What is Your Vision for Your School? #SAVMP

As part of the School Administration Virtual Mentorship Program the question I was asked was: "What is your vision for your school?"  I feel as though when I think about what I want my school to be, there is way too much  My vision can be broken down into three parts for teachers and students:

Be kinder than necessary

Find what excites or motivations you and go for it.

Don't settle, for OK, make yourself amazing.

As I was sitting down to write this post I saw what Jason Markey was doing as he welcomed his freshman to his school for the first time.  If you haven't seen the welcome video his staff and students created you should watch it here.  This is definitely something I would like to do next year.  Towards the end of the video he asks three things of his students:

Be kind

Find your passion

Commit to Excellence

I quickly realized that Jason's had a much cleaner way of delivering that same message and it is important this message be clear and repeatable, so I will be using some of his phrases as I explain my vision.

Be Kinder Than Necessary

Middle school is a tough place, and I believe it is difficult because students are trying to learn who they are, what they should be like.  As they attempt to figure this out they will undoubtably try on many hats, and that is a good thing, to find their true voice, to find who they really are and the people that make them happy.  However, I want to deliver the message that no matter who you decide to be, no matter what group of people you surround yourself with, we all need to be kinder than necessary.   As many of you know I am stealing the phrase from the book Wonder, about a 5th grade student entering middle school for the first time.  No matter what level of education you are involved with, if kindness is an important message you want to deliver you need to read this book. Being kind to one another allows students to open up and be themselves, it allows them to take risks, it allows them to focus on school instead of worrying about what someone else is going to do or say to them.

Find Your Passion

I want my school to be a place where students are excited to learn.  While it is true that every student cannot be excited about every single lesson, I believe it is up to every school and every student to develop their passions.  We loose too many students, and I believe a great number of boys, through our belief in what school should be.  I want to encourage teachers to take calculated risks, to allow students to develop their interests.  While I would not make it mandatory, I would encourage teachers to create their own Genius Hour, or develop their own Innovation Day to help students develop these passions.  Seth Godin struck a cord with me when he said, "If it is work, they try to figure out how to do less, if it is art, they try to figure out how to do more."   I want to help the teachers make learning as authentic as they can to help drive our education to become more like art.  If school is supposed to be for the students, shouldn't we at least discover what they students are passionate about?

Commit to Excellence

Being good at something is easy, achieving excellence is hard.  I want my school to be a place where everyone realizes their is a price for greatness.  To be great you must, you must first acknowledge there are things you need to work on and improve.  That self-reflection can be scary the first time you do it, and if the school is not a kind place to be, it will never happen.  Next you must commit to fighting through tough times.  We must let students and staff know there will be times during the year when you are having difficulty, how are we going to handle it?  We need to persevere and keep moving forward to develop our grit.  I am in agreement with Angela Lee Duckworth when she says that IQ scores, and socioeconomic status are not the best predictors of success outside of school, it is a students Grit, that is the best predictor.  How do they respond to adversity?  What happens when they fail?  How do they get up and keep working?  We need to all commit to excellence, develop our Grit, and keep moving forward.

This is the vision I have for my school.