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The Little Things are the Real Game Changers



This year I want to focus on enhancing my pedagogical development and learning how to encourage positive change within my school. Just like my first teaching post, I entered administration excited and feeling like I could help everyone all the time. Then, reality set in and I realized that I could only affect change with the students, teachers, and parents who wanted to accept my help. My second realization is that positive change (in terms of school climate) does not necessarily mean big impressive projects or initiatives. So I asked myself, what is the backbone of change? There are so many components that make effect change effective within a school. I narrowed down three that I thought that I could work on this year.

1. Consistency. This means no surprises. Staff, students, and parents should have a general idea of what decisions will be made based on their rights, responsibilities, and agreed on school guidelines. The  school community should expect me to be equitable. 

2. Support. Students and parents should feel comfortable to come see me at any given time. I know that saying 'I have an open door policy' is cliché, but this must be the case. They need to feel heard and taken seriously. In terms of staff, the latter applies, but they also need to know their initiatives and ideas will be supported.

3. Trust. People need to know that they can trust me with the information they are sharing and that I will use help in any way that I can. It is not easy for us to trust each other, especially when it comes to area of weaknesses. It means that we will need to be vulnerable with one other and rely on each other's strengths in order for us to work through areas of difficulty.

 Now the real challenge is implementing all of this, to help change 'the game'. I guess we will see. What do you do to bring about positive change? Please share your insight with me.

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Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 29, 2014 at 7:10 PM

    Hey Natasha,
    I think you are on the right track. 1) Consistency helps staff, students and the community know what you stand for. 2) Support comes in many forms and it means different things to different people. Finding out how individuals need to be supported takes time. 3) Trust is the backbone of all relationships. It's true that it takes a long time to build it and a short time to break it.
    We have been talking and living the #BetterTogether in our district this year and I think your blog fits nicely with that.
    Keep Calm and Blog On!

    ReplyDelete

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