Erin Bigler Administrative Internship
Do what you feel in your heart to be right–for you’ll be criticized anyway. —Eleanor Roosevelt
Community Relations Artifacts
Reflection & Learning
One of my most important core values is family, therefore this competency carries a lot of weight for me. It is vital that schools work to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for all of our families. In my own experiences as a teacher, I know that students thrive when families, teachers, and administrators can work closely together as a team.
At the elementary level, some opportunities I have enjoyed included coordinating teacher appreciation week, as well as participating in a Native American Connections tutoring program. In coordinating teacher appreciation for my school, I connected with many local businesses and asked for their support in donating small gifts (gift cards/merchandise) as a part of a teacher appreciation raffle. Other things I did for teacher appreciation included having district leadership and students create thank you videos through FlipGrid, to express their gratitude for teachers’ efforts throughout the year. I was surprised to see how quickly and unquestioningly community members were willing to reach out and support in some way. It inspires me to continue fostering relationships with community members when I am a leader in my own school.
Through the Native American Connections program, I spent time tutoring a Native American student, and participated in cultural connection events, where an Elder from the community would come and share pieces of their Heritage and often read a story to the group. I felt this was a huge success - we were able to bring families together through a shared experience, and also have a very authentic way to learn more about their unique cultural identities.
At the Middle and High school levels I was fortunate to be involved in several community events including athletic games, the homecoming dance, freshmen orientation, and home visits during the COVID pandemic. I was nervous about conducting home visits during the pandemic, but pleased to see how touched families and students felt after that small gesture. Families were eager to connect, share their experiences through covid, and talked about some of their anxieties around transitioning to middle school during distance learning.
If I can sum up my experience in one takeaway, it would be the importance of providing avenues for families and community members to come together, share their experiences, and build genuine connections with the school community.
Lucky Ducks! Teacher Appreciation Event
During the week of April 12th, I spent a significant amount of time helping my principal plan a staff appreciation event for the month of May. A colleague shared the idea of running a "lucky duck" raffle at the end of each week, so we decided we'd organize the same event for our own staff. My task was to call local businesses, explain our plan, and ask if they would be willing to make a donation (monetary or food/treats) to be given away as raffle prizes for our teachers.
I think this was a good experience, as it helped me with my communication skills and gave me a chance to partner with members of the community, in support of our school. I was able to secure many donations including Caribou Coffee, Hyvee, Dairy Queen, Noodles and company, Nothing Bundt Cakes, and The Park Cafe. This experience taught me that members of the community are happy to support schools, and it simply takes a bit of creativity and a phone call. This experience makes me wonder if we can somehow gain more partnerships with companies to expose students to career opportunities or bring more hands on learning into the classroom. I learned, the worst that can happen is the business owner says "No Thank You" and then you move on!
Teacher Appreciation
Teacher Appreciation
Flood Their Feeds With Love
In addition to hearing from district leadership, I thought it was important that teachers hear thanks from their students, too. A second communication project that went along with the Flipgrid Activity was a small social media campaign I put together with our Virtual Learning Administrator and Communications department. During 'Teacher Appreciation Week' our virtual learning families were encouraged to use Seesaw to record a video or create some type of post saying thanks to their teachers. I have included the communication I put together, which was sent out by our communication department.
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This grid received 893 views and over 17 hours of viewing engagement! What a positive impact!
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FlipGrid
In this project, I wanted to find a way to collectively say "Thank You" to our virtual learning academy teachers at the end of the year. They had a difficult job, and this was my creative way to extend gratitude toward everyone for all the effort they'd put forth throughout the year. I organized a FlipGrid, where district leaders like our superintendent, principals, and other teacher leaders could record a quick video expressing their gratitude.