I woke up this morning as a reluctant participant for a 6:30 a.m. bike ride with some of the Aurora folks and walked outside to a flat tire. Apparently, I picked up a tiny shard of glass in my last ride which created a slow leak. No worries, I carry a spare inner-tube and began to change the tire with plenty of time before meeting the crew at the AHS parking lot. Two minutes later I managed to carelessly pinch the spare while putting it on the rim and as a result created a new hole which put me out of the ride for the morning. Not a great way to start the day. It’s 6:10 a.m. on a Saturday morning and I am now wide awake because I’m mad at myself for being careless with the inner tube. I grumpily sipped my coffee when a thought popped in my head to use a little cognitive jiu-jitsu (see also Cognitive Jiu-Jitsu in the Classroom) on myself and redirect that energy to something a little more productive. No better time than now to start this year’s weekly blog reflections...it’s gotta be a sign. :)
One of our district’s five main focus areas this year is school climate. We believe that to truly be empowered, people need both ownership and autonomy. This is true for both young people and adults, so instructional leaders must promote and support environments in the school that will lead to empowerment. A student centered school which believes in shared leadership can create a school climate which is empowering for all. One of the best ways to get a feel for school climate is to get out into the classrooms on the first day and listen. There seemed to be two messages that most of our young people heard on day one.
The first message I heard, which I will refer to as a more traditional approach, focused on school or classroom expectations. “Students” were told what they should bring to class, what they would be studying, where they should sit, how they should organize their binders, what are the rules for class, etc. This is not to say that laying the groundwork for expectations is not important, but done in this way seems to promote a school climate of compliance more than empowerment. These “expectations” were also apparent during our first set of open house visits in which parents heard the message: “We need to get your child ready for “x” grade or "x"school next year which means this year your student needs to be more independent.” or “In order to earn points your child will need to do “y” at home.” It is true that these examples, which are real by the way, do set the expectations for the upcoming school year, but I am not sure they are positively communicating the school climate we invision.
The second message I heard, which thankfully occurred in many classrooms, was one less centered around rules and expectations but instead focused on building a positive school or classroom culture with the young people. As an example, a teacher new to our district used Harmon’s “Do the Right Thing” motto to ask the young people in her class what does “Do the Right Thing” mean to you? Young people wrote their ideas down individually and then shared with others near them. Questions like, “I have 15 examples is that enough?” or “Is it OK that I only have three?” were redirected by a simple comment of, “you tell me, these are your ideas and thoughts.” After sharing, these thoughts were then discussed as a group and they eventually became the “norms” of the class rather than the “rules”. These conversations sounded very different than the traditional expectation conversations because they were more about building the culture of the class. A second example was set not by asking questions, but simply giving an answer. The answer, by the way, was “36”. The young people had to come up with the question. When given the chance they began to wonder what could the question be and came up with all kinds of formulas, angles, diagrams, and other thoughts which were all generated by the young people in the room.
It led to a number of great questions as these mathematical discussion took place (see photo above), but none were the “right” question which was “What is my room number?” Of course it wasn’t about the answer or even the question, but instead building a culture of questioning, curiosity, and thinking. These two examples send a very different message than those established by a more “traditional” approach to opening day. Thankfully, there were a number of these types of “culture” focused messages, but I will say there were a number of “expectations” discussed in our district as well.
Believe me, I am not throwing stones. I remember handing out a syllabus and “covering the rules” in class as well: 1. Do your best 2. Do what is right. 3. Treat others as you would want to be treated. However, I also tried to make sure that we quickly moved into “playing” with the crayfish I captured over the summer because I wanted to establish this class was about being hands-on and noticing things about the world around us (Biology). Luckily, if you started your year out a little more traditional, there are 183 more days to shift the focus from compliance and efficiency to one which will nurture a culture of thinking and therefore ultimately nurturing our young peoples’ roots. (see also Adopting a Greenhouse Philosophy for Schools). Culture can be thought of as the “beliefs, assumptions, expectations, and habits that constitute the norm for the people throughout the (organization) school” (DuFour, 2005, p. 11). What we do on day one is a window to the culture of the classroom and young people see right through it. However, just like this morning for me, there is no better time to hit reset and redirect your energy if you were more traditionally focused because culture is also built each day through interactions, relationships, and rapport rather than just expectations set on day one. As a result, we are blessed to have the opportunity each day to create a school climate which nurtures young people of all ages to be empowered over being compliant. It will help them to prepare for life much more than preparing for the next grade level, school, or exam.
I hope you have a great year!
References
DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & DuFour, R. (2005). On common ground: The Power of
Professional Learning Communities. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.
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