Winter break is a time to recharge your battery, as well as reconnect with family and friends. But, how many times do you and your faculty come back feeling down and discouraged? January hits like a dump truck and everyone’s enthusiasm is as flat as week-old champagne sitting in those glasses you still haven’t cleaned.
While others daydream of their immediate vacation plans, you as Division Head should make plans now to counter the seasonal malaise.
- Move around. It’s a common, almost cliché solution for curing the winter blues—dopamine makes you happy, staying in shape keeps up a positive body image, all those wonderful things—but exercising really does alleviate the natural lethargy caused by the weather. Think about forming a walking team or carpool to the local gym to encourage those in your division to get their blood pumping.
- Plan spontaneous days off! While the Midwest and the East Coast got hit not too long ago with a wicked early snow storm, there’s no guarantee that the rest of the winter will grant such reprieves. There never seems to be enough time in the school year to do everything that needs doing, but giving students and teachers alike an opportunity to get outside with a "Sun Day" day off may prove to be just the rest needed to make it through the remainder of the season. (Of course, your School Head has the final say on this, but it’s worth bringing up.)
- Hold a caffeine party. The ubiquitous cup of coffee lives in every break room and remains the lifeblood of professionals across all fields, but caffeine comes in many forms. Caffeine assists with everything from waking up in the morning to greater focus and concentration. Many people drink coffee to get back on track, but there are other foods with caffeine to try like teas, dark chocolate, and special brands of sunflower seeds. Lay out a buffet of these surprisingly caffeine-rich foods in the teachers’ lounge as a fun, creative social activity during an especially stressful period, like midterms or finals week.
- Support New Year's resolutions. Sometimes, the best way to lift your teachers out of a rut is a challenge. Encourage them to make fun New Year's resolution to bring back that enthusiasm and optimism, which ran rampant in the first few months of the school year—and then support them in keeping their resolutions. It could relate back to their Professional Excellence goals they set earlier in the year, which we discuss in Comprehensive Faculty Development, or something to inspire and renew their creativity. Lu Ann Cahn found herself in a rut and decided to spend the next year trying one new thing every day, a professional and personal journey she chronicles in A Year of Firsts. The process has allowed her to “open up my life and allow me to connect with people and talk to people that I never would have met before, and through that my life is so much richer.”
Additional ISM articles of interest
ISM Monthly Update for School Heads Vol. 10 No. 7 Characteristics of Professional Excellence Aren’t Just For Hiring
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 8 No. 4 Use Rally Points to Turn Winter Doldrums Into Morale Boosters
ISM Monthly Update for School Heads Vol. 11 No. 8 And Now For Something Completely Different…
Additional ISM articles of interest for Gold Consortium members
I&P Vol. 37 No. 9 The Characteristics of Professional Excellence II
