Topic 1: Explain how to creative and maintain a positive affective environment, such as existing school culture’s communication flow, and informal leadership. Support your ideas as much as possible.
Basically,
a school culture consists of the underlying influences and attitudes within the
school — based on the norms, traditions and beliefs of the staff and students.
In short, the prevailing atmosphere in your school will affect everything that
goes on inside its walls.
This goes beyond the student body: it also
involves how teachers interact with each other, their students, and the
parents. There are nine points, as a school leader should do to make
effectively and efficiently on developing and retaining people regarding on
communication flow.
1. Create meaningful parent involvement
Generating clear, open communication with the
parents of your students can help you avoid misunderstandings and remove
feelings of mistrust or hostility. To involve parents in your school culture,
give them a platform for feedback on classroom activities or school programs.
Ask them about their hopes or concerns regarding their children’s education. Go
beyond parent-teacher meetings and organize workshops where teachers and
parents can discuss homework, study skills, and tests. Involving parents in
school activities in a meaningful way also helps foster positive feelings
between the school and the parents. You can ask parents to be on event
committees or to participate in school fundraisers. Developing educational
programs for parents can also help involve them in their children’s schooling,
and thus build a more positive atmosphere in your school.
2. Celebrate personal achievement and good
behavior
This means more than the occasional "good
job." Complimenting kids helps them to feel that they are cared for
individually. Both you and your staff play a huge part in this aspect of your
school culture. One way to generate more positive reinforcement from your staff
is to set goals for the number of compliments each member has to give during
the day or week. Encourage them to give specific compliments that highlight
what each individual student has done well.
3. Establish school norms that build values
Your school and classroom rules should be
clear to all students, and should be well-regulated. However, this doesn’t mean
that you need to establish rules for every possible situation. Instead, create
school norms that focus on building positive values in your class. This helps
kids to learn, not just what they should and shouldn’t do, but why they should
or shouldn’t do it. For example, instead of creating specific rules about
chewing gum, use of water bottles, or electronic devices in the classroom, you
could create a classroom rule that states: “Be respectful of the people around
you.” To help students apply these norms, there should be consistency across
the entire school building, inside and out.
4. Set consistent discipline
When rules are not followed, discipline must
be administered. However, broadening the range of discipline methods can help
encourage a positive school culture. Instead of constantly putting out fires,
trying a more proactive approach to discipline. Giving a student detention
after bad behavior teaches him that he did something wrong. But giving him a
task that helps correct the wrong teaches him what he should’ve done instead.
For example, imagine one student started a fight. His discipline could include
having to write a letter of apology to the student he hurt, and then to take a
shift as “hallway monitor”. Having students work to correct their own wrongs
helps encourage them to take responsibility for their actions. Also, it’s
essential that all discipline is presented consistently across the school. When
all students are treated equally and bad behavior is disciplined in the same
way in different classrooms, this helps removes feelings of mistrust among
students.
5. Model the behaviors you want to see in your
school
You have a list of qualities and values that
you want to see in your teachers and students. But how well do you present
those same aspects of your school culture? All changes have to start from the
top. That means when you interact with teachers and students, you need to be an
example of the behavior that you want to see in your school.
6. Engage students in ways that benefit them
When in school, your students are learning
more than just secular instruction. They’re also developing their social
skills, and learning how to become successful adults. Schools that help
students develop essential social skills are preparing them on an even deeper
level for their future after graduation. One way to engage students and develop
these types of skills is through social-emotional learning (SEL). Throughout
the day, encourage teachers to include activities that help students develop
qualities such as empathy, reliability, respect, concern, and a sense of humor.
7. Encourage innovation in the classroom
Innovation in the classroom starts with you —
the school leader. When talking with teachers, encourage them to try new
methods of teaching. You can even set up regular meetings to discuss new
research on teaching methods or new teaching tech, and how these can be
implemented in your school. These meetings will help the whole teaching staff
to brainstorm and implement new ideas, bringing teachers into the process of building
your school culture.
8. Professional development for teachers
Students are not the only people in your
school who should be learning. Helping your teachers to develop their skills
will encourage a positive school culture by giving them the ability to improve
their craft. This helps teachers to be fully aware of school policies and
rules, and gives them specific instruction in how the school uses tech in the
classroom. Supporting new teachers in this way can help promote a consistent
atmosphere across your school.
Also, it’s good to make sure that you as the
school leader are aware of what your teachers think and feel in their work. Set
up regular times to ask for feedback, hear out concerns, and get suggestions
for improvement.
9. Keep tabs on your school’s culture, and
make adjustments when necessary
Unfortunately, creating a positive school
culture isn’t just a matter of following a checklist. As a school leader, you
need to stay informed of what’s going on in your school, and understand the
attitudes and atmosphere that permeate the hallways and classrooms. As we
mentioned above, starting the process of improving your school culture involves
analyzing the current situation of your school. This analyzation process should
become a regular part of your schedule. Set aside time every few months to
analyze your school culture. Keep on the watch for the specific factors that
indicate a positive school culture, and keep using the steps above to reinforce
those aspects. Also, be aware of any negative factors that have started to seep
in, and take decisive action to remove those.
Above all, take time to listen to feedback
from both teachers and students in order to understand the experience that they
are having in your school. School leaders from every level are key to shaping
school culture. Principals communicate core values in their everyday work.
Teachers reinforce values in their actions and words. Parents bolster spirit
when they visit school, participate in governance, and celebrate success. In
the strongest schools, leadership comes from many sources.
School leaders do several important things
when sculpting culture. First, they read the culture— its history and current
condition. Leaders should know the deeper meanings embedded in the school
before trying to reshape it. Second, leaders uncover and articulate core
values, looking for those that buttress what is best for students and that
support student-centered professionalism. It is important to identify which
aspects of the culture are destructive and which are constructive. Finally,
leaders work to fashion a positive context, reinforcing cultural elements that
are positive and modifying those that are negative and dysfunctional. Positive
school cultures are never monolithic or overly conforming, but core values and
shared purpose should be pervasive and deep.