed in the rubric too right...
NOPE... he added labels for everything... and put the months when they would stay at each home.
his project wasn't as pretty and neat as hers BUT his was off the rubric


when I was doing projects and grades the old way...
I realized I was giving bonus points to those that had the means...
they had parents at home that would help them
those parents probably had extra money to make it shine and sparkle
they could purchase the extras


BUT

was that fair to my kiddos who do not get that type of support at home?
my low income families do not have the means to purchase glitter, stickers, maps, and other crafting supplies....

by requiring the above and beyond OFF THE RUBRIC points...
my kids are on an even playing field...
everyone has to think off the rubric...

even though little lady b's project could put Martha Stewart to shame...
she scored an 80

and even though little boy a's box looked like he scrounged all his supplies off my floor at the end of the day (which he did) he scored a 97... his project might not be a cover story picture on a projects magazine BUT he went off the rubric and went above and beyond

soooo
I will leave you with this...
are you giving bonus points for glitter and glam?
is that fair to all of your kiddos?

let's be sure we aren't giving extra points for flash and flair...
and we are giving extra point for going off the rubric and doing more than expected
it shouldn't be about looks it should be about content...

I am interested in what you might have to say about this...
type your ideas or comments down below...