I spent Thursday/Friday of this week serving on a team that was charged with the task of improving our school's culture. Our school had an educational consultant visit our school for 3 days, interview anybody and everybody, and complied a report that identified areas of growth for our school. There were a few takeaways I was able to make following my time spent on the committee.
Smaller is Better:
Our group worked tirelessly to examine up to 15 areas in which our school could improve. Things such as Vocabulary or Curriculum Design were often brought up, but it made me question: Are we here because our school is lacking academically or are the adult relationships in our school hindering our student's progress in all areas? I was pleased to see that we have decided to focus solely on improving our school's culture before addressing anything academic. Our staff needs to feel valued and excited about coming to work before we can make any significant progress elsewhere.
Cross Grade Level Collaboration: I have worked in my current district for 4 years, and this past week was one of the few times in which I was able to have meaningful time to work together with peers from different grade levels/positions and it was incredibly valuable. Many of the people in the room, I had not had a meaningful conversation with prior to the meeting-which may be at the root of the problem for us. If one wants a staff to feel connected as one, a concerted effort must me made to allow those individuals to get together and have meaningful collaboration.
Listen to All Stakeholders: Far and away the most valuable experience of the entire two days was creating an opportunity for many stakeholders: parents/family members, teachers, support staff, and administration to voice their opinions in a safe environment. Too often we beat around the bush or avoid the elephant in the room, but these two days forced us to confront our demons head on. Many colleagues in the room had felt this was the first time they were able to express their opinion in a meaningful way. By having all parties of our school at the table, we were able to work together to brainstorm solutions that would potentially work for everybody.
Smaller is Better:
Our group worked tirelessly to examine up to 15 areas in which our school could improve. Things such as Vocabulary or Curriculum Design were often brought up, but it made me question: Are we here because our school is lacking academically or are the adult relationships in our school hindering our student's progress in all areas? I was pleased to see that we have decided to focus solely on improving our school's culture before addressing anything academic. Our staff needs to feel valued and excited about coming to work before we can make any significant progress elsewhere.
Cross Grade Level Collaboration: I have worked in my current district for 4 years, and this past week was one of the few times in which I was able to have meaningful time to work together with peers from different grade levels/positions and it was incredibly valuable. Many of the people in the room, I had not had a meaningful conversation with prior to the meeting-which may be at the root of the problem for us. If one wants a staff to feel connected as one, a concerted effort must me made to allow those individuals to get together and have meaningful collaboration.
Listen to All Stakeholders: Far and away the most valuable experience of the entire two days was creating an opportunity for many stakeholders: parents/family members, teachers, support staff, and administration to voice their opinions in a safe environment. Too often we beat around the bush or avoid the elephant in the room, but these two days forced us to confront our demons head on. Many colleagues in the room had felt this was the first time they were able to express their opinion in a meaningful way. By having all parties of our school at the table, we were able to work together to brainstorm solutions that would potentially work for everybody.