316: Easy Ways to Connect with your Department

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

On this week’s mini-episode, I just have a very quick idea for you and it’s this. As back-to-school hits, it’s easy to immediately become isolated in your classroom. You’ve got a million to-dos for your space and your students. But the school year is going to feel better if you feel connected to the teacher across the hall, the teacher next door, and the teacher upstairs. Know what I mean? So this week I want to recommend that you host your department for something this back-to-school season. And I’m going to give you a few quick ideas for what that something might be, though really, the what doesn’t matter nearly as much as the why.

One super simple way to get the department together would be to suggest a lunch potluck in your classroom during the return week. Just send a nice email out saying you’d love to catch up with everyone and you’ll be there with some kind of shareable food. Invite everyone to come, bringing their own shareable food. Emphasize that a veggie tray or chips and dip are just fine - no need for anyone to spend hours making homemade strawberry rhubarb pie unless they WANT to. (That would be me, I would want to). Feel free not to even bring up work at this little lunch bash, just welcome the new folks and chat with the returners and generally take a second to remember that you’re going into fall as part of a team.

Another easy option would be to suggest an ice cream or Boba or even afternoon tea after work outing, following up on one of the teacher workdays. Again, very little prep needs to be involved as the “host.” Simply choose a venue and send out an invitation. If you want to use a fun Canva template for your invites, so much the better, but there’s no need to spend more than five minutes on it when you’re already busy.

Last but not least, a third option is to invite your colleagues to a pedagogy breakfast. Now, you may laugh, but I’ve actually done this quite a few times, and it was fun. In this case, either choose a coffee shop or bakery near your school and invite your department to gather there in the morning before work for half an hour. You could invite everyone to share an idea they’re excited about that they found over the summer, something that worked well the year before, or something around a particular theme on everyone’s mind, like AI in the classroom or how they’re promoting choice reading.

Of course, there are dozens of other ways you could get together for some no-fuss department bonding. Bowling? After-work swim at the lake? Happy hour? My goal today is just to say that as you turn your attention toward building community and connection with your students this fall, you might also want to think about some easy ways to do it with the adults you work with. Feeling like part of a team, maybe one that shares fond memories of the oatmeal-raisin scones down the road or the time Diana rolled three strikes in a row to defeat Shonda, will only help you feel safer and more supported at work. Maybe your decision to host a no-fuss gathering now will also lead others to sprinkle in team gatherings of their own throughout the year.

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