Back and Looking for Feedback

It is good to be back to setting time aside for reflection on learning through this blog. I feel as if I have plateaued over the last four weeks, mostly due to running the annual state testing gauntlet.  However, during that time I also was attempting to finalize a project on which I have been working. As I was working on the project, it hit me that I am potentially missing out on a great resource and opportunity.

I want to be able to clearly articulate a vision for improving school culture when

working with colleagues or even when speaking with others outside of the schools.  That articulation started with me just getting my thoughts down on “paper,” but it has grown to a point that I began to organize it based on some common themes. What I ended up with is a small manuscript which is included, via a link, in the preview listed below.

The Handbook for Building a Greenhouse Culture in Schools provides a philosophical as well as practical approach to shifting the focus of our schools from an accountability based testing culture to one focused on our responsibility to prepare young people for life.  It is written for any educator who is seeking to contribute to building a Greenhouse Culture in Schools and can be impactful for an individual dispositional or positional leader, professional learning community, school, or school district.  Schools that function as a greenhouse are committed to focusing on nurturing the “roots” of their young people and when these qualitative (soft) skills are nurtured a natural byproduct will be strong quantitative outputs (data) for all. Ultimately the success of any school, like a greenhouse, will be measured by how healthy, how strong, and how “deeply rooted” the individuals are that leave the school.

The great resource to which I am referring is the folks who read this blog.  I would be grateful for any constructive feedback you could give me concerning the “vision” and “message” I am attempting to articulate. The link is set up for you to make comments directly on the document, but you could also use the comment section on this blog.   As an example, some questions I am curious about include:

• Is there a clear vision and message?
• If you were to read this as a staff member, would you be excited or concerned about the message?
• What is missing from the vision that should be there and what is there that maybe should not be included?
• Does the message flow smoothly and make sense or is there better way to organize it?
• After reading this “manuscript,” what are your overall thoughts and feedback?

The goal  is to get as much feedback as possible in order to refine this message, so that I

(or anyone who agrees with me for that matter) would be able to share a clear vision with a staff, school district, or community should the opportunity arise.

Thanks for any help you can give me.  :)