The Trifecta

The illustrious High School Staff meeting…  Once a month we meet at a pre-determined location to discuss a preset agenda of topics related to what is going on in the school.  In most systems, the staff meeting is in contract; therefore, teachers are required to attend. Some staff really look forward to this time to engage with colleagues and collectively refresh, while others dread the idea.  When we reflect on our past experiences as teachers sitting in staff meetings we recall both highly engaging and highly disengaging experiences.

Now that we’re in the role of setting the meeting’s agenda, we are asking ourselves “How do we tap into the real potential of a staff meeting? Can staff meetings be valued by all staff members? What would a staff meeting have to look like in order to be valued by everyone?”  We feel that the answer lies in understanding what the stakeholders want from the meeting.

As far as different preferences go, some staff prefer the “information download” version of a staff meeting where the agenda is a one-way “Laundry List” of speakers and updates. Others prefer a collaborative session where ideas are exchanged and discussion time is king. Still others prefer the staff meeting for the social dynamics – the experience of being together with other teachers and getting face-time with the principal. How can we meet all of these preferences given the mercurial nature of staff dynamics?

For us here’s the trifecta: a staff meeting should be the place where we share updates on what is going on school-wide, within departments, and within teams. It is also the place where we collaborate on what is working and what needs to be adjusted. And it is the place where we are face-to-face with staff and ready to engage in communication at that personal level. It is our chance to let staff know that we are present and in touch with the goings-on in the school.

As we revise and plan for next year, our goal is to make our staff meetings valuable for everyone. The ideal staff meeting will be a trifecta of informational updates, effective collaboration, and personal connectivity.

 

Identify the stakeholders…       Trust the process…      Trust the people…

Springboard or Status Quo

As we push through to the end of a very challenging year and begin planning for September, we are feeling the tug of two opposing forces. The tug is the pressure between just maintaining status quo in our school versus forging ahead and making changes. These changes include not only adding an extra period to our day because of increased enrollment but also the desire to maintain pace with the 21^st century model of education.

Maintaining the status quo is the natural instinct: keeping our heads down, our noses to the grindstone and doing our best to make it to the end of the school year, avoiding as many potholes as possible. It’s the “smooth it over the best you can” approach. To a large extent, the labour unrest has forced us to have this approach for most of this year. Yes we have made some small changes due to policies adjustments from the school district and responses to job action but, for the most part, maintaining the status quo has proven to be the only option.  

As we plan for next year, the status quo isn’t an option. We are being forced to retool our daily class schedule to a flexible schedule with five periods in a day instead of four. Unfortunately, this change cannot be sidestepped. The question we face as we navigate this change is to either embrace it and use it to springboard into a 21^st century example of change, or to seek to minimize the change and strive for status quo. What we’re really talking about is the management of change and the fear of change. In the 70’s, Edward Deming recognized the debilitating effects of fear in the work place when he coined the phrase “Drive the Fear out of the System”.  In order to use our mandated change to maximum benefit, we must navigate the BCTF's desire to define every work minute and at the same time, drive the fear out of our system.

As we plan and prepare for next year, we find ourselves at a cross roads where we can really make a difference for what is in the best interest of kids. Our springboard could include more flexibility and a 21^st century modeled delivery of education. For the most part, our staff, even in these difficult times, has been very receptive and has contributed to a great number of creative discussions. We recognize that the forces at play are extremely alluring, the politics confusing, and the timing terrible. In spite of all this, we believe that our change is going to be a significant milestone that will be looked back upon as a renaissance in our school culture.

The conundrum we face in the ebb and flow of our change process is that the labour unrest has eroded what we have come to know as the status quo. The need to align our day with minute-to-minute contractual obligations is in some ways eroding teacher autonomy and professionalism. Are those teachers who have consistently demonstrated leadership now calculating their participation in the context of defined “work” hours? As we wind down this year and plan for the next, we can’t help but wonder if we will ever recover the true professional spirit of what it means to be an educator. One thing is certain, the erosion of the status quo will either serve as a springboard for educational change, or it will further continue to divide the masses. 

  

Identify the stakeholders…       Trust the process…      Trust the people…

My Fellow Graduates...

