I’m becoming convinced that if
we truly want to be all we can be as a school, we have to become obsessed with
this idea of Team. The more and more
you look at the research on effective schools, teachers, and principals, the
more and more you see what a critical role the team plays in that
effectiveness. It makes sense doesn’t
it? I know I can’t do everything that
needs done here on my own, and so I depend on you. The
power to do great things at Jefferson is found in us as a TEAM.
So as we
continue to think about what makes a team great, consider this quote:
“Successful
groups become successful by sending signals that create a sense of belonging
and purpose.”
-Daniel
Coyle
Now, there
are literally TONS of ideas we could work out from that quote that would have
direct impact on what we do here at Jefferson.
For example, think about what this means for you as the classroom
leader? Do you what the “group” that you
teach every day to be successful? Then
make sure you and the other members of the group are sending signals that
create a sense of belonging and purpose.
What I’d like
to focus on; however, is this idea of great teams “belonging” and having
purpose. I don’t have a great story
(well, actually I do, but I’m trying to make these things shorter), but I’ve
had the great chance to be on a lot of teams.
Some were great, and many were not.
So what made the difference?
Well, this sense of belonging was
the difference.
It wasn’t
like we ever sat around and discussed our sense of belonging, it just was. It just happened. Now, in a sports setting, that will happen. It’s obvious that we all tried out for the
team for a reason and we understood that winning a championship was the great
purpose our team was working toward.
Make no
mistake; a group becomes a team when the members are united for a common
purpose. Do you understand how
important that common purpose is? It’s
not just that it gives the sense of belonging, because it does, but it literally defines the team. What that means is, a school, like Jefferson,
can be a group, or we can be a team. It
all depends on whether or not we are united in a common purpose.
Those sports teams I grew up playing
on, we had a common purpose and we didn’t have to sit around and talk about
it. However, we are adults here at
Jefferson, adults with spouses, children, personal lives, church commitments, etc.,
so our common purpose won’t just happen like it does on a Pony League baseball
team. We do need to sit around and talk
about it. We have to be intentional.
We received our ISTEP data from the
state this week. We are now finally
poised to create more specific sense of purpose for this year. How do schools create a sense of purpose and
belonging? We set goals together! Interdependent goals! Anywhere we wish to be successful as a group;
corporation-wide, school-wide, grade level collaborative teams, and classrooms
need to set goals together. These goals are the glue that holds a team
together. These goals give you that
purpose to work toward. They’re what
pull you through when things are tough and they’re what excite you when things
are great. When we set goals together, we depend on each other and when we depend
on each other we are successful.
So, the next couple of weeks will be
focused on thinking about what we want to accomplish this year. We already have our larger purpose. Our
mission is to inspire and equip all students to continuously acquire and apply
knowledge and skills while pursuing their dreams and enriching the lives of
others. Now the question becomes,
what specific things will we do this year to accomplish that mission?
On Monday we’ll begin to look at what
we want our goals to be as a school for this year. The week of September 23, I will be giving
you and your collaborative team a ½ day to sit down together and among other
things, set some interdependent goals.
It’s my hope that we all see the value in this. That we
understand that when we set goals together, we send each other a clear signal
that we belong, and we have a purpose.
There isn’t another team in the world
I’d rather be on this journey with.
Let’s make it great!
Dave
