It’s the beginning of the school year and once again I am scrambling for ideas on how to kickstart the year with energy, positivity, and vision. Except…. that, so far…. the very first beginning of the year staff meeting agenda is filled with a whole lot of nothing. I don’t want to waste anyone’s time and I certainly do not want to take away the teacher’s precious classroom preparation time. I want to keep this meeting short, to the point, and filled with hope.
Each year, I felt stressed about that first meeting. I drew blanks on what to do until I finally came up with a template or a system that I rotated through each year with different focuses. Now, I just rotate the activities and change up the focus each year so it is not as much work and planning. You know… I am always all about a good system!
Now, I realize that the first meeting always contains some housekeeping stuff and administrative info to set up the school year. For this section of the meeting, think about how you could shorten the amount of time you spend on it but still get the info out to teachers. I would suggest thinking of a way to digitally send them the info in list format (for example an email or a shared google doc), then give them five minutes to read the info in the meeting. Next, set a timer for questions and have them ask the questions and have a discussion on what they just read. Once the timer goes off, move onto the professional learning portion. However, if teachers still need more time, make a judgement as to whether or not you should still stick to the housekeeping part or set up a zoom hour where you will jump on later and teachers can go back to their classrooms and work and jump on the zoom call if they have any more housekeeping questions. Teachers like this because they can still get things done but have access to you at the same time. You also can get things done while you wait for teachers to jump on the call. This is a great way to keep housekeeping to a minimum because you are giving teachers time right inside of the meeting to absorb the info and then move onto the meat of the meeting in a productive and efficient way. Say goodbye to those memes about meaningless meetings!
The next thing I want you to think about is, what is the purpose of the meeting. Keep that outcome in mind and do one activity to achieve that outcome. Keep the meetings as short as possible and it will go a long way with teachers. We all have a lot to get done at the beginning of the year so get in and get out. Get the teachers doing more of the talking, thinking, and learning and they will be way more engaged. Make the meeting matter to them. That is what these activities aim for. Oh and one last thing…try to have some food there. We all love a good chat and snack!
Ok, let’s get back to the rotating system of activities we use in meetings. I wanted to share some of these activities with you in hopes that it might save you a whole lot of time. The idea of these activities is that they are actions to get teachers more involved so that very first meeting isn’t a huge waste of time and actually means something to them. These ideas are actions that you could use in your meeting and then you would choose the focus. I did it this way because everyone’s school year and focus is different but the idea of getting the teachers to do more of the talking, thinking, and learning would be at the core of this very first meeting. You can fill in the blanks with the focus so that it meets the needs of your school. I wouldn’t do all of these at the very first meeting. Just choose one. Here we go!
Co-construct criteria on a specific focus. Criteria is a to do, to learn, to prove list on a certain priority. Co-construct a list for a certain expectation or priority for the year with your staff. So for us, I am planning on co-constructing a list with teachers on what is important when contributing to our own professional learning this year. I would do a short mini lesson on an example and a non-example of a staff member contributing (we may even brainstorm together, not sure on what this will all look like yet…). While I was modelling the mini lesson, teachers would write one idea per sticky note about what they saw me do to contribute to my own professional learning. Next, they would work in groups and sort their ideas into similar groups and put a heading onto it. Then, I would gather them as a whole group and we would co-construct a master list on what is important for us to contribute to our own professional learning. Teachers would shout out one idea at a time, and if the other groups had that idea they would come up and put their sticky note under that heading. We would leave with a list of expectations and a roadmap that we all had ownership in. This is a great way to get teachers involved in something that matters to them and gives them a voice. It is also a roadmap for the year that you can keep coming back to and helps with accountability too! By allowing teachers to co-construct ideas and expectations gives them a voice and ownership vs. being told what to do.
Chalk talk. On a whiteboard, write a certain statement such as, “What I know about….” So for us, one year we decided assessment was our top priority. So we wrote, “What I know about assessment for learning.” Each teacher came up and wrote in black marker what they knew about assessment. Next, we brought in a speaker who was a guru in this area and she gave us some pd on assessment for learning. After the session, admin wrote added the word now to the same whiteboard (What I know NOW about Assessment for Learning), each teacher came up again and wrote in red marker what they learned from the session. They discussed, collaborated, and connected on what they learned in pairs and then added it to the list. This showcased the visible growth that happened just in that session and really set up the year with some action steps. If you don’t have a speaker coming in, do a mini lesson on that topic, or have them read an article and do a walk and talk and then come back to the chalk talk board and write what they know now.
Marigolds and Walnuts article. Ok…if you haven’t read this article, this is a great article to start your year with. In a nutshell (you see the pun here right…?), the article takes teachers and admin through different types of personalities. I put a link to the article here. The walnut is the fixed mindset person who spreads negativity and the Marigold is a growth mindset who surrounds themselves with positive people and roots for each other vs. taking each other down. This is a great article for setting up culture. We had teachers read this article using a margin note activity. They read the article and coded a star for important info that really stuck with them, a question mark for questions they had, and then an infinite symbol for a story or connection they had to the article. Next, they did a walk and talk to talk about the margin notes they made in the article. We then brought them back together to co-construct a list on what is important when building a thriving culture in our building. This was a powerful activity! I highly recommend this one.
Walk and Talk. It is always a learning experience when you get teachers to walk around the building and take each other to visit classrooms. Set up a specific focus and then have teachers do a walk in talk in pairs to go visit each other’s classrooms. Heck, we even send teachers with an ipad to take pictures of how other teachers are setting up their classrooms or ideas of how they are starting their year. Then we gather as a whole staff and share ideas. Teachers love this one and it motivates them to have something set up before we even have our first staff meeting.
Future Me. This is a really neat letter writing activity. There is an app called futureme.org where teachers can write a letter to themselves and have that letter emailed back to them at the end of the year. Do a visioning activity with the teachers and then have them write a letter to themselves stating the mindset they are looking for this year, some goals they have, how they are feeling vs. how they want to feel, and anything else they may want to write about. Then at the end of the year staff meeting have them read their letters and check in on whether or not they accomplished their goals or mindset that they had set at the beginning of the year.
Talk about the thing you are known for and write a collective resume together in small groups. This is a great one to celebrate and validate the strength of the group. Collective resumes celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of a team. Have them write about the degrees they have in their group, years experience, teaching accomplishments, the thing they are known for, etc. Next they would combine their accolades and build a collective resume. This is a great way to get teachers realizing how amazing they are!
The neat thing about all of these ideas is that they can do these exact activities with their students, so not only are you setting them up for an incredible start to the year but they are leaving with teaching strategies that they can use in any subject area. I want to wish you the very best in this upcoming school year! Model everything you expect and get teachers doing the talking and see what happens!
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