In the educational system, the mantle of valedictorian is bestowed upon the student who best represents the school’s values. However, a difficulty we almost always face is determining which values represent the entire graduating class? Should we be looking for academics? Athleticism? Activism? The challenge is to look beyond the mold of the stereotypical “top student” and let the strengths of the candidates present themselves.

This week, we held the selection process for our school’s valedictorian. This process involved a committee of teachers and administrators listening to a sample of the student speeches, and providing some feedback. After this meeting, five students made their speeches to their peers as part of a grade-wide assembly. It felt like the Olympic rings: the five distinct elements coming together to represent a whole community.

First was Sarah, rugby player and theatrical stage manager. She brought wit and charm to her speech. She brought a brightness and joy to her words that we see every day in the school. This is what our students are like: bright, energetic, and beaming with pride.

Next was Steve, hockey goalie with self-proclaimed “model-worthy” calf muscles! He spoke of his mistakes and spoke like he wanted to bear the burden of his peers’ mistakes, too. He demonstrated that our grade 12’s are truly young adults.

Then we had Navneet. By far, hers was the most passionate speech – the voice of student activism. This is something that we are extremely proud of in our building: the pride and passion to speak up and care about the community, whether it is popular or not. Her words were robust and brave and let her peers know they should embrace the future.

Fourth in line was Janaya, the artist, who spoke of challenges and difficulties and complexity. Hers was a speech about fearlessness and courage, of pride and community, sticking together. Hers was a complex theme: we may not be growing rapidly in stature, but we are becoming more sophisticated.

Finally there was Brian, the philosopher. His words were eloquent and lyrical. He spoke to the crowd with a genuineness and sincerity that seemed to soothe those fears about heading into the open world that the young people in the audience must have been feeling. He let the group know that they have what it takes to succeed, to be well-adjusted adults.

In the end, it was difficult for the MC’s of the assembly to turn to the crowd and say “Now choose the one you want”. Each candidate presented a unique perspective of our grade 12 student body. The downside? It left us with the feeling that we believe every school staff would want: we wanted to keep them all! 

Identify the stakeholders…       Trust the process…      Trust the people…

Emotional Nourishment

In the animal kingdom there is an interesting phenomenon that occurs with impending natural disasters. It seems that animals have the innate ability to detect pending disasters just before they happen. For example, animals will act in very strange ways just before an earthquake occurs. In schools we have a very similar phenomena; as educators, we refer to it as the anxiety and often disruptive behaviours that occur just before report cards are sent home.

Over the past two weeks, we have dealt with a number of major discipline incidents involving students. To say that these are uncharacteristic of our school is an understatement.  When we discuss these incidents and try to make sense of them, we are drawn to the conclusion that the stress and anxiety of report cards probably played a role. We also concluded that this year's public battle between the BCPSEA and the BCTF has amplified many of the stresses in our schools and as a result has heightened the anxiety in our students and teachers. The fact that it is May 3rd and our students just received their first report card leaves no coincidence that the general level of stress and anxiety in our building has increased. All this anxiety and heightened stress leaves us thinking that we must have a closer look at how we universally and systematically support our students' emotional health. We know that report cards are an anxious time for students, but the levels of anxiety and stress this year is definitely more pronounced.

As part of our ever-expanding student support model, we recently added a period of time within our schedule to further support some of our vulnerable students in their social, emotional and academic domains. What differs from what we have done in the past is the greater emphasis on supporting their social emotional being.  With the increased levels of stress in the building, we are aware more than ever that we need to start looking at general anxiety as a significant risk factor for lack of success. Our plan is to work towards integrating a more universal network of support that addresses our students’ social-emotional well-being.

We know that the pressures of our current political climate have forced many emotional issues closer to the surface. The response to the pressure is resonating as a wake up call to take a deeper look at how we manage our students' emotional health. The reality is that all of us; students, teachers and our community, need daily emotional nourishment. If there is a positive thread running through the current political climate, it is the realization that we must do a better job at caring for our collective social emotional being.

More and more, we are seeing what we always knew in our heart; the measure of our academic and/or personal success in life is very much directly proportional to our social emotional health and well-being.

Identify the stakeholders…       Trust the process…      Trust the people…