I Love Mondays
During a getting-to-know-you icebreaker activity at an administrative retreat several years ago, we were all asked to list our favorite day of the week. A few of us brave souls were willing to risk the ridicule of our colleagues to admit that, yes, Monday is our favorite day of the week.
Don’t laugh me off of my own blog. Stick around. Here’s why I love Mondays so much…
Every Monday is a Fresh Start
Why dread Monday? Monday is so powerful because Monday is fresh. It’s a fresh start for building relationships with students. Also (if we’re eventually allowed to have water coolers again), it’s the day we get to have the best water cooler conversations as we reconnect with our work families. Remember, we don’t work at Initech! If, as Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker pointed out, school culture is what “gives Mondays permission to be miserable,” bust the culture and refuse to catch a case of the Mondays!
Monday is the Perfect Day to Establish a Welcoming Climate
Whenever I’m feeling a little sluggish, one of my favorite things to do is to stand at one of our two entrance points in the morning and try to greet every student with a smile, a greeting, a positive comment, and/or a song as they enter the building. I want them to see me holding the door for them as both a sign of respect and that they are welcome. I like to wave to parents so that they know their children are in good hands for the day. Doing this, especially on a Monday, always puts me in a great mood for the day/week, and I like to think it puts at least some of the students in a great mood, as well! Whether at the door of the building, the door to the classroom, or on the screen during a virtual class, we are in control of the climate that drives the overall culture.
Monday is the Best Day to Get Things Done
Monday is such a great day to be productive. On Monday, investigations, discipline, grading, and more typically haven’t hit with full force yet. Thus, it ends up being maybe the best day of the week to spend time in what Stephen Covey famously referred to as “Quadrant II” activities - important, but not immediately urgent, items - that can make all the difference in helping the school to move forward.
As a classroom teacher and speech and debate coach, I made it my goal to have all my lessons, materials, copies, coaching schedules, bus forms, competition rosters, and more ready to go on Sunday night into Monday morning because it gave me the gift of Monday productivity. Frankly, most of the time this was a sheer survival skill, especially when a particularly busy week hit. And I never got to the point that the previous head coach had - she even made all her lunches for the week on Sunday night! No way was I that organized!
The point is that it was enough to let me hit the ground running early in the week so that by the time I left with the team for a Friday night/Saturday morning tournament, most of the time-consuming paper-pushing had already been done so I could focus on student needs, like feedback, intervention, and more. Give yourself the gift of time. Embrace Mondays as the most productive day of the week.
…and if all else fails, there’s always Tuesday!
HAPPY MONDAY! IT’S THE BEST DAY OF THE WEEK!