A new committee for Renaissance was formed. “Staff Spotlight” is an appreciation towards staff where students can nominate a staff member.
Junior director Audrey Compton said that Renaissance started Staff Spotlight to showcase the accomplishments of teachers that students witness and to gain attraction towards teachers nominating students for Freddy’s Best.
“We wanted to highlight teachers more for the great work that students see them do, and encourage them to interact with their students. We were also hoping that by providing the option for students to celebrate teachers, the teachers would in turn be more likely to participate in writing Freddy’s Best nominations,” Compton said.
Goody bags filled with candy will be given to the chosen teachers when picked once a month. Compton said its to hopefully add a little bit of joy to a teachers day.
“We are hoping it will brighten teachers’ days, and encourage them to continue helping their students,” Compton said.
The process of becoming the staff that receives wins is to be selected by students.
“Students nominate teachers through a google form, and 2-3 of the nominees (depending on how many nominees there are) are chosen by the Staff Spotlight Committee to win for the month” Compton said.
Renaissance sponsor Kacey Scholtz said the group decided they wanted a way to show more appreciation towards the staff with all they do. They then came up with a plan in order to make it happen.
“We decided as a group we wanted to do more recognition with renaissance for staff members and students at our first meeting. So we asked the students if they had any ideas on how we could do that and a group of girls came up with Staff spotlight to give more recognition to our staff and so we said ‘this sounds like a great idea, how does it look? What do you want to do for it?’ and they came up with everything. We put up a QR code on the walls and then students can nominate a staff member. We already have a staff member of the month but that’s staff to staff nominations. So they wanted a way to do student to staff nominations. They have two or so nominations [so far]. They’re putting together little goodie bags for the teachers and they’re going to print out the nominations and give out a couple each month,” Schlotz said.
She said the impact this will have on staff will be a very positive one since teachers typically get more criticism than acknowledgement for their hard work.
“Teaching is hard and unfortunately some teachers hear more complaints than recognition for a job well done so any kind of appreciation or acknowledgment from a student is really kind of a day changing thing that can happen for a teacher. It can really light a fire and make them feel more passionate if they feel more appreciated. So I think it will really help teachers who are already in a hard profession to have a bright light in the day,” Schlotz said.
