Thursday: Trust in the School

Sorry about missing a post yesterday, but life jumped in the way.  Lucky for you, it's a double day Friday.

Each Thursday, I want to look at atmosphere issues that can bring about success or failure in a school.  In this post, I want to look at the issue of trust in the school.  Inside of a school, there are many different relationships: student-student, student-teacher, teacher-teacher, community-school, etc.

Imagine what would happen in a school where there is a great amount of trust.  Teachers would feel free to collaborate with other teachers.  There would not be a feeling of worry in sharing successes or failures with others.  Teachers and administrators would feel more comfortable working together concerning classroom activities or ideas for the school.  Teachers and parents could establish strong relationships and become partners in the students' education.  This sounds like a great place to work.

Now, let's reflect on a school where trust is lacking.  In a school where trust is lacking, teachers probably act like islands and try to avoid interacting with others.  They fear that what they say will become gossip in the teachers' lounge.  These same teachers probably avoid talking with administrators about issues in the classroom.  They don't want to look as if they have problems in the classroom.  One would probably see an imbalanced relationship between parents, students and teachers again because they would not want issues to make it back to the principal.  This does not sound like as much fun.

A quick review of articles about trust in the work place found many issues the build or destroy trust.
Here is a quick summary of some of those.
1. Communication--If you create buy-in and share ideas, you will build trust.  It is very important for people to know what is happening.  If you keep information locked up or use it as power, you will destroy trust.
2. Value of Others--If you treat people as equals and as important parts of the school, you will foster trust.  However, if you don't treat people as equals or see them as easily replaceable, you can throw trust out the window.
3. Truthfulness--If you engage in lies or telling half-truths, people will begin to doubt anything that you say.  If you always tell the truth, you will develop trust in your school.

Keep these ideas in mind when you consider what you do everyday at work.  Everyone wants to work at a place where they can trust their co-workers.  Sometimes building or maintaining trust will have to begin with you.

Wednesday: The Teaching Life

A businessman was having a conversation with a teacher while they waited on their flight.  During the wait, the businessman told the teacher that he did not know how the teacher was able to do what he did everyday: bring home papers to grade, buy supplies out of pocket, put up with disruptive kids.  Eventually, the businessman had to ask the teacher, "Why do you teach."  Those of use who have read or heard this before know that the teacher responds with, "June, July, and August."

While the answer might be outdated (especially since summer break is now only two months), the concept behind the school calendar is quite interesting.  In most areas, the school calendar was based on farming needs, so it made since to have the students miss a chunk of time where they could help with sewing and harvesting of crops.  However, in most areas, farming is not as important to workers in the local community as it one was.

Many schools have started the idea of having a more balanced schedule which destroys the "mega-summer."  Instead of having a chunk of time off in the summer, students and teachers have their breaks spread out during the year.  Many of these schools see large breaks for the month of April, July and mid-December through mid-January.  Students and teachers work as much in this system as they do on the traditional calendar, but the break is spread out.

I want to know which calendar you would choose.  This issue not only impacts teachers, but is also impacts students and parents as well.  I look forward to hearing from you.

The Office in Your School: Part 3 of 3

I hope you have enjoyed comparing characters from The Office to teachers in your school or maybe even yourself.  Today is my last installment of the idea, and it will be on to other topics tomorrow.

The last three characters I want to took at are Kelly, Dwight, and Stanley.  I think you will see their personalities in your school as well.

In the show, Kelly is quite the drama queen.  She always finds a way to have a self-centered issue with nearly everything that happens in the office.  She loves to stir up gossip.  She loves to flirt with here co-workers.  When I watch her on the show, I often think that she reminds me of a teenager.

In your school, I am sure you can think of the teachers who act like they are still in high school.  These are the teachers that might try to turn things into a popularity contest, or maybe they are the ones who will never do anything to help others in the school.  In my experience, there are not many positives with this type of personality, but we have to find a way to limit the damage they may cause and try to change this person.

Stanley is a character on the office that would be happy if his desk was in its own part of the office by itself.  Stanley seems to be a pretty hard worker, but he does not like to be bothered by his coworkers.  Because of this, Stanley rarely seems happy while at work, and it could be argued that he is not happy at home either.  In fact we learn that his health is not great, and he also has an affair.

In most schools, you hear people warn against becoming an island.  They are warning you against spending all of your time alone in your classroom and not interacting with others.  Believe it or not, this is easy to do.  All it takes is a few bad days at a critical time in the year, and you will find yourself keeping to yourself.  If you do this, you will start to suffer burnout, and your chances of being successful will rapidly decline.  If you are being a Stanley, get out of your classroom, and interact with others.  If you know a Stanley, pull them out of their classroom.

Finally, let's take a look at Dwight.  He is the one who typically sucks up to the boss, and he is constantly looking to find a way to gain more control in the office.  Many times, he tells Michael Scott what he wants to hear in order to try to solidify all of his roles, especially that of "Assistant to the Regional Manager."  In the process, he often becomes confrontational with co-workers, and his co-workers do not particularly care to interact with him.

