I recently spent time with the founding teachers of a charter school in Washington, DC. I was struck by the intentionality of the school leader, Mekia L., in setting up systems for Togetherness that will last her school, staff and students for years to come.
Here’s me with some members of Mekia’s team after a recent workshop!
Check out the strategies Mekia has used as a Together Leader.
- Create a Comprehensive Calendar for your SCHOOL. Many teachers maintain individual Comprehensive Calendars of all known events, deadlines, FYIs and To Do’s. Make it easier on your teachers by creating a school-wide Comprehensive Calendar for the entire year and ensuring it stays current. Mekia uses Microsoft Outlook to create a shared calendar for her entire school. One word of caution. . . If you choose a web-based or electronic calendar, make sure your teachers know how to access it. I’ve bumped into many a school where the school leader has taken days to load everything for the year into the calendar—only to discover their teachers were not actually looking at it.
- Make your weekly communication easy to process. Mekia did this in her weekly update to teachers by noting which items should be added to Weekly Worksheets and Comprehensive Calendars. Her teachers have the flexibility to choose which tools they use, and her written communication is action-oriented. Love this!
- Make it EASY for your teachers to be Together! Mekia and her office manager created this board of resources in the main office to guarantee that paper-based Together Teacher materials were always on hand. The resources are hung using magnetic pockets from Lakeshore Materials. If a teacher is ever without a note-taking template, he or she can just drop into the office to pick one up.
We love all the things this school is doing to make teachers feel more successful—and make their jobs more sustainable. Thanks for sharing, Mekia and team! We look forward to seeing you again soon!
Together Teacher Sharing Question: What are ways in which your school stays Together? What are ways you wished it did?