At times I feel I have hit the jackpot. However, when you work in a school with positive morale, you realize quickly that it isn\u2019t luck. It is through commitment, visionary, brave leadership, and honest conversations that these schools have protected and maintained the well-being of their staff.<\/p>\n
Is it hard? Yes. Can it be done? Yes.<\/p>\n
There are no silver bullets or simple solutions. Sharing ways to support staff and build morale does not diminish the pain educators have endured in the years of high-stakes assessments and accountability coupled with pandemic teaching and mandates. Acknowledgment and honest dialogue around these challenges are essential to building morale. When we talk openly about the hardest parts and work to address them together, we have the best chance to reinvigorate our staff morale.<\/p>\n
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#1 Build psychological safety<\/h2>\n
Amy Edmondson, Harvard Professor, created the term \u201cpsychological safety\u201d to describe organizations with open and honest communication that allow employees to have a sense of comfort about their ideas and identities at work. People feel safe to bring their whole self to work and the ability to share their feelings without repercussion, judgment, or fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n
Psychological safety is essential to maintaining a positive school culture. Here are some ways my schools have built psychologically safe environments that align with Dr. Timothy Clark\u2019s book, The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n Provide opportunities for your staff to connect and feel like they belong in your learning community. At the beginning of every meeting, we have a Connection Before Content<\/em>. This brief connection can range from light-hearted to serious.<\/p>\n At times, we ask which cat meme best represents how you feel today or other times we share what is causing us the most struggle and some strategies to manage these challenges. Prioritizing time to connect during already scheduled meeting time (not adding extra!) helps the ever-present feeling of isolation in schools.<\/p>\n The \u201cone more thing\u201d phenomena is real. Educators feel constant pressure to institute a new initiative or try new instructional strategies from our district and division offices. We add \u201cone more thing\u201d to our job description all-too-often.<\/p>\n How do we fulfill the basic human need to learn and grow while being realistic with what teachers can manage right now? How do we balance continuing the professional learning of our building, while maintaining the well-being of our staff? We focus on one priority and keep that one priority<\/b> at the center.<\/p>\n In Atomic Habits<\/i><\/a>, James Clear discusses the origin of the word priority and how it was intended to be a singular focus. It\u2019s when a group or a person cares about one thing over all others. School leaders support morale by focusing on one-single priority. When a leader decides on a singular focus for a year, or even across multiple years, it provides clarity for the staff.<\/p>\n For one building it was building SEL competencies into instruction across content areas. For another, it was deeper learning \u2014 engaging students in authentic learning experiences where they see relevancy in the material being learned.<\/p>\n Whatever the focus, visionary leaders gather input from their staff and focus solely on the community goal \u2014 no extra, no more. Grow and strengthen in one, singular area. Once our one priority is set, we can incorporate learner-centered models of professional learning.<\/p>\n Learning Walks support learner safety while also building community and connection. Many schools have set collaboration time for teams, whether it\u2019s PLC structures or grade\/content level meetings. My school encourages teams to go on a learning walk once a month for 15-minutes during this time. The small window is key, because it still honors the team’s planning time, while also allowing them the opportunity to see the instruction happening in their building.<\/p>\n Our learning community wholeheartedly believes that one of the best forms of professional learning is seeing our colleagues teach. The admin team sets a culture of collaboration \u2014 our doors are open, we learn alongside one another.<\/p>\n During these learning walks, teams choose a singular focus, connected to our school priority to observe during the learning walk. We capture our thinking on a simple noticings & wonderings chart. The team observing shares a thank you note with the teacher, naming a specific practice they observed and the impact it had on students. The team then goes back and debriefs their noticings and wonderings together. This shared reflection allows each team to think about instructional practices, while also opening up dialogue around cross-curricular opportunities and vertical alignment.<\/p>\n These brief learning walks have opened up teachers’ eyes to new strategies to build classroom community, strategies to support student-to-student collaboration, and even ways to facilitate conferences. We don\u2019t need to sit and get PD sessions to learn. Often 10 minutes in a colleague\u2019s classroom can spark inspiration and innovation.<\/p>\n Incorporating choice is essential for learning. We ask teachers to provide students opportunities to choose goals, choose products, choose texts to read, but are we giving our teachers the same choice?<\/p>\n Another way my schools have built positive morale is by offering choice-based PD options. The choice is two-fold \u2014 it is a choice of which session you want to attend AND it is also a choice if you attend a session at all. We need to respect the different needs of teachers and some just don\u2019t have the capacity for anything new at this point. What point is there in having a teacher sit through professional learning that is going to cause more anxiety and stress?<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a snapshot of our planning process:<\/p>\n We repeated these choice-based cycles 3 times a year \u2014 fall, winter, spring \u2014 so it was just enough to keep a culture of learning in our building while still respecting teachers\u2019 time and autonomy to make the best decision for themselves.<\/p>\n Learning walks and choice-based PD support positive morale because we are meeting teachers where they are. Providing opportunities to see their colleagues teach and to learn strategies most relevant to their goals and students is essential to honoring the experience and needs of educators. Support the human desire to learn and grow in a way that is safe, supported, and manageable.<\/p>\n 5 things teachers wish their principals knew<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nPrioritize inclusion for teachers<\/i><\/h4>\n
Prioritize inclusion for learners<\/i><\/h4>\n
Use learning walks<\/em><\/h4>\n
Provide choice-based PD<\/em><\/h4>\n
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