"How to Create a Culture of Achievement" - Welcoming Students & Teachers

 Chapter 2 of Fisher, Frey, and Pumpian's How to Create a Culture of Achievement in your school and classroom discusses the importance of making all the stakeholders in a school feel physically and intellectually welcomed; while reading I found myself thinking about ways I can make students and teachers feel more apart of the culture and operations of the school. Some key questions I wrote in the margins as I read were:

• how can individual groups of stakeholders be made to feel more valued as contributors to school policy and direction?
• how can I as a classroom teacher and a dean of students better show my appreciation for each stakeholding group's potential value as builders and shapers of a culture of achievement?
• how can I from my positions better reach out to the folks in each stakeholding group who do not feel welcomed in the school community?

 There were two quotes that especially stood out to me in highlighting what can happen if we do not pay attention to how welcomed our students and staff feel. (the underlining was added by me)

"They will makes choices to actually be where they are supposed to be and be there on time. Students will exercise this choice over and over again through the day, week, and year. Finally, and most importantly, students choose to engage or not, to tune in or not, to contribute or not, to value being in your school or not." -p.20

We can force and mandate all we want, but if we want our schools to have cultures of achievement and excitement for learning then we must create the kind of school where students want to do the right thing and want to be present physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Just as we don't want an environment where people are abdicating their responsibilities and ignoring procedures, we also don't want a culture of people only doing what they "have to," and nothing else. Although the eventual results surrounding complete student participation and engagement is an outcome not exclusively in our control as educational leaders, there are certainly many steps and actions that can be taken to better the odds of a favorable outcome. Two steps I've taken as a classroom teacher that I will continue in my new role as Dean of Students in an attempt to make students feel welcomed in our school are:

• speaking to every student every day- Even if it's just a "hey, how are ya?" as they walk in the room, I make a point to say something and elicit a response from every student I teach every day. I miss them in class, I get them in the hallway at some point. 
• taking every student's thoughts seriously- Some of the most valuable class-wide discussions I've experienced as an educator have been in the most unexpected classes. It's amazing what a person can do when they know the leader respects them and takes what they do and offer seriously; welcoming students beyond physical presence in the classroom goes a long way

"When teachers talk about administrators as 'them' instead of as partners, boundaries prevent the transparent and collaborative flow of ideas, program development, and accountability." -p.26

Teachers who ignore how welcome their students feel in class do so at the expense of their individual classroom culture; administrators who fail to make their staff feel welcomed as professional members of a great team do so at the expense of their entire school's/district's culture. Similar to welcoming students, administrators can do wonders by making a point to engage with all faculty/staff in regular intervals, and by celebrating and taking seriously their hard work and effort. Some steps I've taken to make new teachers feel welcome in my old role as mentor, and plan to apply on a grander level in my new role in leadership are:

• curating and sharing collections of resources- who doesn't like getting free stuff? I always gave the new teachers on day one a binder of resources ranging from school specific info to assessment and pedagogy. As my technology skills have improved (lifelong learning), the resources have gone digital, but the effect remains the same; professionals feel most welcomed when the organization is immediately helping them be better at their job. 
• following up & asking- if a teacher comes to me with an issue, I follow up on it. If I notice a teacher who I think has a lot to offer on a committee, I ask them if they want to get involved. It sounds simple and obvious, but it's the simple and obvious things that add up to make big positive cultural changes; it's the simple and obvious things that make people feel important.
• visiting their classes and learning what they do- I have always wished that administrators came in my class more and talked to me about teaching and learning; now that I am in leadership I have the opportunity to fulfill that desire, albeit in a different way. I can make teachers feel more welcomed in school simply by watching them do what they do best, and providing them opportunities to get even better. It also puts me as a leader in a position to learn as many tools of the trade as possible to better educate and assist the staff in becoming master teachers. 

A group of we will always outperform a bunch of you and me; how are you going to make your school more welcoming to all stakeholding parties? What can you do to make sure your students and staff feel important, appreciated, and perpetually working toward something bigger and better?