School-Wide Staff Bingo

An interactive staff BINGO game - sometimes even adults need to have some fun! 

In order to make big changes for our students, we have to be resilient educators. As a mathematical leader, building staff resiliency and capacity to work through challenges to best serve students is central. Building resiliency means fostering connections between staff, infusing self-care into our work and breaking out of routine conversations. As a way to build some of this resiliency I created an interactive Staff Bingo Board for the month of January that was in our staff room (III.v.c). Why January? I purposefully selected to start in January since this is "grind" time, and the weather is so dark and cold, I wanted to bring in some light! 

This was a great staff engagement activity to have in the our staff room. It involved not just classroom teachers, but all staff. I also developed some squares to encourage communication among staff that may not always get a chance to talk with each other. It got people talking in new ways during lunch and breaks. Many squares involved communicating with families about the great work their students were doing at school - intentionally encouraging family communication (III.ii.c.).  While this was not all math focused, it did remind folks of our professional foci for the year, and strengthened our learning community.  It reminds me of the many ways we need to not only focus on instruction, but also build the connections of our teams (III.v.d.). Building these connections strengthens our team to be able to have critical conversations, and reflect more honestly about our own practice to continue to move the needle for students. This is an activity I would repeat again! 

Mathematics Specialist Standards 

• III.ii.c.: involve colleagues and other school professionals, families, and various stakeholders; and

• III.v.c.: develop appropriate classroom- or school-level learning environments;

• III.v.d.: establish and maintain learning communities;