10 Best School Staff Meetings Alternatives

The traditional face-to-face approach of staff meetings in school offers significant benefits. For instance, the management can use such meetings to pick the non-verbal prompts from the teachers. Face-to-face staff meetings also prompt team building since the participants get the chance to interact one on one.

Do These Meetings Have Any Cons?

The above benefits notwithstanding, these meetings can also become tedious. The last thing any school management wants is to have teachers who lack the morale to attend meetings each time they are called upon. When boredom creeps in, mostly due to routine, such meetings become counter-productive.

So, What to Do?

One of the best ways of solving this problem is to establish productive alternatives to staff meetings. This post suggests ten of the best other options for school staff meetings. They include:

1. Small-Group Meetings

Small meetings have proven to be productive, adaptive, and fast. Consider empowering small groups who interact using technology such as Skype and other video conferencing facilities. If possible, have the meetings live-streamed. Assign every teacher a role. Request them to upload and tag notes.

2. Pd Meetings – Workshop Style

These are meetings that teachers attend to renew their skills. Such gatherings allow the distribution of information. The attendees get the opportunity to share ideas, transfer new skills, and also learn in the process. Professional development meetings are exciting and go a long way in killing the boredom linked to the regular school staff meetings.

3. Efficient Use Of Emails

What is the point of scheduling a staff meeting to pass across information that you can communicate via email? Of the utmost importance is to use it efficiently. Utilize bullet point bulk emails. Clearly, state the information that teachers need to know. Also, include clearly specified call-to-actions for appropriate feedback.

4. Project Management Tools

Sample platforms include the Red booth, Slack, and Trello. You may want to consider using them on an ongoing basis. The majority of project management platforms come with advanced features such as messaging, assignment, video meeting, and even user tagging.

Ensure the proper organization of the board. Doing so guarantees that everyone is on the same page. Also, teachers can access the data at any time, even when they are outside the school. The fact that you can customize the majority of these platforms makes it even better.

5. Brainstorming Board

Who said that idea generation must always happen in-person? A good number of people get the best ideas while they aren’t in a meeting. To prevent such thoughts from not being communicated, try utilizing the brainstorming board. If you aren’t comfortable with programs such as Trello, place a whiteboard in the middle of the staff room.

6. Instant Messaging

The beauty of instant messaging is that you needn’t be physically present to communicate with the teachers. To get started, create a group chat, add the contacts of key contributors, and then launch the conversation. With instant messaging, participants have a running reference log. Even when a teacher isn’t available for the meeting, nothing comes to a standstill. Caution the members of staff to keep it professional and simple.

7. Team Building Activities

Occasionally, organize team building activities for the teachers somewhere outside the school. Have an outsider speak to the teachers about some of the things you wish them to know. It could be a motivational speaker or a well-known and highly admirable personality. Remember to keep the team building events casual, engaging, and fun.

8. Status Report

Instead of holding the usual meetings for every teacher to talk about their progress, consider requesting individual status updates. This approach allows the management and other key decision-makers to receive detailed information from every teacher.

9. Make A Video Presentation.

Video presentations come in handy when you need to communicate with the members of staff urgently without being physically present. Create a video presentation, send it out to the relevant people, and request feedback at the end. Among the advantages of a video presentation, is the availability of reference materials.

10. Casual Conversations

Some of the best and most original ideas have been discovered during casual conversations. Occasionally, say once or twice per month; organize informal “meetings.” Have some tea or lunch served and encourage colleagues to interact. You will be surprised at the great things that will come out of these “meetings”.

Note that these options shouldn’t replace the traditional school staff meetings completely. You still need to hold long and engaging meetings every once in a while. You should only apply the above alternatives to reduce the frequency of the usual staff-meetings and the associated disadvantages.