Monday 9-10 p.m. EST. Building a Culture of Learning. "We invite all educators, parents, students and any member of a school community to join our mission of moving away from compliance to create and foster a true COL."
Welcome to #COLchat. Tonight’s topic: Impressions and Perceptions. We will start with introductions.
My name is Frank Bellomo. I am a 5th year Elementary Principal in Macomb, MI in CVS. It’s great to be with all of you. #COLchat
A1: As leaders we should be out and about at beginning of the year events such as open house, curriculum nights and all events throughout the year. Be visible from day 1! Smile, start conversations, build relationships! #COLchat
A1 Create a positive atmosphere with events, communication, kick-offs and other fun interactions. Get out to the community and bring the community in. #COLchat
A1: Honor them with attentiveness. Listen to students and take an interest in them as people. Personally, I don't start and content until at least day 5 other than the science of learning. #COLChat
A1: Honor them with attentiveness. Listen to students and take an interest in them as people. Personally, I don't start and content until at least day 5 other than the science of learning. #COLChat
A1 If you want to build a positive culture you have to set time aside for relationships. You will see the payoff later in the year, and you will thank yourself. #COLchat
A1 If you want to build a positive culture you have to set time aside for relationships. You will see the payoff later in the year, and you will thank yourself. #COLchat
A2: Hopefully we are learning as much as we can about our students and their families before passing judgement or assuming. Get to know the kids. Find out what they like! #COLchat
Many times it's the ones we need to seek out as well. Many of our middle school kids are quiet but have a lot to tell us that we can learn from! #COLchat
A2: Ask, listen, observe, work to make connections. Try to ignore the preconceptions others may try to share. Make our own judgments; new group, new year. #COLchat
A1 If you want to build a positive culture you have to set time aside for relationships. You will see the payoff later in the year, and you will thank yourself. #COLchat
A3: I would like to get to know all new staff members. One way is to find out about interests and show an interest in them as colleagues and team members. My goal is to be as personable, helpful, and as sincere as I can be. Relationships matter. #COLchat
A3) I run a "New Dragons" PD day every year in @swartz_creek. This is a great time to talk about the important aspects of "us". I will be adding community to that for Wednesday. Thank you. #COLchat
I like to think, if you can’t enjoy the people around you at work, or have fun, what a boring place it must be for staff and students. Enjoy what you do each day with those around you. Laugh and love what you do! The kids and team will notice! #COLchat
Like this!
Our students need to know this.
Our staff does, too.
Our job is provide everybody the opportunity to be their best and to support them in getting there.
#COLchat
A4: I would like to be as visible as possible in their classrooms and throughout the building. I’ll work to hold off making quick judgements and allow new staff members time to acclimate to our team. #COLchat
Yes. Telling our story is SO important. First, it creates a sense of trust and connection in the community. Secondly, you can become the story you tell for learning and for kids! #COLchat
A5: We can accurately gauge perceptions through SIP surveys and our every day interactions. What do their faces tell us? Do parents and children feel comfortable coming up to us in public? Do children look excited to see us? If not, we have work to do. #COLchat
A5: Surveys have become the standby, but we cannot be afraid to engage in face-to-face conversations, either. The difficult part can be to listen without becoming defensive when we hear something we don't love. #COLchat
Q6: How can educators work to remind each other perception is reality and to take steps to build the impression we desire as an individual educator, a school, a district, and collectively as professionals? #COLchat
A6: Sometimes, as uncomfortable as it may be, we have to be willing to call out our colleagues for actions that may reflect poorly on our organization - in the right way, at the right time, in the right place. #COLchat
Q6: How can educators work to remind each other perception is reality and to take steps to build the impression we desire as an individual educator, a school, a district, and collectively as professionals? #COLchat
A6: Together we can work to find ways to build relationships with our community. What would we want for our own children? As leaders we need to be modeling what we expect from our team members. #COLchat
A6: We have to preach it - intent is not reality, perception is. It doesn't matter what was intended if it is not perceived in that way. Take the perspective of the other. #COLChat
A6. Together as a team, we should always be looking to improve. We should all strive to be the school families want to send their children to and where staff wants to work. That starts with how we treat people and how they feel when in our presence. #COLchat
A6: We have to preach it - intent is not reality, perception is. It doesn't matter what was intended if it is not perceived in that way. Take the perspective of the other. #COLChat
A6) Understand and communicate the shared values of your school / district. Share the stories and model the actions. Our work is continuous improvement. There is always a task waiting to be accomplished. #COLchat
A6: Sometimes, as uncomfortable as it may be, we have to be willing to call out our colleagues for actions that may reflect poorly on our organization - in the right way, at the right time, in the right place. #COLchat
Q6: How can educators work to remind each other perception is reality and to take steps to build the impression we desire as an individual educator, a school, a district, and collectively as professionals? #COLchat
A6) Understand and communicate the shared values of your school / district. Share the stories and model the actions. Our work is continuous improvement. There is always a task waiting to be accomplished. #COLchat
A7: If you are not already, get involved in digital media. Tell the story of your classroom, your school or your district. If you don't create the narrative, somebody else probably will. #COLchat
A7: We can show community members our ability to have fun with the students: visit classes, engage with students, teach a class lesson, eat lunch with the kids, make funny school related videos or songs with the kids. #COLchat
A7: You can connect with kids to send messages, share information, or other expectations by making videos for them or with them. You can make some pretty neat stuff on an i-phone in movie maker app for free. Tweet it out or share it on YOUTUBE for your community. #COLchat
This is so true! Our school doesn’t have a huge Twitter following but I can tell you that the parents who follow us, love to see what we do each day. Share your story! #COLchat
A7: You can connect with kids to send messages, share information, or other expectations by making videos for them or with them. You can make some pretty neat stuff on an i-phone in movie maker app for free. Tweet it out or share it on YOUTUBE for your community. #COLchat
A8. There is a ton of work to do before the year begins, but it will be important to be intentional about visiting all of our teammates in the building who are back to work no matter what their role is. #COLchat
A8: We have an upcoming Sneak Peak/Curric. Night before the school year. This is a chance to set a good impression before the start of the school year. #COLchat
Tonight we proved it doesn’t take a lot of people to have a great #COLchat! Quality over quantity.
Thanks for participating and thanks to @FbellomoB for getting us going while I was still on my home from a Board meeting!
The next #COLchat is scheduled for 9pm EST on August 20th. We hope you will join us! You have been an awesome group and we have truly enjoyed learning with each of you tonight. Thanks for the ideas and participation! #COLchat
