Always Choose People Over Programs

As mentioned in my first post, transformation of any kind starts with what is going on in the heads of the people belonging to the organization – their beliefs. This is because to shift beliefs in the minds of our educators in schools, we must first ignite and inspire their hearts. In my experience, our belief systems drive our daily actions, interactions, and our words.  Therefore, the first belief that I find is vital in beginning to transform schools into learning communities is the belief that your power to create school improvement ALWAYS lies in the right people over programs. Time and time again, we buy into high dollar programs in hopes that this will create the change we need to see in our schools. Then when we don’t see the changes we felt we were promised, we blame the effectiveness of the program.  If the teachers in our schools do not feel they are agents of change, that students success lies in their hands, or that they are not trusted to make important decisions that can increase student learning, improvement WILL never come to fruition.  It is absolutely the Principal’s job to create campus structures to support teacher efficacy, leadership, and voice.  We must create environments where teachers are empowered to quit asking permission to innovate and recognize that this is promoted and expected as a response to students’ needs.  When we continue to allow each other to blame programs, we not only waste money, but worse yet, we perpetuate a culture of weak teacher agency and efficacy.  School transformation is highly dependent upon EMPOWERED educators who thrive off of risk taking and innovation.  This kind of leadership requires vulnerability as it implies you, as the leader, do not have all the answers, but will support establishing the conditions for their success ideas.  Stay tuned for some stories of ways we have tried this…

Below is a picture of our “Let’s Hear It For Our Heroes” event held as a welcome back for our heroes, our teachers, on their first day back from summer break.