Unfortunately, the school community is sometimes guilty of adopting this mindset. After all, surely there will be someone there after us to take up the challenges and opportunities that arise. "The new teachers will be in the career longer than me." "There's always a new fad, just a rehash of old ideas or acronyms." "Why do we have to do this?"
The challenge with staff development and professional learning is that too often, teachers have heard the same ideas, movements, etc. through the years too often with little follow up or adequate resources to actually improve learning. So the heart of the matter is ownership. If faculty/staff do not feel any ownership regarding a movement or a change within the school or district, your buy in and ownership are null. This is why teachers need to be involved in the decision making process and leadership of an initiative or movement.
As a new principal, my plan to achieve buy in and ownership with changes is a simple line of questions.
1. What do our students deserve?
2. How is ______ what is best for kids?
3. What/how will ______ look in my classroom?
4. How will we know that ____ is working?
4. Now what?
I believe the best question is the last one. It requires the conversation to continue. Administrators and teachers must develop an action and follow up plan. Resources need to be committed to improving student learning and achievement. By having this discussion with staff when embracing the unknown or new whatever, anxiety is decreased, ownership is increased and best of all, your school culture benefits. You no longer have a "Here's what I think we should do" mindset but a "Here is what we have agreed is needed to ensure success for all" norm for operating. A little wordier...but it does the job.
The challenge with staff development and professional learning is that too often, teachers have heard the same ideas, movements, etc. through the years too often with little follow up or adequate resources to actually improve learning. So the heart of the matter is ownership. If faculty/staff do not feel any ownership regarding a movement or a change within the school or district, your buy in and ownership are null. This is why teachers need to be involved in the decision making process and leadership of an initiative or movement.
As a new principal, my plan to achieve buy in and ownership with changes is a simple line of questions.
1. What do our students deserve?
2. How is ______ what is best for kids?
3. What/how will ______ look in my classroom?
4. How will we know that ____ is working?
4. Now what?
I believe the best question is the last one. It requires the conversation to continue. Administrators and teachers must develop an action and follow up plan. Resources need to be committed to improving student learning and achievement. By having this discussion with staff when embracing the unknown or new whatever, anxiety is decreased, ownership is increased and best of all, your school culture benefits. You no longer have a "Here's what I think we should do" mindset but a "Here is what we have agreed is needed to ensure success for all" norm for operating. A little wordier...but it does the job.
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