Happy New Year, friends, and welcome to the 2024–2025 school year! Over the last several months, I have been honored to meet so many principals throughout our country. To those of you joining this newsletter after the Association of Washington School Principals Summer Conference or the “UNITED” NASSP/NAESP National Conference in Nashville, welcome! If you are a regular subscriber, thank you for continuing to be a part of my work!
Most of us are just beginning our school year this August, and it is my hope you will find this School Celebration Newsletter Edition helpful as you begin to plan. I am making a few changes this school year to the School Celebration Newsletter. I’ll send it out quarterly now. In addition to including my traditional list of some of my favorite days to celebrate I am now including specific strategies you can use with your staff to support their educator well-being. I want to encourage YOU to utilize these research-based strategies also. In my work as an Associate for Educator Wellness with Solution Tree, I have been inspired by the research and writings of Dr. Tina Boogren. Dr. Boogren is at the forefront of educator wellness to support novice to season veterans throughout the school year. I encourage you to look into her research this year.
I am so excited for this New Year and am thrilled to be cheering you on. Be well, and as always, let me know how I can support your educational journey. Cindy
Educator Wellness “The Season of Sacrifice”
A new addition to my newsletter will be based on the works of Dr. Tina Boogren. Specifically, her books 180 Days of Self-Care for Busy Educators and Take Time for You-Self-Care Action Plans for Educators are my favorites! I firmly believe we must be intentional in supporting our staff holistically. Sharing these strategies and implementing them will help educators be their best selves. I encourage you to take a peek at Dr. Boogren’s work and give these ideas a try, no matter what your role is.
The First 9 Weeks of the School Year is identified as the Season of Sacrifice. It is filled with long days and stress no matter your role and years of service. We work tirelessly to prepare to welcome our students, families, and staff, which results in our sacrificing of time with our family, sleep, healthy eating, and exercise, just to name a few. Here are some ideas to encourage staff to participate in to support their well-being during this season:
- Create a go-to good-mood playlist they can access in the morning, as they decompress after school, and as they transition to time at home. You could also create a staff playlist to use during passing periods and staff meetings.
- Meal plan exchange (think cookie exchange). I am going to give this a try and ask any staff who want to participate to bring 3–4 of their favorite dishes to exchange with others. Dinner decisions will be taken care of for a couple of nights!
- Encourage staff to unplug for some time. This might be really difficult for some staff and might mean an hour, an evening or a weekend. Cell phone addiction is a real thing, people. I am committed to not sending emails to staff over weekends or evenings to support them.
- Write thank you note or send a text to someone as an exit slip as we leave a staff meeting.
- Get some sleep! Research is really clear that we need sleep to perform at our best level. Go to bed at a decent time and don’t scroll those devices an hour before bed. It will make a difference!
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Take Time for You: Self-Care Action Plans for Educators (Using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Positive Psychology)
Buy on Amazon
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180 Days of Self-Care for Busy Educators (A 36-Week Plan of Low-Cost Self-Care for Teachers and Educators)
Buy on Amazon |
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Remember to do something special for your staff the Monday after the first week of the school year. Build up those happy hormones and let staff know they are appreciated. |
A Few of Cindy’s Favorites
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Aug 9
National Book Lover’s Day |
Sept 13
National Fortune Cookie Day |
Oct 29
Cat Day. This is Cooper’s Cat Newman |
August Days to Celebrate
Aug 2 | National Ice Cream Sandwich Day | What a great afternoon treat for staff! Aug 2 is also National Coloring Book Day . Find a fun picture to kick off the school year (either positive quotes or pictures) and provide copies of it along with colored pencils or crayons for staff to color and then add them to a staff bulletin board.
Aug 6 | Fresh Breath Day | Think about partnering with a local dentist to support the oral health of your staff. Little tooth brushing kits for staff to have available at work could be a great gesture of care.
Aug 9 | National Book Lover’s Day | Ask staff to share a picture reading a favorite book in a favorite place. Let’s encourage our students to read by modeling!! Or make a collage of the top books checked out of your school library last year. OR use the Big Post-It idea and ask staff to write a book they recommend and a sentence to describe it.
Aug 16 | National Tell A Joke Day | Choose a fun joke and send a video out to your staff or families to join you in celebrating this great day. We all could use a giggle in mid August! Or grab a knock, knock joke book and tell fun jokes during passing times and lunches!!
Aug 26 | Dog Day | Everyone shares a picture of their favorite four-legged canine.
