Dr. Joines' Blog for "Committed Sardines": The Power of Handwritten Notes: Avenue for Encouraging Teachers or Liability Disaster?

Feb 21, 2012

The Power of Handwritten Notes: Avenue for Encouraging Teachers or Liability Disaster?

Being in the midst of a budget crisis and facing the possibility of a serious workforce reduction and school closings has made the morale at my school pretty low lately so I decided to write my teachers some personalized notes of encouragement this week. Among school administrators, there is a long-standing set of opposing opinions about writing teachers notes. I have lots of friends who are school administrators and I know people who subscribe to each of these camps:

CAMP #1- Writing teachers personal notes of encouragement will make teachers feel appreciated and thus strenghthen the teacher/principal relationship. Furthermore, it will encourage the teacher to strive to continually improve his/her performance.

CAMP #2- Writing teachers personal notes opens you up for possible grievances. As all school leaders know, at any time a teacher's performance can change. If you work in a school district with a strong union, positive notes have the potential to come back and bite you in the butt.

What's your stance? I really want to know how other principals feel about this.

I definitely belong to the group of administrators who believe that writing personalized positive notes is worth the risk. I don't do it as often as I should, but I definitely do it when I can. I think it's really important for the notes to be hand-written and have comments specific to that teacher's performance. I recently heard that people are much more likely to read the full contents of a hand-written note than an email. Now, don't get me wrong, I do occasionally shoot teachers a quick email to tell them that I like their bulletin board or thanks for coming to PTA the night before. But....When I want to really recognize some serious work or a major contribution by a teacher, I always use a hand-written note.

I would really like for some principals to share their experiences about writing personalized notes.

Why Call Ourselves Committed Sardines?

Let’s start on a tangent. A blue whale is the largest mammal on earth. An adult blue whale is the length of 2 1/2 Greyhound buses put end to end, weighs more than a fully loaded 737, has a heart the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, and a tongue 8' long. A baby blue whale is estimated to gain more than 20 pounds an hour from birth to age one.

Another little known fact about the blue whale is that it is so large that when it decides to swim in a different direction, it can take 2 to 3 minutes to turn 180 degrees. That’s the reason why some people draw a parallel between the blue whale and school. It just seems to take forever for schools to turn things around. Our ability to adapt to changing times helps explain at least in part the rise in demand for vouchers, charter schools, home schooling and virtual schools. There are some people who just don't believe or don't want the public school system to turn things around in time.

But compare the way a blue whale turns around (slowly) to how a school of fish turns around - specifically a school of sardines - which has the same or even a greater mass than the whale, does the same thing. A school of sardines can turn almost instantly. So the question is, how do they do this? How do they know when to turn. Is it ESP? Do they use cell phones? Are they using the Internet?

The answer is simultaneously a little simpler and quite a bit more complex. If you take a careful look at a school of sardines, you'll notice that although the fish all appear to be swimming in the same direction, in reality, at any time, there will be a small group of sardines swimming in a different direction, in an opposite direction, against the flow, against conventional wisdom. And as they swim in another direction, they cause conflict, they cause friction, and they cause discomfort for the rest of the school.

But finally, when a critical mass of truly committed sardines is reached - not a huge number like 50 percent or 80 percent of the school, but 15 to 20 percent who are truly committed to a new direction - the rest of the school suddenly turns and goes with them – almost instantaneously!

Isn't that what has happened with our attitudes towards drinking and driving? Isn't that what became of our feelings about smoking? Isn't that exactly what happened to the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union? Isn't that what caused the Internet to suddenly appear overnight? Each and every one of those events was an overnight success that took years in the making. Overnight successes that took a small group of people who were truly committed despite the obstacles and challenges to make the necessary change.

Noted anthropologist Margaret Mead once wrote "never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world - indeed it is the only thing that ever has."

Dr. Joines' Blog for "Committed Sardines"

Lifelong Learner & Reflective Practitioner

Let's Transform Our Schools Into TRUE Professional Learning Communities

Feb 21, 2012

The Power of Handwritten Notes: Avenue for Encouraging Teachers or Liability Disaster?

Learning & Leading

Dr. Jennifer Joines

Why Call Ourselves Committed Sardines?

Socratic Seminar

BE THE CHANGE!