Is there a Dwight in your school?  Do you see someone who's main goal is self promotion and finding a way to look better in the eyes of superior?  It is easy for someone to fall into this sort of trap, and if they do, it can crush their relationships with others in the school.  There is nothing hard with hard work and trying to work with others to make your school the best it can be.  Just don't destroy all of your relationships in the school to do this.

The Office in Your School Part 2: The Teachers' Lounge

Many teachers hear the phrase "stay out of the teachers' lounge."  The reason being is that this area has moved away from being a place where teachers gather for fellowship, and it has become a central gathering place complaining, naysaying, and bickering.  While I am sure this is not true in every school, I would be willing to bet it is more common than not.

Sticking with the theme from the hit NBC show The Office, here are three characters you may run into in the teachers' lounge.

Angela Martin--Angela is the person in the office that seems to be a condescending rule-follower, but we all learn this is not the truth.  In the television show, she uses her position on the Party Planning Committee to order others around, and she rarely holds back when giving opinions to others.  However, while she judges others, she participates in activities that she would rail against if engaged in by others.  Her reaction to Pam and Jim seems hollow considering her relationship with Dwight.

We all know a few Angela's in our school.  We know the teacher who looks down at nearly everything others do, a teacher who does not seem as if fun should be had at school, a teacher who preaches professionalism, only to try to build herself up while putting others down.  Where will you usually find this teacher?  In the teachers' lounge.  The problem with Angela's is this type of attitude can destroy a staff.  It is very easy at first for new teachers to see an Angela and agree with much of what she says.  Many times, an Angela is seen a star teacher in a school because of a willingness to strictly follow school policy.

Phyllis Lapin--On the show, Phyllis is someone who usually acts nice to everyone, but loves to gossip and can be mean to others.  Phyllis is also often the target of derogatory comments made by others, especially the boss, Michael Scott.  Phyllis also has moments where she seems to be much smarter than we give her credit.

Again, this is another character that we all probably see in our school.  Think about the teacher who seems to be nice, but you are not shocked when they say something awful about someone else.  Many times, this teacher will be someone who finds certain teachers to be nice to in order to have a social circle to spread stories.

Creed Bratton--On the office, Creed is one of the strangest characters on the show.  An older character, it seems that his past experiences and his age give him the ability to not really worry about what others think.  Her does not care about rules and regulations (like the time he didn't inspect paper for a year), and he proves this when he talks about his job to others.  He also has a problem with remembering names of his coworkers.

The Creed in our school is probably someone nearing retirement, and someone who has a devil-may-care attitude.  In fact, we probably find ourselves wishing we had more of that attitude at times.  However, we also find that we question a fair amount of the things this teacher tells us, and we notice that this teacher is also usually self-absorbed.  This is probably a teacher who signs in just on time and leaves a minute or two early.

When you think about your teachers' lounge, do you see these characters?  Are you one of them?  To a degree, each of these characters have strong qualities that are important in a school.  Angela believes in professionalism, Creed takes chances with some rules, and Phyllis is able to pull things out when no one counts on her.  However, when these characters are taken to their extreme, we see many negative affects in a school.

Here's a challenge--How you can find a way to make the teachers' lounge a positive?  How can you find a way to take the Creeds, Angelas, and Phyllises in your school and make them positive players in your school?  If you are one of these three, how do you make yourself a positive force your school?

Looking at "The Office" in Your School

I don't know about all of you, but one of my favorite television shows is The Office.  The day to day workings of Dunder Mifflin (or now a division of Sabre) make me laugh every time I watch the show.  Sometimes, I think I get the biggest laugh because I can see the situations or the cast in my everyday life.  What I want to do is look at the characters in the show and compare them to people you know (maybe even yourself) to find the good and bad in being that character in your school.

Perhaps my favorite character on the show is Jim Halpert.  When we watch him early in the show, we see a character who does not think he will stay with Dunder Mifflin for a long time.  He shows this with his pranks, open flirting with a co-worker, and comments that he makes.  He also seems to be a character that does not always try hard because it does not seem to be expected of him.  However, he is successful at what he does.

After a change of scenery, we see Jim grow into a better employee.  It seems that when he transfers to Stamford, he takes on a more professional attitude because he is in a more competitive environment.  In fact, he is considered for promotions.

I think Jim is the most common character in a school.  Many teachers are only as good as they have to be, and many school cultures allow this attitude to develop.  While "Jim" will see success, one has to wonder what could have been unless he becomes a better professional.  Not everything about a "Jim" is bad however.  I believe humor is one of the things missing in most schools today.  We all need someone who can make us laugh.

If we take a "Jim" out of a school that accepts his less than stellar approach to work, and we place him in a school that demands more, we see a great example of a teacher emerge.  After this happens, this teacher can be successful and effective wherever he decides to go.

Who are the "Jim's" in your school?  Are you one of them?  How can you foster the growth of Jim's positive traits but mitigate the negative ones?

Greetings!

Welcome to my blog.  Feel free to sit around a while, read a few posts and share your ideas with the rest of us.  The goal of this blog is to bring up different issues that confront educators on a daily basis.  I hope to make posting on the blog a daily occurrence, and I hope you have the opportunity to stop by often.  Hope you enjoy.

Justin