Cool Things Happening This Year: Celebrating Greatness from Within

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“Something cool is going to happen for you today!” As I gripped the steering wheel on my morning commute, I heard these words echo out from the car speakers. A prominent podcast personality was sharing these encouraging words with her audience, shifting my mindset for the upcoming school day. Continuing on with my commute, I thought about how cool things happen every day in classrooms. My role as instructional coach provides daily opportunities for me to observe these cool things. While classroom teachers are able to witness cool things within their own classrooms (sometimes), they often miss the cool things happening in the classrooms around them. 

In response to this early morning thinking and call to action, “Cool Things Happening Here” was born at my school. In preparation for this event, I spend time in classrooms, collecting examples through photographs and videos of teachers striving for growth and greatness in their practice and students doing important, challenging, and creative work with their new learning. I choose a few examples to celebrate for that month, upload it to a slide deck, and connect with the corresponding teacher, encouraging them to explain their “cool” thing at this celebratory event. 

So what is it that constitutes a “cool” thing? Things can be “cool” for a variety of reasons. There is no right or wrong “cool” thing. What makes it cool is when the thing happening connects to the vision of your district, promotes growth in professional practice and students’ achievement, and comes to life in the classroom. Here are a few examples that exemplify coolness in the classroom setting, for teachers and students:

Now picture this. Our staff gathers in the library for our monthly principals’ meeting. First on the agenda: Cool Things Happening Here! My principal calls me up to the front of the room, all eyes on me. I begin by sharing something cool from my house planter filled with amaryllis plants, each at a different height. “You see,” I say, “what makes this cool is that these bulbs were planted at the same time, with the same soil, yet each is growing at its own rate. This is just like the students in our classrooms!” I look out to see smiles and some wide eyes as people make connections to my story and show an appreciation for the coolness.

I move to the next slide, which has an image of an online assessment component of our newly adopted literacy program and is titled “K Online Assessing.” “And here are some cool things from right here in our school. Our kindergarten students are taking the online assessment for the first time!” I call on one of the kindergarten teachers to elaborate on this important work. And their voice is essential to making this stick for others. The teacher continues by sharing the process she went through while teaching students how to navigate the online assessment platform and providing practice using the tools. When she concluded her sharing, an upper-grade teacher commented how great it is that our youngest learners are practicing applying their knowledge in the online platform and how skilled these students will become at this task as they grow through the years.

What makes Cool Things even cooler? Our teachers note that this new form of celebration supports capturing instructional material from within, filtering for relevance to the curriculum, hearing directly from the source (the teacher who created the “cool”), and inspiring others to head to their classrooms with vetted ideas connected to their curriculum. 

Use these Ws to inspire your own “Cool Things Happening Here” celebration:

WHAT is “Cool Things Happening Here”? “Cool Things Happening Here” is a segment showcasing and celebrating the ideas and work of colleagues from within your school setting.

WHO is involved? You (the reader and leader) and teachers within your school. Your role is to capture the “cool” thing with an image, or video, to upload and visually share in a slide deck. The teacher’s role is to verbally share with others what makes this example so “cool” for teachers, students, or both.

WHEN can it take place? At the end of a month or to close the school year. 

WHERE can it occur? During a staff meeting, PLC, or professional development experience.

WHY should it exist in your school? It is a time to celebrate and share the “cool” things happening all around your educational community. This kind of celebration promotes active engagement from teachers and supports the growth of the school and district vision.

“Cool” things are happening all around us. Why search and scroll online when we are surrounded by ideas in real life? Start searching the classrooms you spend time in and scrolling through the walls, the conversations, and the work of the teachers and students. Collect these examples of “cool” things and use them to celebrate the important, inspirational work within your educational community this year!

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