Year-end elementary division mtg

Yesterday we held our year-end elementary division meeting. My goal was to both honor the year that was past, and to start thinking ahead towards next year in real and pragmatic ways. We began, as always, by reviewing our established groundrules.



The first activity was an appreciation circle. I asked each teacher to write at least three appreciations: one for the person sitting directly to his/her right, and two more for other people around the table. My original idea was to have each person receive the assigned appreciation, and then anyone else could add in as s/he felt, but a quick check revealed that the teachers felt uncomfortable with this plan. One of the faculty then suggested we simply do the first part of the circle (the assigned part), and that any additional appreciations be made directly to each other during the break. This was eagerly adopted as a better approach for the group, and a terrific experience followed. While hearing the great appreciations faculty had for each other was very moving, the event was also a powerful leadership experience for me; hearing opposition to my plan, being able to express my intent, and then being open and receptive to an alternative suggestion of how to proceed left me with a good feeling about the work I've done to develop a strong culture, and also my willingness to model appropriate behaviors.

After a quick break, we had a group brainstorming on topics to include in a Program Handbook that can be given to current and prospective faculty. We have handbooks for families (the Parent Handbook) and employees (the Employee Handbook) that lay out lots of important information about school policies, but we don't have a unified source for "the ropes" that lay out our approach to topics such as curriculum design, pedagogic tools, discipline, homework, the SST process, classroom and consumable budgets, field trip forms, a calendar of traditional events, school-wide assemblies, and many other topics. Teachers suggested lots of ideas, and one of my summer projects will be to draft this handbook.

The third part of the meeting was a conversation about Room Parents. While we are of course(!) deeply grateful to all parents who volunteer and help out in the classroom, the role of Room Parent is one that has special importance, and also one that needs more intention and cultivation. We spent about 20 minutes identifying positive and negative qualities of Room Parents, the important duties that teachers rely on Room Parents to fulfill, and how the selection process can be handled as apolitically and effectively as possible.

The last section of the meeting was spent in reflection on our teaching practices. We began by thinking about our work with the TBS Learning Outcomes. Teachers were given two starting questions to consider, in writing: Which learning outcomes were you most successful in teaching, and why/how? And, which learning outcomes were you least successful in teaching, and why/how? After sharing their thoughts and responses, teachers were given 20 minutes to return to the curriculum mapping project we have worked on this year, and asked to revise the maps they had made in February in order to accurately reflect the content of their curriculum for the second half of the year.

And then, bittersweet though it was, we said goodbye. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to guide, grow with, and learn from this collection of creative, insightful, dedicated, compassionate and collaborative faculty, and I'm excited to build on this year's successes next fall.