Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Appreciating and Working with Awesome People

Early in August, I had the opportunity to hear Angela Maiers speak at the 1:1 Symposium at Leyden High School in Chicago.  I appreciated her message of sincerely appreciating those around us.  On Friday, August 29th, after weeks of hard work preparing for the start of the school year, I typed up the following email to thank the technology staff for a job well done:

Technology Department Staff,


It's been a long summer of hard work preparing for the school year and has been extra challenging over the past few weeks.  The teacher MacBook Pro exchange project looms for a few more weeks, but I want to thank you for the work each one of you have done in preparation for our students to start classes next week.  The extra hours and "can do" attitude to complete projects and requests have been noticed and appreciated.  I am fortunate to work with such caring and dedicated colleagues with a positive attitude.  You are all geniuses!  The students, staff, and administration of Grand Forks Public Schools needs and appreciates your contribution because your impact on teaching and learning on a daily basis TRULY MATTERS!


Have a great "long" weekend!
Joel


(I also added “The YOU MATTER Manifesto” image by Angela Maiers to the email.)





As I was preparing to hit send, I received the following text from Angela Maiers (via @RemindHQ):



It was one of those moments that you just can’t make up.  Overall, I think I do a fairly good job of appreciating and thanking those around me, but the message and coincidence was a great reminder for me to do it even more often.  So, what are you doing to appreciate the students and staff in your school and district?  I am extremely fortunate to work with awesome people!





If you want to sign-up for the #YouMatter Class by Angela Maiers on Remind, here is the website:
http://www.angelamaiers.com/2014/08/sign-up-for-my-youmatter-class-on-remind.html