How do you orchestrate and manage change to ensure buy-in and success? Is your procedure different at home or in your personal life than what it is at work? It would be great if you could provide some specific examples.
I think it is most important to be well-planned and organized. In order to gain support and maintain it, you have to have a vision and carry it through. The best way to ensure success is through modeling and positive examples/anecdotal and hard data. It is a little different at home because I spend more time talking and reasoning, but I don't need as much data. My family pretty much trusts me 99% of the time with little convincing needed.
As a teacher, I strive for student buy-in from day one. I tell the middle grades students whom I teach that I won't be telling them what or how to do because all their lives people have been telling them what to do and how to do it. I tell them that they will be thinking on their own, and then we do just that.
We read novels, short stories, current news stories, historical texts, magazine articles, and picture books, as well as many other types of text, and students spend a lot of time in literature discussion about what they think, connections they make to the text, what they think the text is telling them, what they think the author's purpose is, anything they would change/not change, and summarizing the important information. We spend time talking together about what is read, and this makes a huge difference in my classroom. Students respond well because they feel empowered - like someone really believes that what they have to say is important. And it is!
I'm in the language and literacy grad program at UNCW, and anything I learn that I want to implement and try out in my classroom, I do. My principal has responded well and now wants me to lead a language arts professional learning community in our middle school.
The results for the past 3 groups of middle school students I've taught have been that students I teach show more growth overall on their EOG's, one group scored the highest in our county on the new reading assessment for 2008, and my students show higher proficiency on the EOG's than other students in the middle school. Also, I have the lowest office referrals of anyone in our middle school.
I attribute the success of my students to reading-writing workshop, literature discussion, and building relationship with students from the beginning of the school year.
I believe change comes first from understanding the problem. This involved getting multiple perspectives. We often see change efforts occur when leaders are not clear of the whole problem. Just talk to teacher and they will often tell you that their leader simply does not understand. This signals to me that the whole picture may not be evident to the leader.
I think it is most important to be well-planned and organized. In order to gain support and maintain it, you have to have a vision and carry it through. The best way to ensure success is through modeling and positive examples/anecdotal and hard data. It is a little different at home because I spend more time talking and reasoning, but I don't need as much data. My family pretty much trusts me 99% of the time with little convincing needed.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher, I strive for student buy-in from day one. I tell the middle grades students whom I teach that I won't be telling them what or how to do because all their lives people have been telling them what to do and how to do it. I tell them that they will be thinking on their own, and then we do just that.
ReplyDeleteWe read novels, short stories, current news stories, historical texts, magazine articles, and picture books, as well as many other types of text, and students spend a lot of time in literature discussion about what they think, connections they make to the text, what they think the text is telling them, what they think the author's purpose is, anything they would change/not change, and summarizing the important information. We spend time talking together about what is read, and this makes a huge difference in my classroom. Students respond well because they feel empowered - like someone really believes that what they have to say is important. And it is!
I'm in the language and literacy grad program at UNCW, and anything I learn that I want to implement and try out in my classroom, I do. My principal has responded well and now wants me to lead a language arts professional learning community in our middle school.
The results for the past 3 groups of middle school students I've taught have been that students I teach show more growth overall on their EOG's, one group scored the highest in our county on the new reading assessment for 2008, and my students show higher proficiency on the EOG's than other students in the middle school. Also, I have the lowest office referrals of anyone in our middle school.
I attribute the success of my students to reading-writing workshop, literature discussion, and building relationship with students from the beginning of the school year.
I believe change comes first from understanding the problem. This involved getting multiple perspectives. We often see change efforts occur when leaders are not clear of the whole problem. Just talk to teacher and they will often tell you that their leader simply does not understand. This signals to me that the whole picture may not be evident to the leader.
ReplyDelete