Watch the video introduction and read the Afterward. Think about the culture of your school. Reflect and comment on these prompts:
- Where in that culture do you see quality?
- What do you think contributes to the success in those realms?
- What prevents it in other places?
- What steps can you and your colleagues take to promote a culture of excellence throughout your school?
Congratulations for reaching this milestone in the professional learning community by completing the book study of Ron Berger’s An Ethic of Excellence.
I see quality in our school culture in that we expect the best from our students. Our staff works together to provide opportunities for all students to succeed. We want an ethic of excellence for all students. A barrier that may be in our way is gaining the support of parents, families, and the neighborhood in order to set high standards and work for excellence. Our school can overcome this barrier and promote a culture of excellence by involving families and the community in school projects and exhibitions.
ReplyDeleteWe can promote a culture of excellence throughout our school by modeling and developing the following attributes in our students: character, work ethic, attitudes, academic skills, understanding, thinking strategies, social ethics, and social skills. We can provide students with examples of high quality work and discuss the attributes that make the work excellent so that students can use these attributes in their own work. Through PLC meetings and common planning periods our school can develop structures, such as common themes, effective instructional strategies, public exhibitions, assembly presentations, class displays, class partnerships, and portfolios, that promote teamwork and innovative studies.
Paula, I agree, We need to promote a culture of excellence and promote teamwork in our schools.
DeleteShowing our students examples of high quality work that makes excellent work.
Yes, the barrier is going to be gaining the support of parents, families and the community.
But through common themes, assembly presentations, public exhibitions, and many other ways this can be done in our schools.
Ladies,you both have great ideas. I hope to convince our staff to do this book study so we can brainstorm ideas for projects.
DeletePaula, you give excellent ideas to promote a culture of excellence, I hope Buffalo Grade School can accomplish everyone of them.
DeleteI agree, if we all keep the "We Can" attitude wife will see great things happen. The learning styles of children have changed and we must change to meet their needs.
DeleteLooking at the big picture and all we have to gain, I personally welcome the changes and believe my colleagues fell the same.
Yeah Paula!! You have some great ideas.
DeleteAfter reading Berger's book. I feel the professional learning community culture of our school can continue to work toward an ethic of excellence in our school family culture. While reflecting on topics that, I have read in Berger's book and thinking about developing ways of using the techniques in the toolboxes in my classroom. Also, sharing with others will help me with time and resources to develop the ethic of excellence in my classroom and our school.
ReplyDeleteBeing a second grade teacher, I plan to integrate science, social studies, into reading and math instructions.Plus, Give students focus and the control of their learning environment. This can make for exciting year!
We need to prepare the community and parents for their involement in the plan of action.
Then and only then, Will we be on the way to success.
Love the last statement. So true- community & parental support/ involvement is very important.
DeleteI agree. Parent and community involvement is a key factor in helping students become successful.
DeleteCommunity and parent involvement is the key to find success. That is very true.
DeleteKaren, I totally agree with you. The community and parents need to get involved.
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ReplyDeleteKaren, I also will be teaching math, science, and social studies this year. I plan to find projects that can help me integrate these subjects whenever possible.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed Ron Berger's book. It has definitely made me think about how I deliver instruction and how I can improve. I hope to get the rest of our staff involved by doing this bookstudy as a PLC. We need to work together to guide our students to beautiful work. We also need to guide our parents into becoming involved in the process. Right now we have problems with parents committing to keeping up with homework. We have much work to do.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited too, Robin. Yay!
DeleteI think that the culture of our school has quality in that the staff is dedicated to bettering our students by being open to bettering ourselves as professionals.
ReplyDeleteI think that our staff can promote a culture of excellence in our building by using Ron Berger's system & also adding our own tweaks to this system make it our own to suit our classroom needs.
I agree. Each school will have to use Ron Berger"s system in a way that fits its classroom needs.
DeleteI like your comment about bettering ourselves as professionals in order to better our students. As a new teacher, I welcome ways or ideas from others to make my teaching techniques better.
DeleteErica, I too like your comment about bettering ourselves as professionals in order to better our students. As a veteran teacher, it definitely is all about challenging ourselves constantly to change for the better and then we can definitely challenge our students and see a change in them.
