Simon Breakspear: Personalisation as the way forward from EDtalks on Vimeo.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Complacency vs. Positive Urgency
What is it about this time of year that brings about the complacency in people and educators. Momentum from the beginning of school has been diminished, people are restless, and focus on the essentials has been forgotten. Although we are constantly reminded of our goals and what we are about we get complacent. Why? Our students cannot afford anything but our best everyday. We owe our students effectiveness in the classroom each and everyday. We owe them positive urgency each day. We owe them high expectations of ourselves each class period. We often fall into a pattern of thinging rather than a pattern of thinking. I compare this mid year mentality to a basketball team going through the motions and not paying attention to the details that will help them improve on game night. What can leaders do about this mid year mentality? As a leader, I have emphasized TEAM from day one. I emphasized that we must come together as a team even when things are tough. We have whole school spirit assemblies once a month. We continue to keep faculty meetings short and focused on building collective capacity by getting into each others classrooms. We have snack days that bring people together. These are strategies to keep morale high among teachers but we still fall into that all too familiar February funk, What are some ways you keep the positive urgency at the forefront? How do you combat the complacency that often rears its ugly head at this time of year.? I would love to here from other leaders strategies that they use.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Building a Culture of Team
As a new principal I was faced with the task of changing a culture in the face of several obstacles that were impacting our staff moral. Over the summer leading to my first year as principal I read DuFour and Marzano's book Leaders of Learning on my way to and from ISTE 2012 in San Diego. This book led me to a plan to create a culture that builds the capacity of all of our teachers. Although this plan seems simple and common sense, I believe that we owe educators to keep things simple sometimes.
BUILDING A TEAM OF LEADERS
My vision was to create a team of leaders that shared our capacity building efforts. I emphasized from the first day that we are all leaders and that we all have the capacity to share our practices. We had department chairs already in place and to share the wealth I solicited volunteers to be team leaders. We currently have a group of 12 leaders on our leadership team that meet once a month. These leaders share in the task of building a catalog of best practices via podcasts. The team determined what our essential best practices were that we would begin to build our collective capacity as a staff. As an instructional leader I started by creating the first podcast. Modeling the way is extremely important. The first podcast was about Conley's Intellectual Standards and the role they play in all classrooms. During our meetings we use collaboration protocols to determine the content of the podcasts. This process helps build the collective capacity of the leadership team and of course those creating the podcasts. If we believe that students should have a voice in the classroom then it is equally important that teachers have a voice as leaders of our school. Our leadership team has begun to help the school become a culture of WE.
OBSERVING CLASSROOMS
As a coach I always learned best by watching others in action. I wanted to give my teachers the ability to do just that. Each month teachers complete the assignment of watching the leadership team created podcast then visit either a team or department teachers classroom observing the monthly best practice. Teachers can spend a minimum of 15 minutes in their colleagues classroom but I am finding out that many are spending much more time in classrooms. Teachers fill out a form that they share with me each month while they are in the classrooms. FORM The form is simple but allows for teachers to receive valuable feedback from others in a non threatening way.
FACULTY MEETINGS
Each month our entire staff meets for 30 minutes. My belief is that faculty meetings need to be used to get better and learn and I believe that we learn by collaborating and sharing. Because of this belief meetings are used to reflect and share on teacher observations of classrooms as teams. Teachers sit together and we practice a version of a collaboration protocol called Critical Friends. The reflective sharing process lasts about 15 minutes. It has been great to see and listen to the discussions that happen at these meetings. As the principal I am not the sage on the stage during this time. Teachers are learning from each other through non threatening feedback. The second 15 minutes of the meeting is devoted to the introduction of the next months best practice and building a team culture.
THE CULTURE OF TEAM
This process has allowed our staff to build a culture of TEAM where the room is the smartest person in the room. As leaders of schools we need to share leadership and build the capacity of all of our teachers. In what ways do you share leadership and build the collective capacity of your staff? How do you give your staff a voice? How are teachers learning from non threatening feedback?
BUILDING A TEAM OF LEADERS
My vision was to create a team of leaders that shared our capacity building efforts. I emphasized from the first day that we are all leaders and that we all have the capacity to share our practices. We had department chairs already in place and to share the wealth I solicited volunteers to be team leaders. We currently have a group of 12 leaders on our leadership team that meet once a month. These leaders share in the task of building a catalog of best practices via podcasts. The team determined what our essential best practices were that we would begin to build our collective capacity as a staff. As an instructional leader I started by creating the first podcast. Modeling the way is extremely important. The first podcast was about Conley's Intellectual Standards and the role they play in all classrooms. During our meetings we use collaboration protocols to determine the content of the podcasts. This process helps build the collective capacity of the leadership team and of course those creating the podcasts. If we believe that students should have a voice in the classroom then it is equally important that teachers have a voice as leaders of our school. Our leadership team has begun to help the school become a culture of WE.
OBSERVING CLASSROOMS
As a coach I always learned best by watching others in action. I wanted to give my teachers the ability to do just that. Each month teachers complete the assignment of watching the leadership team created podcast then visit either a team or department teachers classroom observing the monthly best practice. Teachers can spend a minimum of 15 minutes in their colleagues classroom but I am finding out that many are spending much more time in classrooms. Teachers fill out a form that they share with me each month while they are in the classrooms. FORM The form is simple but allows for teachers to receive valuable feedback from others in a non threatening way.
FACULTY MEETINGS
Each month our entire staff meets for 30 minutes. My belief is that faculty meetings need to be used to get better and learn and I believe that we learn by collaborating and sharing. Because of this belief meetings are used to reflect and share on teacher observations of classrooms as teams. Teachers sit together and we practice a version of a collaboration protocol called Critical Friends. The reflective sharing process lasts about 15 minutes. It has been great to see and listen to the discussions that happen at these meetings. As the principal I am not the sage on the stage during this time. Teachers are learning from each other through non threatening feedback. The second 15 minutes of the meeting is devoted to the introduction of the next months best practice and building a team culture.
THE CULTURE OF TEAM
This process has allowed our staff to build a culture of TEAM where the room is the smartest person in the room. As leaders of schools we need to share leadership and build the capacity of all of our teachers. In what ways do you share leadership and build the collective capacity of your staff? How do you give your staff a voice? How are teachers learning from non threatening feedback?
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