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Post by cindytred on Jun 5, 2016 4:23:49 GMT
I am the co-chair for my elementary school's Culture Committee next year. The mission of our committee is "Work hard, play harder!".
This year was the first year for the committee and we did the following:
*organized each grade level to bring snacks to faculty meetings
*Secret Santa
*Boo'd each other at Halloween (very successful)
*a version of Boo'ing for Valentines Day (not successful)
*we fed the homeless once a month
*organized the Christmas party for faculty and staff
*went to Painting with a Twist and then to lunch afterwards
*I taught people how to make a wreath
*Had a beauty pageant among the teachers (something silly)
Does your school do anything like this? And if so, I would love to hear what you do. We need fresh ideas!
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seaexplore
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,804
Apr 25, 2015 23:57:30 GMT
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Post by seaexplore on Jun 5, 2016 4:35:12 GMT
I'm a middle grades teacher at a k-8 school. We have some fun stuff....
Boo in October, the person who ends with it starts the next year off
Secret Santa, only some participate
Every Friday someone brings snack for teachers. We sign up when school starts for one time each and then if there are still spots, we take another
Staff birthday lunches once a month. All the staff team up and sign up for a month to bring lunch for everyone.
Coffee club- pay into it and coffee and creamer are bought for you for the year
Sunshine club- $25 per teacher, $20 certificated and it's used to brighten days. Surgery, death in the family, retirement gifts, whatever we want to use it for.
We have baby showers and bridal showers
We also randomly bring in stuff to share. Extra cookies we don't want to keep at home (and eat them all ourselves) never get turned down. People who have gardens bring in produce to share.
This is all staff not our parent club.
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Post by freecharlie on Jun 5, 2016 12:18:02 GMT
We do a lot of what you do. We also have crock 0ot lunch one to times per month. Two to three people sign up to bring a crockpot or other meal and feed the other members of the staff that has signed up. You have to have signed up to participate.
We went to a baseball game this year
. Hope to hit a minor league hockey next year
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 8, 2024 2:26:25 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2016 14:37:35 GMT
I am confused... did you do these activities within the committee or for the students/teachers/staff? Sounds like 3 things for staff and the rest was social activities for the committee?
I guess I would ask what is the purpose of the committee?
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Post by shescrafty on Jun 5, 2016 14:45:07 GMT
We do so e of what has been listed above but we also do a birthday buddy if you sign up. Give the coworker little trinkets leading up to the day (mostly edible treats like favorite candy or drink) and then a $25 gift on their bday. Only those who song up participate (not mandatory) and we do a list of likes/dislikes so the person giving gifts has ideas.
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Post by 950nancy on Jun 5, 2016 17:09:50 GMT
We had an inspiration trophy that traveled for years. Every staff meeting, one person would give it to someone on staff who inspired them and then gave a short speech. We also put chalkboards in the adult bathrooms and that was hysterical. I worked some funny people. Inspirational quotes gone wrong and things kids have said during the week make for a great read while you are doing your business.
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Country Ham
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,314
Jun 25, 2014 19:32:08 GMT
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Post by Country Ham on Jun 5, 2016 17:24:31 GMT
What is a culture committee? We don't have one of those. My kids' teachers do bring in munchies for the staff room, have a staff secret santa etc but they don't have a committee. Plus when I read "Culture" I picture something different in my mind.
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supascrappa
Shy Member
Posts: 29 
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Post by supascrappa on Jun 5, 2016 18:20:02 GMT
We have a hospitality committee. They organize a secret Santa exchange, and the sign ups for faculty meeting snacks. (Each month a diff grade level is in charge) and an end of the year "thing".. But that's it really..
our PTA caters lunch for staff once a month, and grade level teams celebrate birthdays amongst ourselves. All that other stuff would take too much time away from my own free time with family and friends.
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Post by Darcy Collins on Jun 5, 2016 18:34:03 GMT
I'm not a teacher so feel free to disregard. TBH, I would hate it if my profession required quite so much socializing with my coworkers. I'm used to a charity event or two. A holiday event of some sort - although some companies had an anniversary event instead. Maybe a company picnic (mine never has, but my husband's company does). I would be sure that you're not becoming a burden to the staff members who aren't so enthusiastic about spending their time with other colleagues.
