Developing a collaborative culture

The past few weeks, through many different experiences, I have been reminded about the importance of developing a collaborative culture. These experiences that didn't seem connected at first, but later through conversations and reflection I realized that these experiences all had to do with collaborative culture.  From data days to a Voxer group discussion, I recognized the importance of having strong relationships, developing a healthy culture, and the need for collaboration.

In our school we recently had our data days, which provides an opportunity and structure to collaborate with grade level teams to plan for supporting all of our students. To be completely honest these can be very long days. Each day involves meeting with three different grade levels along with specialists, psychologist, and other administrators. Often there are difficult conversations about the best way to support students and you can often feel drained by the end of the day. In discussing ways to set the tone each time we were to meet with a grade level with our assistant principal we decided we would do a quick check-in with everyone at the table. At the start of each grade level data day meeting and prior to jumping into agenda we had each person share one word that described how they were feeling (words ranged from worried to energized) and one sentence about what they hoped to get out of the data day meeting. Our data day meetings seemed more effective, and we felt energized by the discussion and plans for supporting students. I think this occurred because we paid attention to the culture of these meetings and purposely spent time investing in the culture so members felt connected to the work we needed to do.

Not long after data days I  happened upon a podcast where author and speaker Jon Gordon was being interviewed about one of his books and during the podcast he emphasized the importance of needing to constantly work on culture and the importance of developing relationships. It confirmed for me that it was worth while to invest time and energy to purposely invest in developing culture.

Culture drives everything, culture drives expectations and beliefs, expectations and beliefs drive behaviors, behaviors drive habits, and habits ultimately create the future. So your culture is basically who you are, it is what you stand for. You have to make sure you are investing in your culture. - Jon Gordon

One of our main goals for our school this year to to implement classroom meetings so that we can  build positive classroom communities. I have had the privilege to visit and participate in several classroom meetings. I was struck by how these meetings were changing the culture in classrooms. The time that the teachers are spending in  classroom meetings is worthwhile. In one of the classroom meetings I visited the students and teacher were talking about welcoming a new student into their class. This new student was starting the next day and the students shared ways that they could help this new student feel comfortable, understand the routines and expectations in class, and make sure they were welcomed into their space. I was really impressed that the students thought and shared about making this new student feel welcomed. Each day our teachers and students are meeting and developing their classroom culture. I know that this will have a tremendous impact on all of our students.

This week in our Compelled Tribe Voxer group a question was posed that asked - How do you know if you are making a difference? It made me really think. When I was a fourth grade teacher I knew if I was making a difference when I would see students make academic or behavioral growth. As an administrator I still look to student growth as an indicator if I am making a difference, but more than that I look to see if the culture is changing in our school. I look to see if people are working collaboratively to solve problems, to plan for student learning, to be creative in their teaching. I look to see if people are willing to take risks and are excited about stepping out of their comfort zone to try something new.

During my research about collaboration I came across a study that written 35 years ago and I believe that it still rings true today. In order to grow and get better at what we do we must work together, we cannot work in isolation or think that we as individuals have all of the answers. As leaders we need  to create a culture that emphasizes teacher to teacher trust, freedom to take risks, and a desire to be creative.

... continuous professional development appears to be most surely and thoroughly achieved when: teachers engage in frequent, continuous and increasingly concrete and precise talk about teaching practice  (Little, 1982)