Every day I ask staff members to think, learn and reflect. As John Spencer, teacher blogger extraordinaire (@johntspencer) reminds us, being in a classroom is a tough, demanding job. It’s easy to forget that when you leave the classroom. I can talk about program and assessment in a session or from the safety of my “big principal desk”, but the reality of teaching 25 to 30 young, active and eager minds is something else. So when I ask faculty in our building to think, to learn and to reflect on their instructional practice, I need to always be aware of just how difficult teaching is.
One way I can do that is to make my own vulnerabilities and challenges as a learner visible for all the people I work with. Steven Katz , Canadian professor and educator, stresses the importance of showing that it is OK to identify challenges and weaknesses, to make mistakes and to learn from them. As students need that model and permission, so do teachers, educational assistants and early childhood educators.
In October, we held our first staff learning session. Our focus was to be a discussion and exploration of teachers’ problems of practice as they related to instructional practice. After examining perceptual data provided by teachers, we asked: “What is pressing and urgent in your classroom in terms of creating the conditions for student learning?”
To set the stage, I shared the results from a leadership qualities survey I asked staff to complete anonymously last June. (See previous post: Feedback, Priceless). This was not easy, partly because not all comments were positive, but also because this is intensely personal work. Next, I shared my reflections about the feedback and what I wanted to focus on in my learning. I accepted that I hadn’t done the best job in some areas of my school leadership. I accepted what the results were telling me. I admitted that I didn’t really know what to do next, but I was dedicated to finding out how to tackle the problem. I identified some next steps. Finally, I committed to telling staff about my progress in the future.
Reactions? People were interested. When I was honest about what I needed to learn, it opened the door for them to admit their own vulnerabilities. We can’t learn unless we admit our mistakes and work together to learn how to do things better. Our learning session was full of rich discussions about beliefs and teaching. I am really looking forward to the next session where we can continue the conversation.
How can you make your learning visible?
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