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seaexplore
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,804
Apr 25, 2015 23:57:30 GMT
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Post by seaexplore on Jun 5, 2016 19:23:37 GMT
I'm not a teacher so feel free to disregard. TBH, I would hate it if my profession required quite so much socializing with my coworkers. I'm used to a charity event or two. A holiday event of some sort - although some companies had an anniversary event instead. Maybe a company picnic (mine never has, but my husband's company does). I would be sure that you're not becoming a burden to the staff members who aren't so enthusiastic about spending their time with other colleagues. Ours is done within the school day. Sometimes parties (Christmas, retirement, ball games, hockey games) are outside of the school day. I don't go to those things because I'm anti social. Lol. I do love the stuff we do within the day. |
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katybee
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,448
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Post by katybee on Jun 5, 2016 19:26:58 GMT
I'm not a teacher so feel free to disregard. TBH, I would hate it if my profession required quite so much socializing with my coworkers. I'm used to a charity event or two. A holiday event of some sort - although some companies had an anniversary event instead. Maybe a company picnic (mine never has, but my husband's company does). I would be sure that you're not becoming a burden to the staff members who aren't so enthusiastic about spending their time with other colleagues. We have a social committee that does many of the same things. But none of them are required! It's for people that want to participate. No one is forced or pressured to do so. I would say I do about half of the activities offered. Because I WANT to. |
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Post by peasapie on Jun 5, 2016 19:37:50 GMT
I'm not a teacher so feel free to disregard. TBH, I would hate it if my profession required quite so much socializing with my coworkers. I'm used to a charity event or two. A holiday event of some sort - although some companies had an anniversary event instead. Maybe a company picnic (mine never has, but my husband's company does). I would be sure that you're not becoming a burden to the staff members who aren't so enthusiastic about spending their time with other colleagues. I get how it might not make sense to a non-teacher. The thing is, teachers can be very isolated in their classrooms. We spend all day with little kids and see a few teachers in the lunchroom if we have time to go there. (Most of my lunchtime was spent prepping for class.) That's it for adult communication, for the most part. In addition, I've worked in some schools where the climate was very competitive - each teacher trying to out do the other for principal/parent approval, but not sharing their ideas. It wasn't a happy place to be, and reading about these activities makes me wish we'd had a committee like this to encourage a little team building and collaborating. |
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Post by cindytred on Jun 5, 2016 20:57:19 GMT
I am confused... did you do these activities within the committee or for the students/teachers/staff? Sounds like 3 things for staff and the rest was social activities for the committee? I guess I would ask what is the purpose of the committee? We did all of those activities for the staff to participate in if they wanted to. The purpose of the committee is to have some fun with our co-workers. |
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Post by cindytred on Jun 5, 2016 21:09:26 GMT
We had an inspiration trophy that traveled for years. Every staff meeting, one person would give it to someone on staff who inspired them and then gave a short speech. We also put chalkboards in the adult bathrooms and that was hysterical. I worked some funny people. Inspirational quotes gone wrong and things kids have said during the week make for a great read while you are doing your business. We already do the trophy - forgot to mention it. I LOVE the chalkboard idea for the restroom! Sounds fun! |
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Post by cindytred on Jun 5, 2016 21:12:14 GMT
What is a culture committee? We don't have one of those. My kids' teachers do bring in munchies for the staff room, have a staff secret santa etc but they don't have a committee. Plus when I read "Culture" I picture something different in my mind. The word "culture" is weird. I think of it in terms of establishing a happy environment among all the employees at school. We are lucky because we already have a positive atmosphere to work in. I've worked at some schools where you could feel the tension and no one smiled ever. |
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Post by cindytred on Jun 5, 2016 21:18:25 GMT
I'm not a teacher so feel free to disregard. TBH, I would hate it if my profession required quite so much socializing with my coworkers. I'm used to a charity event or two. A holiday event of some sort - although some companies had an anniversary event instead. Maybe a company picnic (mine never has, but my husband's company does). I would be sure that you're not becoming a burden to the staff members who aren't so enthusiastic about spending their time with other colleagues. Everything that we do is optional, of course. When we went to paint only about 10 people came. I didn't go out to lunch with everyone because I had a hair appointment. It was all good. |
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Post by cindytred on Jun 5, 2016 21:20:40 GMT
We do a lot of what you do. We also have crock 0ot lunch one to times per month. Two to three people sign up to bring a crockpot or other meal and feed the other members of the staff that has signed up. You have to have signed up to participate. We went to a baseball game this year . Hope to hit a minor league hockey next year The ball game is a great suggestion! |
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Post by 950nancy on Jun 5, 2016 21:34:44 GMT
At the beginning of the year, each staff member was asked to fill out a short half sheet of questions that were things most people might not know about you. The name of your high school, favorite vacation, make of your first car etc. At the beginning of every staff meeting the principal would start slowly reading off the list. The first person to guess the identity of the staff member received a fancy pen. We also did a thing called Secret Sisters (happened to all be women). It was like Secret Santa, but happened throughout the whole year (once a month). We filled out a form of what we liked and it was fun to be surprised every month. On April 1st, we all switched classrooms and taught for an hour just to mess with the kids' heads. My teammates and I got a hold of about a dozen Happy Meal toys and hid them in each other's room. If a kid found one, they got a sticker. We also hid a giant pickle (where the kids would not find it) and nothing made your day any better than announcing to your friends that you had found the pickle. At Christmas we did the White Elephant gift and secretly collected any of them that we didn't want and hid them in our boss' office throughout the whole year. Our secretary's daughter committed suicide several years ago and it was tragic. You could just see her pain. We made a sign up and for the rest of the year, two staff members would surprise her throughout the week with sweets or notes or whatever they wanted. She never knew who was doing it and didn't even know it was really organized. She said she had never felt such love at the end of the year. Darcy Collins I think for many teachers (certainly not all of them) school/work becomes family. You share so many ups and downs and lots of people stay there for years. I really like my current non teaching job, in a business, but it is nothing at all like the camaraderie of teaching. All of our social activities were optional and people sometimes joined or didn't depending on their schedule. I knew some my teaching partners as well as I did family. |
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Post by freecharlie on Jun 5, 2016 22:10:51 GMT
I'm not a teacher so feel free to disregard. TBH, I would hate it if my profession required quite so much socializing with my coworkers. I'm used to a charity event or two. A holiday event of some sort - although some companies had an anniversary event instead. Maybe a company picnic (mine never has, but my husband's company does). I would be sure that you're not becoming a burden to the staff members who aren't so enthusiastic about spending their time with other colleagues. nothing is required, but it makes for good moral support and allows staff to get to know each other. Some of these people we will work with for decades. 8nly about 1/2 our staff participates |
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