DeleteI feel that a contributing factor for success is the enthusiasm of the teacherS. Not just their classroom teacher but all teachers in the school. If we all have an enthusiastic approach, it will be contagious to our students. Interesting and meaningful projects would also contribute to success. Our student's home life would be an obstacle that would prevent success. Parents also pose a threat especially if they had a bad experience with their student's school life in previous years. One thing we can do to promote a school of excellence is to have high expectations for our students. We can also have project base learning going on in our classes and have a show and tell for our students to be able to tell other classes, teachers, and parents about their projects. Teamwork is another step we have to take in order to achieve the school of excellence that we desire. We all have to be on board and work together.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think the Buffalo staff is enthusiastic and ready to make a change for the better, and this will indeed take teamwork.
DeleteI agree, Kim. The entire staff has to be involved to work toward a common goal and to make a change for the better. I've enjoyed meeting and working with some of the Buffalo staff through this book study and I've seen the enthusiasm and willingness to work together. I hope to continue sharing with you all because I believe Buffalo and Holden are going to see great changes.
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ReplyDeleteThis is my first year at Buffalo Grade School and in the brief time that I have been around the faculty I see dedication in the school culture. These teachers have given up half of their summer to participate in a book study, workshops/training and work on their school to prepare for the upcoming school year. I see leadership that is enthusiastic about our school and I see a school that has potential to turn around and become a School of Excellence once again. I see a dedicated staff with a mission to give each child an opportunity to become the best that he/she can be. I think what prevents quality in school culture is lack of leadership, lack of communication and a lack of goals. We can promote a culture of excellence throughout our school by following Ron Berger’s example of placing high demands for quality work on our students, teaching students to evaluate their work and give them the opportunity to improve it even if it takes several efforts to accomplish this feat. There should be no failing grades ever, they will not be accepted. Students will be taught an Ethic of Excellence, by taking pride in their work.
ReplyDeleteKelley,
DeleteI agree that everyone is ready to work together to make changes for our school that improve our school culture and the education of our students. It is exciting to know that we have leadership that will help make our school great!
I agree, it has been very refreshing to focus on all the positive changes planned for Buffalo Grade to improve the culture.
DeleteYes, Kelley, I see and feel the same way about Buffalo Elementary. The enthusiasm from our leader is contagious. I am so excited to be part of this school that has leadership, has communication, and has goals! One being to turn the school around and make it A SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE.
ReplyDeleteI see quality in our school culture in that our staff works together for the success of the students. We have to gain the support of all of our teachers, parents, families and the neighborhood in order to set high standards and achieve an ethic of excellence.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed reading this book and look forward to sharing with my co-workers as we strive to improve and make it a school of excellence. I've had time to evaluate myself and now challenge myself even more to demand the best of each and every student and document each student's work as they progress through the various stages of achieving high quality work. It's going to be a great year as we all continue to work together and support each other through our PLC meetings, planning periods, and other informal meetings. It's going to be a great year as we invite and include the parents and the community. I am looking forward to the many class displays, public exhibitions, assembly presentations, hallway displays and portfolios that I am going to see this year and share with others as we strive to make our school a school of excellence.
Eugenia, I agree, with all your comments. I am looking forward to displays, Public exhibitions, assembly presentations, and sharing to make our school a school of excellence. We will have a wonderful year!
DeleteThe quality I see in our school culture is the expectations we have for our students and letting them known that we care about them and their success. A barrier we have is parent and community involvement and support. We need to find ways to encourage parents to become part of their child's education.
ReplyDeleteWe can promote a culture of excellence by working as a team to make positive changes in our school and students. We will each have to implement this to fit the needs of our classroom.
I see quality in the culture of our school and I attribute it to the staff coming together as a whole, combining resources, addressing weaknesses, and setting goals to improve the school culture.
ReplyDeleteEven before we were introduced to Ron Berger's book, our staff we had been making detailed plans for the coming year. I personally feel the book validated many of the things we had discussed and planned to improve the school culture.
I feel that I order to see quality, a staff must have a willingness to change, set short and long term goals, involve families and the community, and have a united front.
I think the faculty of Buffalo Grade School expects excellence from our students. We do and will continue to work as a team to reach specific goals that are set by our staff.I do however, think outside activities/ and lack of parental involvement is a barrier that we will have to overcome to promote a culture of excellence. We plan to provide lots of time for project based learning, opportunities for our students to "show off", and also incorporate the "Leader in Me " Principles.
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