On Tuesday, I spent my day listening
to Dr. Anthony Muhammad discuss creating a culture of collaboration. This was an absolutely amazing day, and while
I believe that we have a very collaborative culture here at Jefferson, we can
always grow and get better. Rather than
try to think of some sort of analogy for what I learned, I’m just going to list
some of my takeaways. It’s my hope that
you can take some time reading these and reflecting on your own practice and
what you can do to promote a more collaborative culture here at Jefferson. Personally, the reflection for me this week
has been convicting and it is helping me grow as well:
1. We MUST have the collective belief that all
students can learn, and all children WILL learn because of our collective
beliefs and behaviors.
2. Collaborative teams always ask, “Where are we
flawed?” It’s a growth mindset. We’re not foolish enough to believe we don’t
have flaws that can be corrected.
3. Highly successful collaborative teams NEVER,
ever speak negatively about students, parents, or colleagues!
a.
This one really got to me personally. Again, we’ve really been focusing on having a
positive attitude here at Jefferson, but I still catch myself falling back into
speaking negatively at times. We’ve got
to choose to be positive and keep each other accountable if our kids are going
to be all they can be.
4. All teachers are teacher-leaders.
5. Criticizing underperformance is not
leadership. How does that apply in the
classroom? What about with evaluations?
6. Teachers and principals are in a
relationship. In a relationship, if
perfection is what you seek, it won’t work.
In relationships there will be frustration. Too often teachers and principals have
unrealistic expectations for each other.
That doesn’t work in any relationship.
7. The key to a positive collaborative
relationship is that there are clear expectations and commitments. Teachers need to have a means to communicate
their expectations for their principal, and their commitments and vice versa.
8. When you’re frustrated with a situation, turn
your window into a mirror. Instead of
looking out at everyone else, look at yourself.
In what ways are you responsible for this situation? And what can you do to correct it? Start with yourself.
9. Your responsibilities should come before your
rights.
10. When you vent habitually it creates a mindset
of pessimism.
11. We complain to others to vent and to
validate. We’re looking for someone to
validate our issues. The real problem
is, venting is not productive. It may make you feel better that someone will
listen to you or validate your point, but it doesn’t do anything to remedy the situation. In the end, it promotes a toxic environment.
12. People in a toxic environment choose to
complain. They do this by describing what they’re upset about and deflecting responsibility.
13. In a healthy environment, people look at
problems and they reflect on their
own role in the situation, and they are prescriptive
about what to do differently.
I
know there’s a lot to go over in those takeaways, but as we start the year, I’d
like you to reflect on the situations that were most frustrating to you last
year. How did you handle it? Were you descriptive and deflective, or were
you reflective and prescriptive? We can
do all the work in the world to set up the physical aspects of PLCs like norms,
a meeting time, data tracking, etc., but it all means NOTHING if we don’t all
work to create a culture of collaboration.
I know as I reflect, I’ve chosen to be toxic at times instead of
choosing the positive route. Being
positive doesn’t mean things will be perfect.
It just means when we encounter problems we choose to believe the best
about each other and work together for a solution.
We
all desire a successful year this year.
Our success will directly relate to the mindset we choose. We’re not going to get it right every time;
we’ll still catch ourselves slipping back into negativity or venting, but if
each day we choose to be more positive than the day before we will LOVE working
here and our students will be the beneficiaries, and let’s be clear, it’s a
choice to be positive. Let’s have a
great, positive, collaborative year!
Dave
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