Sunshine Carts for Teachers

Kayleigh Wright, technology coach in Oregon, delivers a tasteful way to build relationships with teachers and students in your building.

If you’re looking for an easy and fun way to boost teacher morale, might I suggest a little “sunshine?” While surfing Pinterest one day (you know… for professional development), I came across a post by Ashley Marquez about her “sunshine cart” and how she uses it to spread love, appreciation, and snacks to her staff. 

I decided I needed to make it happen in my school too: who doesn’t love a special treat?

Getting Started

1) Gather your supplies

I started by first stocking my cart with all the favorites: soda, candy, salt, and sweet snacks—only the best! I also reached out to an important classroom in our building—a class for students with special needs—to ask if we could purchase for our cart some of the delicious treats they make. They excitedly agreed, and a partnership was formed!

2) Recruit some helpers

My next task was to collect orders for my staff. I was inspired by the hotel door hangers you see for ordering your meals and created the Leadership Room Service door hanger. Teachers would fill out their room service cards and hang them on their door. Leadership students would then take the cart around to classrooms, read the door hanger, and deliver the treat.

It was such a bright spot for both the students and the staff, and a great way for the students to see the impact an act of kindness had on their teachers. They loved doing it and often asked me when they could do it again.

3) Mix it up

Every once in a while, I like to add themes to our offerings of sunshine. One of my favorite themes was a hot chocolate bar on wheels. We took the staff holiday party hot chocolate bar, added it to our cart, and then delivered an afternoon treat to teachers to help them through the long day before the start of Winter Break. As I’m sure you can imagine, the staff loved it!

Final Note

Now that I’m working as an Instructional Technology Coach and no longer teaching, I decided to rebrand my cart. I have my cart available for teachers to grab a treat during PD sessions with me, during coaching meetings, and even when they just need me a pick-me-up. In fact, a “pick-me-up” is a new item on my Coaching Menu, which I wrote about earlier this year: teachers just send me a quick message when they need a pick-me-up, and I bring them a much-needed treat. A quick and simple way to help teachers feel appreciated at any time in the year.

About Our Guest Blogger

Kayleigh Wright is a technology coach for Verizon Innovative Schools in the Gresham Barlow SD in Oregon. Before coaching, she worked in education for 13 years, teaching middle school Language Arts. Kayleigh is currently finishing her Masters of Education with her Preliminary Admin License and is also the co-owner of a small business making decorative sugar cookies!

Be sure to connect with her on Twitter @thewrightside9!