Yesterday was a tough day at school. Then this morning I participated in #satchat which brought me the camaraderie and inspiration I was hungering for. Many leaders and educators come together for a Saturday morning Twitter chat (#satchat) from 7:30-8:30 a.m. to discuss educational ideas and thoughts. Today's topic was school improvement plans.
I'm fortunate to work in an organization with apt tools, adequate structures, enthusiastic students, dedicated professionals, and a supportive community. We've got what it takes to continually nurture and develop a top-notch, student-centered learning community. We're at the brink of old school--new school think and work, and I feel a sense of urgency to move forward with changing communication, structure, and organizational processes, strategies, and efforts.
Moving forward takes courage and a sense of bold decision making. I think that's why so many educators gather on social networks from near and far. They need to boost each other up, think together, try out ideas, and gain support for this forward movement from factory-era school design and effort to 21st century schools that focus on students in ways that promote lifelong learning skills, concepts and attitudes.
What main changes need to happen to move schools forward today?
The first big change is a move towards transparent, inclusive, two-way communication. In days of old there were the thinkers and the doers. The thinkers made the plans and the doers carried out the plans. Today, there's a sense of team where all voices matter. Collaborative documents and crowdshare inform decisions. Goals are set and carried out collectively, and the information related to the goals' process, accomplishment, revision, and change are shared with all in the learning community including educators, leaders, students, family members, and community members. Protocols rather than rules guide communication. Error informs change and a need for growth. There's the knowledge that when all involved in the learning community have a sense of choice and voice, then the learning community develops with strength. When the news of the community's efforts, accomplishments, and needs are limited in time and reach, then the community's strength wanes.
The next change is a change in structure. Using a students-up model, the structure of the physical plant as well as the education schedule is created to serve students' needs, interests and passions. It's not a school of similar classrooms with heterogenous groups of similar-age students, but instead it's a more fluid movement of needs and interest base groups of students traveling from learning space to learning space to gain and strengthen skill, concept, knowledge and interest. Depending on context, schools today are moving towards "breaking down the walls" of traditional schools in order to create more vibrant, responsive, brain-friendly learning endeavors for all. RTI and PLCs are two constructs that are serving to help schools move in this direction. Educators spend most of their time planning for and working with students in responsive, targeted, innovative ways to empower, engage, and educate.
Leadership teams are changing too. Rather than the familiar hierarchical style of leadership, leadership in schools is taking on new structures with dynamic, diverse teams rather than the familiar same-discipline teams of old. These dynamic teams are able to foster structural and schedule changes that serve to educate the whole child in natural, personalized ways to meet the needs of the new world they will be living and working in. Roles and responsibilities audits are ongoing as inefficient, ineffective practices and efforts are replaced by new practices and efforts to better serve children.
As we consider the move from old to new in schools, pacing is a consideration. How fast should change happen? What is the process for change? How is that change communicated? What are the expectations with regard to professional learning and role revision with regard to that change? Some systems work to make change a regular aspect of the work they do, and others reserve a space in the yearly schedule for change? I don't think that schools of old can change without support. I believe there's often a need for outside agents to come in and assess the situation with a focus on what students need today, will need in the future, and how schools can make this transition.
In general, I'm not a big fan of school money spent for outside consultants. My thoughts come from a long history of consultants who have worked with educators who come with an expertise that is often not equal to the expertise and skill of professionals I work with, professionals whose voice has infrequently been tapped. Yet, in the case of school revision and change, I think schools might profit from that outside set of eyes, the consultant who can come in and look carefully at what's working and what's not in a school system with a focus on student benefit and growth. A consultant who listens to all voices, and looks carefully at building structure, scheduling, roles/responsibilities, communication protocols/streams, and student experience and education.
How is your organization meeting the need to grow and change in this new age of education? What practices have served to move you forward with respect to student service and growth? Have you used an outside consultant to support this change?
While I think big, I also have to take my thoughts back to my area of autonomy, the classroom. How have I changed my classroom efforts so that I serve children well? How have I made the learning endeavors more brain-friendly, inclusive, responsive, and engaging? In what ways has the schedule and physical structure of the room changed? How do I work with the team to serve children well? Would I profit from working with an outside consultant, an expert in classroom teaching and design? Actually, I'd welcome that, particularly if it were to be an expert with an eye on the future, a focus on student benefit, and the time to work with me on a deep, objective level rather than a cursory walkthrough, exchange or directive--the kind of exchange often unavailable in a system due to time, numbers, and subjectivity.
There's a lot to think about when it comes to moving an organization forward--more to think about than I can probably imagine. Yet that shouldn't stand in our way when it comes to forward movement and student service. We're on the brink of change, and that's an exciting place to be.
