Diane Hodges - Looking Forward to More Monday Mornings: How to Drive Your Colleagues Happy!

Copyright 2007 by Corwin Press All rights reserved. When forms and sample documents are included, their use is authorized only by educators, local school sites, and/or noncommercial or nonprofit entities that have purchased the book. Except for that usage, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information: Corwin Press A Sage Publications Company 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 www.corwinpress.com Sage Publications Ltd. 1 Olivers Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP United Kingdom Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd.

B-42, Panchsheel Enclave Post Box 4109 New Delhi 110 017 India Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hodges, Diane. Looking forward to more Monday mornings: how to drive your colleagues happy! / Diane Hodges. p. cm. Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-4129-4218-8 (cloth)ISBN 978-1-4129-4219-5 (pbk.) 1. TeachingAwards. 2. TeachersJob satisfaction. 3. I. Title. Title.

LB2842.22.M645 2007 371.1dc22 2006034597 This book is printed on acid-free paper. 07 08 09 10 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acquisitions Editor:	Elizabeth Brenkus
Editorial Assistant:	Desire Enayati
Production Editor:	Jennifer Reese
Typesetter:	C&M Digitals (P) Ltd.
Cover Designer:	Rose Storey
Graphic Designer:	Lisa Miller
Illustrator:	John Speeter
Interior Design:	Jaye Pratt

About the AuthorDiane Hodges is Managing Director of Threshold Group, an educational consulting firm in San Diego. After 30+ years as an educator, she is sharing her insights through books and international speaking events. Her wit and humor have delighted audiences and readers everywhere. She served as a executive director of career and technical education, director of instruction, director of human resources, secondary principal, university instructor, and elementary and middle school counselor. About the IllustratorJohn Speeter began drawing cartoons and illustrations while attending Michigan State University. About the IllustratorJohn Speeter began drawing cartoons and illustrations while attending Michigan State University.

His drawings have been published nationally in books, newsletters, and periodicals, as well as on the Web. Johns creativity extends beyond his artistic abilities; he is also an accomplished musician who plays numerous string instruments and performs in a bluegrass group that appears throughout the Midwest. Additionally, he is a health care operations executive in Michigan. Acknowledgments Thank you to the many schools, named and unnamed, who contributed ideas to this book. It is because of their sharing that this book is a reality. I especially want to thank and acknowledge Debra Macklin and the Quincy Community Schools.

I have never met Deb, but she was a HUGE contributor to this effort. Jennings Elementary School incorporates many fun, motivating activities into their school year, and she shared them with all of us in this book. A special thanks goes to John Speeter, the creator of all the wonderful cartoon illustrations. Aside from being multitalented, he is truly a best friend. I count on him in so many ways and, as always, he came through with me on this effort. I had a great team of people who worked together Laurie Gibson of Word Association who did the editing Jaye Pratt of Book Works who did the text design and graphics and, of course, so many people at Corwin Press had a hand in this effort, especially Elizabeth Brenkus, Acquisitions Editor, and Desire Enayati, Editorial Assistant.

And thanks goes to my family I cherish them so much. D. When Looking Forward to Monday Morning was first published, I felt Id shared every possible morale-boosting idea in my brain, and never entertained the possibility of writing a sequel. During my book tours across the United States and Canada, numerous educators told me, In my school we are doing ______. They had amazing ideas to share with other educators. What a wonderful profession we are inpeople share so freely! I felt much like a troubadour, carrying ideas from district to district, state to state, and country to country.

This book is a compilation of those incredible ideas, suggestions that can help you and your colleagues look forward to Monday morning! Its Monday Morning! Do you start the workweek on Mondayor MOANdaymornings? (Its also been referred to as Monday MOURNings.) Theres a scientific explanation behind the Monday morning blues: over the weekend, our bodies build up a sleep deficit of at least one hour. So when Monday morning rolls around, we want to stay snuggled in bed, not get up and face the workweek routine. Monday has long had a negative stigma surrounding it. The former Soviet space agency banned Monday for any launches after four space ships blew up on Monday launches. It is a well-known perception that you should never purchase a car that was manufactured on Monday. People who call in sick after the weekend are known to have the Monday flu, and more people die of heart attacks on Monday than any other day of the week.

The term Monday morning quarterback refers to rearview thinking rather than strategic planning. There is an old wives tale that Marry on Monday, always poor. One of my friends works for a very well-known computer company. Each Monday morning his supervisor meets with the staff. These meetings are called Monday Morning Beatings by those who attend. They hear about the mistakes they made the previous week and are criticized for them.

Not surprisingly, they dread Monday mornings. But Mondays are one-seventh of our lives, so we may as well learn to make the most of themeven enjoy and look forward to them! In this book, youll find dozens of ideas to help change your attitude about Mondays from dread to delight. Heres one, just to help get you on your way: Organizations always seem to plan special events on Fridays, but Friday is the start of the weekend (and often payday), so people are inclined to feel eager about it anyway. Why not schedule fun events on Monday, so people will look forward to and celebrate that day as well? It can only help boost morale, enjoyment, and creativity in the workplace. Give it a trytheres really nothing to lose!