Thursday, April 9, 2009

Welcome to the Chets Creek Crab Shack!

The highly anticipated annual opening of the CCE Crab Shack took place this past Wednesday. For one day only our faculty lounge is transformed each school year immediately following our Spring Break into a Crab Shack filled with tons of fishy fun (ironically, we don't even serve crabs). We enjoy food and fellowship together as we sing along to great tunes and even get heckled by the principal, yours truly. Everyone leaves having caught a "big one" (gummy worms to gift cards) and ready to face our final push until the end of the school year. The day is also designed to remind us all to put the four practices of the FISH! philosophies back into our daily routine.

These practices have helped to build the type of school culture that can mirror the success of the fishmongers at Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, Washington:
Be There - be present in the moment of anyone you come in contact with, pay attention and participate with them!
Play - have fun, create joy, and laugh!
Make Their Day - do the unexpected in an effort to provide someone else with happiness - it is not about you - its about them!
Choose Your Attitude - you control your approach to the day, pick kindness, try respect because the outcome almost always reflects your attitude in the first place!

At the end of lunch our bellies are full of fish, grits, cole slaw, homemade desserts and a reminder of how lucky we are to be together doing this most special work with children. Here's a peek at the fun:




Risk...Care...Dream...Expect...

4 comments:

Mrs. Snead said...

And it was delicious! These special events are really so much fun. It really impressed my intern, to see so many teachers in the same room, simply having fun with each other. It is things like this that make Chets so special.

Mrs. Stanley said...

Hi, Susan,
I found your blog through Bob Sprankle's Seedlings broadcast from April 9, 2009. I love the idea behind your faculty fishfry/fellowship activity. I also found it interesting that your faculty has been exposed to the FISh philosophy. Our superintendant showed us this video on our first day back to school last August. It's nice to have that "choose your attitude" idea refreshed, especially in the hectic days leading to the close of another school year.
I am a technology integration teacher in a middle school in Bethany, CT, and like you, I started my blog to share what I was learning about integrating technology with my teachers. We are progressing, but we have a long way to go.
Here is a link to my blog:

http://evolvingclassroombethany.blogspot.com

I'd love it if you could take a peek and leave a comment.

I intend to spend more time browsing through your blog and learning.

C Stanley

Anonymous said...

It's a little ol' shack way back in the woods where people can get together, crab shack...baby....

The food was perfect- I eat my annual piece of fried food at the shack each year, and it reminds me of why so many folks eat fried stuff so much more often.

I have an idea, scary! How's about Crab Shack planning day. That way we could have all the peeps together. We could play music (B-52s ?), and have mandatory karioke and dancing. It would provide extra incentive to get grades turned in to Lori early too!

I love to play if you have not noticed.

Thanks to JBly, Stanley, Julie, Deanaly, Susanly and the others that made this possible.

Peace Peeps,

T-Cubed

Anonymous said...

Sorry, it's me again. My spouse did not know that it was innapropriate to eat four pieces of fish, and that Daniels lady did not say a word. In fact, she egged her on.

So please accept my most sincere apology for the glutony that was on display at the shack. Yankees?!

T-Cubed