Striving for a "Mutually Beneficial" Relationship Framework
This year, our District Leadership Team is studying the work of Bill Daggett and his "System for Effective Instruction" book. Last month, I had the privilege of partnering with two others to present his fifth chapter, which focuses on relationships...and I use the word "privilege" because out of the many great things in this book, I find Daggett's words in this chapter to be among his most powerful.
Daggett proposes a "relationship framework," which could be considered a "rubric" for relationship success. For instance, he has a relationship framework for staff that begins with a level of "isolation" where staff members perform their work in "significant isolation from other staff" and ranges to the highest levels of "sustained" and "mutually beneficial" where staff members incorporate new staff members "seamlessly" and are "consistently mindful of school goals." He also has relationship frameworks for the relationship of the school to students, parents, and more. I found the frameworks to be excellent barometers to help even schools with "good" relationships to become "great."
Importantly, the beauty of this framework may be that no one school can achieve this level of relationship. Instead, it challenges educators to reach beyond the walls of our own schools. Certainly, in my own school I can "offer and seek help from others," and i can "provide ongoing support, advice, and feedback." However, once I begin making "significant contributions to my profession," my help, advice, and feedback may even be more valuable to the people in my own building.
I feel that Daggett is pushing us, as K-12 educators, to act in some ways like college professors. Our role cannot only be to make a difference in our own classrooms. Instead, I must make it my personal mission to share my good ideas with others. Many teachers may not have the chance to publish work in a scholarly journal, like many college professors do, but I hope more will embrace the power of Twitter, Pinterest, and blogs (like this one) to share ideas with other educators.
The first "push" I felt to engage in this type of connection occurred when I read "What Connected Educators do Differently" by Todd Whittaker, Jeffrey Zoul, and Jimmy Casas. These authors list an array of ways to connect with other educators and even finish each chapter with a "Follow 5" list of five educators who model connecting with educators that way that is discussed in that chapter.
When I initially read this book, I was very much in a "take" mindset, as I used social media to find a lot of great ideas provided by other educators. However, slowly, I have begun to give more and more. By the end of my career, I hope I will be able to say that I've given more than I've taken...and I hope that I will have contributed to a school of educators who are constantly looking for ways to give to one another, inside and outside of the walls of the school where I work.
Daggett proposes a "relationship framework," which could be considered a "rubric" for relationship success. For instance, he has a relationship framework for staff that begins with a level of "isolation" where staff members perform their work in "significant isolation from other staff" and ranges to the highest levels of "sustained" and "mutually beneficial" where staff members incorporate new staff members "seamlessly" and are "consistently mindful of school goals." He also has relationship frameworks for the relationship of the school to students, parents, and more. I found the frameworks to be excellent barometers to help even schools with "good" relationships to become "great."
Importantly, the beauty of this framework may be that no one school can achieve this level of relationship. Instead, it challenges educators to reach beyond the walls of our own schools. Certainly, in my own school I can "offer and seek help from others," and i can "provide ongoing support, advice, and feedback." However, once I begin making "significant contributions to my profession," my help, advice, and feedback may even be more valuable to the people in my own building.
I feel that Daggett is pushing us, as K-12 educators, to act in some ways like college professors. Our role cannot only be to make a difference in our own classrooms. Instead, I must make it my personal mission to share my good ideas with others. Many teachers may not have the chance to publish work in a scholarly journal, like many college professors do, but I hope more will embrace the power of Twitter, Pinterest, and blogs (like this one) to share ideas with other educators.
The first "push" I felt to engage in this type of connection occurred when I read "What Connected Educators do Differently" by Todd Whittaker, Jeffrey Zoul, and Jimmy Casas. These authors list an array of ways to connect with other educators and even finish each chapter with a "Follow 5" list of five educators who model connecting with educators that way that is discussed in that chapter.
When I initially read this book, I was very much in a "take" mindset, as I used social media to find a lot of great ideas provided by other educators. However, slowly, I have begun to give more and more. By the end of my career, I hope I will be able to say that I've given more than I've taken...and I hope that I will have contributed to a school of educators who are constantly looking for ways to give to one another, inside and outside of the walls of the school where I work.
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