Building a Community of Educators: Fostering a Growth Mindset Dr. Kelli Cedo Assistant Principal Virginia Beach City Public Schools
Discussion Points • Setting the tone as a leader • Knowing and shaping the culture of your building • Fostering a Growth Mindset
Why is setting the tone so important? • Tone relates to culture • What is your mirror reflecting?
So what might be a starting point… • Tone relates to expectations, beliefs, and stance on topics • What are your core beliefs about leadership?
Setting the Tone (How?) • Ask yourself what do I need to brush up on around shaping school culture? – Culture Re-Boot: Reinvigorating School Culture to Improve Student Outcomes • Words and actions of the administration – Academic, Social, and Emotional Model • Shared learning and collaborative culture • New administration: email the staff, hold a meet and greet, open door policy • Consistency in everyday practice (People during the day)
• What are some ways that you model and mentor around academic, social, and emotional capacities? • How do you share your thoughts, ideas, and feedback?
Understanding Your School’s Culture • Recognize and acknowledge current status – How does your school feel when you walk into the building? Welcoming? – How do your teachers show their thoughts on effective teaching? – Do your teachers embrace new ideas or feel they are distractions? • Recognize and acknowledge the past – Strengths of the preexisting practices – What were the patterns that were developed? – Did staff do learning walks? – Did staff embrace learning walks?
Shaping School Culture • Words and actions of the administration • Knowing your staff- personally and professionally • Prediction of how staff might react to change?
Influences on Culture Recognize: – Degree of effort – Fidelity to implementation – Attitudes toward coming to work everyday – Attitude toward families Whitaker 2015
• What do you believe is the administrator’s job? • What goals have you set for yourself and how do these related to the goals set with staff?
Mindset • Teachers to be their best • Mindset- “the assumptions and expectations we have for ourselves and others that guide our practices and interactions with others” Robert Brooks
Mindset of Effective Educators • Understand lifelong impact they have on students • Believe that all students yearn to be successful • Appreciate the foundation for successful learning comprises of a safe and secure classroom climate and authentic relationship between teacher and student • Realize that fear of making mistakes and feeling embarrassed or humiliated are obstacles to learning Robert Brooks
Refocus Mindset on the Administrator • Understanding they have a lifelong impact on staff – If a staff member leaves your building, what will they take with them? • Believes that all staff yearn to be successful – If a staff member is not growing, the administrator must ask how they can adapt their feedback and support to meet the needs of the teacher • Appreciate the foundation for successful learning comprises of a safe secure school climate and authentic relationship between administrator and staff – Thank you to teachers- when was the last time you thanked a teacher?
How does mindset relate to culture? • Your mindset establishes the culture in your school • It can foster growth or it can inhibit growth
Know thy leadership self: Give some thought to the leader you aim to become, and the mark you hope to leave on others . • http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2015/04/02/the-best-part-of- leading/?utm_source=brief • “Leadership is hard work. It takes making accurate decisions based often on inaccurate or incomplete data. It requires bringing about change and contending with the resistance that it prompts. It requires caring about those you lead, but remaining objective enough not to get swayed by peoples’ sucking-up. It takes having a thick-enough skin to weather the unending second-guessing and Monday-morning- quarterbacking of critics who assume that could do better than you .” • “I will have built other leaders who themselves are building other leaders.” When done right, leadership begets more leadership. Bill Treasurer
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to survey yourself and come of up with next steps. • How do you show that the foundation for growth and a safe and secure school is the relationship the administration forges with staff? • How do you adapt your leadership style to meet the needs of teachers? • How do you appreciate the emotional intelligence of teachers and lead through the lens of human dignity?
Ideas for Nurturing a Growth Mindset • Ask staff questions that make a difference for the community • Dedicate a portion of every professional learning opportunity to cultivating a growth mindset and its impact on learning • Teacher centered professional learning • Focus feedback on staff needs as they relate to school goals
Growth Mindset and Teacher Evaluation • The complexity of maintaining a positive relationship while fostering continuous improvement is evident in the teacher evaluation process • Staff have an emotional attachment to being evaluated • Model how to care for someone while helping them grow
So how? • Know your staff’s areas of interest and growth • Allow teachers the opportunity to provide input on their learning • Ask questions such as: – As a professional where do you think you excel (start with strengths) – What areas of professional learning are you interested in pursuing? – What are your learning goals for you and your students? – In what areas of teaching and learning do you feel you can grow? – Which of our school wide goals do you feel would be most difficult for you and your students to accomplish and why?
Book Pass Strategy • Have books out on the table. Have each teacher pick one book. • Allow 2-4 minutes for previewing the text • Log one observation or comment • Rate the book • Pass the book to the next person • Repeat for 4 or 5 books • Discuss
Additional Resources • Adam Saenz- Teacher Wellness: A Conversation with Adam Saenz http://www.naesp.org/principal-janfeb-2013-teacher- staff-development/teacher-wellness-conversation- adam-s-enz Chard- TedX talk- http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/No- More-Bad-Coffee-Professional • School Culture Rewired- Gruentert and Whitaker • The Center for Collaborative Classrooms blog http://inside.collaborativeclassroom.org/?utm_source =cccblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=ICCla unch
Contact Information Dr. Kelli Cedo Kelli.cedo@vbschools.com Twitter @kecedo
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