Aug 30 | National Beach Day | Make it a Hawaiian shirt dress up day and head over to the Dollar Tree and pick up some Hawaiian Leis or coconut cups. You could also purchase the little drink umbrellas and provide staff with infused iced water (cucumber, mint, oranges, or other fun additions). As staff fill up a glass of these healthy cool drinks, add the little umbrella so they can pretend to be at the beach. Another fun idea would be to bring some lawn chairs into your staff room to spice things up a bit.
September Days to Celebrate
Sept 6 | Read A Book Day | A great day to promote literacy with your students. Read in classrooms, at lunch, a Facebook live, create a staff-recommended section of books in your library, or make a poster for staff to write in their current reads.
Sept 12 | National Day of Encouragement, National High 5 Day, AND National Video Games Day | This is a ridiculous day of SO much goodness. High 5 your students every opportunity! Provide note cards for staff and students to write words of encouragement for each other. And if you have an esports team, CELEBRATE these awesome kids and program today! Finally, Sept 12 is National School Pictures Day! Ask staff to celebrate this day by sharing one of their school pictures from their childhood. Post these pictures up for your students to enjoy this week!
Sept 13 | Fortune Cookie Day | Pass out fortune cookies to staff today.
Sept 19 | Talk Like A Pirate Day | Need I say MORE???
Sept 23 | Snack Stick Day | Pick up a few of these at the store and pass them out for a quick protein snack for all.
Sept 25 | One Hit Wonder Day | Encourage staff to share their favorite one hit wonders!
Sept 27 | World Tourism Day | This could be a great entry activity or exit slip for your staff to share or simply utilize a question board in your staff room. Ask staff if they could travel anywhere on earth free of charge, where would they go?
Sept 30 | Chewing Gum Day | Pick up packs of Extra Gum and pass them out to staff with a note that says, “Thank you for going the EXTRA Mile”.
October Days to Celebrate
Oct 1 | National Eat Fruit at Work Day | Pick up a platter of fruit to share or encourage staff to bring some fruit to share. Oct 1 is also "Cooper Cromwell’s Birthday.” Ok, so this is going to be a HUGE day in the Cromwell household as we celebrate my son’s special day.
Oct 2 | National Smarties Day | Pass out smarties candies to students and staff today.
Oct 4 | THREE AWESOME DAYS to Celebrate and I will be celebrating all three. National Golf Lover’s Day | Set up a miniature golf course in your staff room. Keep it simple, though, and use red solo cups as the holes and bring in a few putters. If your students are not in the school, set up some opportunities for staff to play in the hallway with scorecards and prizes. The second one is National Cinnamon Bun Day. For a great breakfast, Little Debbie’s are perfect for this!! And drum roll, please…… It is also National Taco Day! Create a taco bar by having staff sign up to bring the fixings for a great lunch or order tacos from your local Taco Bell and provide staff with one or two. Oh my goodness, this is a day that you MUST celebrate.
Oct 10 | National Cake Decorating Day AND National Angel Food Cake Day | Do you have a staff meeting today? How about a group competition or create a cookie decorating station for teachers today, or various fruit toppings for an angel food cake?
Oct 14 | Dessert Day | Have students and staff post pictures of themselves making a favorite dessert or have a variety of desserts available for staff such as Little Debbies to thank them for taking care of the students and families they serve.
Oct 23 | Boston Cream Pie Day | Boston is my most favorite place in the WORLD. Celebrate the phenomenal spirit of Boston today.
Oct 29 | Cat Day | Ask staff to share pictures of their cats.
Oct 30 | National Candy Corn Day | A favorite snack to provide for everyone AND it is also National Checklist Day. The Dollar Store has a great supply of various notepads to help staff get organized and keep their to-do lists updated. Purchase a few list notepads at the Dollar Tree or Michaels for an inexpensive option.
Oct 31 | National Carmel Apple Day | Most stores have these individual premade that you can hand out. It is critical you do something to support staff on this very active day for all. This is also one of my FAVORITE days, as Oct 31 is National Knock-Knock Jokes Day. I guarantee you I will have some ready to go throughout the day for staff, students, and visitors.
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Cindy Sholtys-Cromwell |
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Principal, Kelso Virtual Academy (K-12)
Kelso School District
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Cindy has been a school administrator for 24 years. She is currently the principal of Kelso Virtual Academy within the Kelso School District in Kelso, Washington. Cindy has been recognized by the National Association of Secondary School Principals as the 2021 National Digital Principal of the Year and received the 2024 Annalee Braley Membership Award from the Association of Washington School Principals. In addition, she is a Solution Tree Associate in Self-Care for Educators. Cindy has two children and has been married to her husband, Leszek, for 25 years. Feel free to reach out to Cindy for ideas, support, or to share your insights. Find me @sholtys on X or email me.