Learning at the Heart

100 Posts in 100 Days

 

This post is part of a series that started with school relationships and various states of dependency.  Through those posts, the threads of clarity and communication stood out.  Which has led to 3 recommendations I have.  This post is about the 3rd recommendation:  Get specific about your own role and behavioral changes.  To read all the posts in this series, go to www.learningattheheart.com and start with post #71:  Interdependence.

An alternate title for this post could easily be, “Where the Rubber Meets the Road.”  I’ve been writing about creating interdependent individuals and teams in a school and I’ve share 3 recommendations that I have:

1. Have a model for change in your school, 
2. Cultivate a schoolwide culture of growth mindset, and 
3. Get specific about your own role and behavioral changes.

Naming the desired state, a state of interdependence, is my first step.  Identifying and naming the goal are invaluable steps for achieving success.  Using a change model to help articulate roles and responsibilities for others helps me to communicate with clarity.   Cultivating a mindset of growth supports learning and builds relationships.  Now, it’s time to turn inward, to take the ideas and make them actionable. 

One of my core values, in fact the one that feels most important to me, is integrity.  In fact, I share about that in posts 62 and 63.  I feel strongly that I cannot identify responsibilities, mindsets, and behavior changes for others without calling them out for myself as well.

This post is a declaration of some of my commitments in order to help achieve interdependence and a growth orientation in my work.  I’ve considered using the PLC example from the last 2 posts to better illustrate what I’m thinking.  I’m opting, instead, to circle back to where I started in post 71 and think about this in real time.

I’m also drawing upon ideas about goal setting that I wrote about in posts 12 – 15 (accessible at www.learningattheheart.com.)

In general, I know that I am a strategic thinker and a strength I have is developing others.  I feel (especially after writing the last few posts) that I am a decent planner, but I’m not always as consistent in the execution as I would like to be.

Here is where my thinking is in this moment….subject to change once I get feedback and things start happening!  🤣(See yesterday’s post)  

 

Mastery Goals	Help teams and individuals in my school work together interdependently Cultivate a culture of growth amongst individuals and teams in my school
Performance Goals/Indicators	See an increase on items related to efficacy, teamwork, interdependence, growth mindset, and feedback on our school surveys
Other Success Indicators	My own self-assessment scores on measures of leadership (CliftonStrengths34 and Positive Intelligence Saboteurs*) Meeting Agendas & Notes:  how is time allocated, how are decisions made, who is present? PL Session Agendas:  how is time allocated, how are both content and pedagogy represented?
My Specific Action Steps: These are specific things that I can do to help achieve these goals.  Revisit the Deeper Learning Theory of Change for roles and responsibilities. Share and discuss with each stakeholder group represented in the Theory of Change. Apply the decision making tools that I’ve compiled. Use them in meetings and sessions I lead. Share with other group leaders as a tool they might also use. Be a connector:  I have the ability to design certain meeting and professional learning agendas.  I can ensure that there is more time with all impacted stakeholders in the same space (in person or virtual) and less time with me as a liaison between groups. Use my calendar to establish important check in times now: Data review sessions with the TL team that focus on results for specific items Individual (either monthly or quarterly…still thinking) check-ins with members of the TL department   Create a schedule of topics for joint academic leaders and TL meetings (similar to May & June from last year) Use my admin assistant as an accountability partner to help me make sure these events are scheduled and protected Update these strategies in early August, once school has started.  Revisit them quarterly after then.

*In the last month, I have taken these 2 measures and can use them to reflect and to see if there are changes by the end of this school year. 

The work of specific strategic projects and initiatives will fill my days when the new school year begins.  These goals are aspirational and I hope that they will be outcomes of those projects.  I feel positive about identifying indicators and some manageable actions that I can try.  Let’s see how it goes…