Living in the suburbs of Chicago you have two baseball teams to choose from to devote your fandom. You give you loyalty and devotion to the Cubs or White Sox. I happened to become a fan of the Cubs. I can remember being 11 years old during the '84 season only to see the team loose to the Padres in the playoffs. Then there was the '89 season and a loss to the Giants in the playoffs. After that season there was a long drought until '98 and a loss to the Braves in the playoffs. In '02 there was the infamous Bartman game. The Cubs 5 outs away from a World Series appearance only to lose to the Marlins in the playoffs. The '07 and '08 seasons ended in similar fashion, getting blitzed in the first round of the playoffs. Then last year, a magical season where the team outperformed expectations and made it to the National League Championship Series. Now I see my team has the best record in baseball. Who knows, maybe this will be the year!
Being a life long Cubs fan has brought many great memories, but it has also brought disappointment and heartache. When I was much younger I would be watching a game and if they started to lose I would turn off the TV in frustration. I would easily give up on them and lose hope. I used to say I could never be the manager because if a player made a costly mistake I would want to kick them off the team. With that approach it wouldn't take very long for the team to run out of players.
Being a fan of a team can drive you crazy. One minute you are going nuts because of a great play and the next moment you are screaming out of frustration when things are not going your teams way. It can feel that way at times in your classroom or in your school. Great things happen and you are pumped and so excited and then something doesn't work out and you can get discouraged.
As I think about my role as a principal, I need to be the biggest fan of our students and teachers. I can't turn off the TV when I get upset. I can't walk away. I can't lose hope. I need to be their fan everyday. I need to cheer on their efforts and celebrate their successes. I need to be their biggest fan.
Tips for teachers to be the biggest fan of your students:
1. Celebrate student learning. Students need their teachers to be cheerleaders. To encourage them to try harder, to put in more effort, to work longer. They need teachers to celebrate their accomplishments and to recognize their efforts. Celebrating student learners changes the culture and dynamics of a classroom.
2. Spend time getting to know your students. John Hattie's works tells us of the importance of the student-teacher relationship. In Teach Like a Pirate, Dave Burgess makes the case of taking time at the beginning of the year to build rapport with students and how that sets the tone for the school year. Teachers can get to know their students by eating lunch with students, playing at recess, asking students about their weekends. There are many ways to get to know students. Let them know you are taking an interest in who they are as learner and as a person.
3. Create and environment for students to be risk takers. Students come to us with a natural sense of curiosity and desire to create. Classrooms need to be places where students take risks and create. When teachers set up a classroom environment where student creativity and risk taking is welcomed; a culture is created where students flourish.
4. Provide feedback. Being a fan of a student means that you are providing feedback about their learning. Not just praising, but giving them meaningful and actionable feedback. Sharing with students what you notice they do well and areas where they still have work to do. Being a fan means being honest and supportive of students and their learning.
Tips for administrators to be the biggest fan of your teachers:
1. Build relationships. Developing this relational culture takes time. In their book The progress principle: Using small wins to ignite joy, engagement, and creativity at work, Amible & Kramer share how the small wins matter to people. They build momentum and keep people moving. Timothy Kanold, in The five disciplines of PLC leaders, describes the importance for leaders to create a relational culture. Leaders need to connect with teachers and create the atmosphere for teachers to be able to connect with one another.
2. Celebrate teachers. A talented principal recognizes these moments and knows when to celebrate and recognize them. Richard DuFour in his latest book, In praise of American educators and how they can become even better states, “Effective principals will not wait for monumental accomplishments before celebrating”. A culture of celebration and recognition leads to developing further trust among the members of a school.
3. Provide clarity. Providing clarity is so key in making sure teams are working on the right things. A good principal establishes, along with the leadership team, goals and the actions teachers will take to achieve the goals. They also give teams autonomy on how they will implement those actions on their team and in their classrooms.
4. Give teachers space and time to be creative. Rosenhotz, in Teacher's workplace: The social organization of schools, found that teachers’ regard for their work resides in their schools and those conditions that allow them to feel empowered, fulfilled, and keeps them reaching for new opportunities and challenges. Principals need to provide time and space for teachers to do their work and to demonstrate through their actions that they trust the teachers by giving them that autonomy. Providing teachers autonomy and trusting them as professionals builds stronger relationships
Tim McDermott
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