Winter break is always a good time to catch up in the office. It allows me time to reflect and readjust at my own pace. I have to work hard at being organized. My mind works faster than my body and my thoughts and ideas can take me on tangents.
Keeping a physical space organized and kept up is important to me.
In the book, Explicit Instruction (Archer and Hughes), the authors devote an entire chapter to "Organizing for Instruction". They write:
"Have you noticed that when you step into certain classrooms, you get a feel for the "climate" of the room that is mirrored in the teacher's enthusiasm and students' engagement? The climate doesn't occur automatically(109)".
I feel the same way about an entire school. I took a walk earlier this morning around the building. I created a quick bulletin board to fill an empty space. (It's one I like to keep up to date with student photos throughout the year.). I fixed posters and student work in the hall that needed re-taping, too. I thought about what our walls were saying to me, to the students, to all of us.
Four years ago, when I became the principal here, I had a team of volunteers that helped paint, clean and redesign spaces in our school. This included the faculty room! I still feel like that was one of the more powerful tasks we completed together. We wanted to create a space that felt warm and welcoming.
Our building is an old one and we don't have everything aesthetically that other schools do. Yet, I think you can feel our heart here.
I was talking to a colleague the other day and he was pressing me about culture. His point was culture only counts if I had data that backed it up. Hard data. I argued back that data was important but you can't quantify everything all the time.
Yet, you can sure feel it.
Take a look around your school. What does it say all on its own?
Keeping a physical space organized and kept up is important to me.
In the book, Explicit Instruction (Archer and Hughes), the authors devote an entire chapter to "Organizing for Instruction". They write:
"Have you noticed that when you step into certain classrooms, you get a feel for the "climate" of the room that is mirrored in the teacher's enthusiasm and students' engagement? The climate doesn't occur automatically(109)".
I feel the same way about an entire school. I took a walk earlier this morning around the building. I created a quick bulletin board to fill an empty space. (It's one I like to keep up to date with student photos throughout the year.). I fixed posters and student work in the hall that needed re-taping, too. I thought about what our walls were saying to me, to the students, to all of us.
Four years ago, when I became the principal here, I had a team of volunteers that helped paint, clean and redesign spaces in our school. This included the faculty room! I still feel like that was one of the more powerful tasks we completed together. We wanted to create a space that felt warm and welcoming.
Our building is an old one and we don't have everything aesthetically that other schools do. Yet, I think you can feel our heart here.
I was talking to a colleague the other day and he was pressing me about culture. His point was culture only counts if I had data that backed it up. Hard data. I argued back that data was important but you can't quantify everything all the time.
Yet, you can sure feel it.
Take a look around your school. What does it say all on its own?
I find it interesting that the colleague said that culture needed to be backed up by hard data. Did he/she mention what that hard data would be? I've been on winning teams and losing teams, each with positive and negative cultures. Sometimes we can quantify the things that don't count and overlook the things that count because they can't be quantified.
ReplyDeleteLove your last line!!! Thank you for supporting the post.
Delete"I have to work hard at being organized. My mind works faster than my body and my thoughts and ideas can take me on tangents. " ~ I love this description!
ReplyDeleteI think the hard data would be to survey teachers/students about their thoughts of the school before/after changes have occurred. The problem with that is that survey wouldn't happen naturally but I guarantee that students/teachers responded to the updated bulletin board/other tidying you did. They just may not have realized it.