of dedicated people is to be recognized, it must be done by individual
school leaders.
The same retiring principal also told his successor never to send a
teacher a letter of commendation. Such letters will come back to haunt
you if you ever need to rate the teacher unsatisfactory. His successor
ignored this piece of advice. She felt that everyone needed a pat on the
back for doing good work. It was a rare week that several such letters were
not sent to teachers for all sorts of reasons: for making a presentation at
a Parent Association meeting; for teaching a demonstration lesson for a
new teacher; for conducting a workshop on differentiated instruction; for
helping when there was a nearby incident. Each letter took a few minutes
of the principal’s valuable time, but each enhanced school morale.
This same new principal encouraged her assistant principals to follow
her lead. She asked them to inform her when a teacher went above and
beyond the call of duty so she could send a thank-you letter. At the end of
the school year, she published her version of a celebration of the school
year flyer. While primarily a PR document to celebrate the success of
students, it also heralded faculty successes and contributions.
At the end of the school year, this principal sent every faculty member
who helped the school in ways other than teaching—from serving as deans
to the club advisors—a letter thanking them for their extra time and effort.
The teachers supervised by an assistant principal or department head or
grade leader are her immediate school family. Each department or grade
needs to mark the rites of passage of its own teachers. A retired principal
recently attended the retirement luncheon of a teacher he had supervised
for twenty years. This teacher was his department’s party manager, plan-
ning celebrations for marriages, births, the end of the school year, and re-
tirements. Every department in every school needs such a teacher to help
all of us to remember that we have lives beyond the school.
A principal needs to plan an end-of-year thank-you celebration for the
entire staff. This could be a breakfast or luncheon on the last day of the
school year. Each staff member could be given a small token of apprecia-
tion, such as a pen or a travel sewing kit, useful on a summer vacation.
Such celebrations will cost little, but staff will look forward to this event.
It is not the food or the gift that’s important, but the recognition of their
work during the past school year.
184 Chapter 14