Why should it only be children's work celebrated in Assembly?

On Thursday 4th April, I joined in on the @ukedchat discussion which was:



I really enjoyed some of the ideas shared to help reduce stress and I also shared some of mine. To read some of the fun ideas to reduce stress as a teacher - click this link to see some of the ideas shared during the chat, and click here for relevant links.

I wanted to share in a little bit of detail an idea that many found intriguing and wanted to know more about. As it was too long to explain fully in a tweet I will explain in a bit more detail here. Here was my original tweet:



The idea is that a celebration/good work assembly not only celebrates and acknowledges the children's hard work and efforts but the teachers too. Each class has their own inspection book. Each week, two different children are in charge of this book. Within the book they have to write down the amazing and enjoyable things their teacher has done. This can be anything from  a funny story they told to a lesson that everyone enjoyed or maybe news they have shared with the class, or just generally the lovely smiley face they see everyday. Usually we ask the children to finished the sentence Mr/Mrs ______ has been fantastic this week because..... or we have enjoyed the way our teacher has.... and usually ask for maybe three suggestions. We make sure that the children are positive and for younger year groups sometimes provide help from a TA or other adult.

What we often forget as teachers, is that we ourselves love positive feedback. We always try to give it to our children because we know how positively they respond to it. We are just the same! You would not believe the impact it has on teachers to be told they are doing a good job, especially from some of their toughest critics - the children. Just a simple little task of regularly asking children to share some of the good work their teacher has done does make a difference. The children benefit as they have to give the feedback and be positive. They also love the secretive approach as the teacher should never know who the inspectors are that week. It never disappoints, the inspection books being shared with the rest of the school and all the children, staff and parents can't help but smile at some of the weird and wonderful reasons the children produce.

Teachers look forward to that assembly every week, they know no matter how hard, stressful and tiring the week has been having those few minutes to be reminded why we have the best job in the world and remember why we got into teaching, fills you with a sense of worth and achievement! Try it, see whether it helps you and your staff boost team morale and self-esteem.

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