I also love the idea of free massages- but as a techer- I can tell you, after a fullday of teaching, and conference night- they just wanted to get home.
How about scheduling the massages- send out the invitaion (as previously suggested) and schedule them to drop by.
OR how about a sress reducing workshop instead of a faculty meeting. Most principals will do their quick "houskeeping" stuff at the beginning and then give you some time after. Let teachers know what you are planning- so they won't want to rush out the door.
It's a wonderfull idea! Maybe next time you could send invitations instead of a flyer? That would make it more personal. Could you have the program on an early release day? That way the kids go home early but the teachers have to stay for the rest of the day anyway and they wouldn't feel the stress of having to stay later than normal.
Just a few suggestions. I think I'll try your idea next year.
I agree, I just think they wanted to get home. I don't think there's any way our teachers would drive back up to our school at night after teaching all day.
Don't take it personally!
Shelly
PTA Patty,
Surely it wasn't anything personal against you or the PTO. My thought was that after a school day and then parent/teacher conferences (some probably weren't pleasant) they were probably just ready to get home to their families. We generally have a pretty good turnout for teachers at meetings but, I know they would rather be home with their little ones that they had to leave all day to teach our kids. So, I've tried to make the meetings quick. I bet if you did the same idea during the school day where they could come during a free period you would have a much better turnout for free massages. By the way, was there a charge for the massage therapist to come or did she/he donate their time?? That's just my thought on the situation. It was a wonderful idea!!!!!! I'd certainly be in line for a free massage!
This year for Teacher Appreciation Week, we decided to invite the teachers to our PTO meeting. Our meeting was entitled How to Manage Stress, and it coincided with Parent Teacher Conference Night. The meeting was held in the high school community room--a good central location.We had a speaker who coached us on deep breathing, relaxation techniques, etc. Following our business meeting, we dimmed the lights, played soft music,served herbal "tension tamer" tea, and had a massotherapist set up to give free massages. Our plan was that the teachers could just stop in after conferences and receive a free massage, have some tea, relax and chat a bit before leaving for the night. Well, we only had one teacher stop by. And she wasn't interested in the free massage. Since she had to pass by the room on her way out, she was "just curious" as to how the evening went! What did we do wrong? In the past, we have had trouble getting parents to come back in the evenings, so we figured that we'd try to target the teachers who were at the school already. They were all sent flyers and notified by the principal of our meeting. In fact, he was there and thoroughly enjoyed his relaxing evening. But we really struck out with the ones we wanted to benefit from this. It was billed as a relaxing evening in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. But I get the distinct feeling that our teachers did not appreciate us.
