I just watched a fantastic video by Pernille Ripp’s class (embedded below) and it immediately sparked thoughts for me on both leadership and teams. I have also been inspired by one of my own staff members regarding his own classroom journey towards having every child becoming a leader.
First of all, if you watch Pernille’s video, you will notice that it talks in terms of “we” and “our” and not “I” and “you”. It creates a classroom community that is working together. One of the terms that really stuck out to me was, “We Will Celebrate Our Successes”. I have seen many classrooms and schools talk about how “We” need to work together, but then hand out awards at the end of the year to individuals. If you really are aligning what you say and what you do, at the end of the year, you will talk about the successes of your school or classrooms as a whole not highlight what individuals have done only. Everyone plays a role in OUR success and we should continuously recognize what they have done as a whole. This aligns with my beliefs on awards.
Secondly, when you talk in terms of “we”, you have a tremendous opportunity to give every student the opportunity to become a leader. If you are not sure the characteristics of a leader, here is a great list created by Shawn’s class:
I have said several times that we can do so much more working together than we can as individuals. It is important that we align with what we do at the beginning of the year to how it ends. Every child matters and plays a role in our growth as a school. Some have more obstacles than others but they always play a role. We must always ensure that we treat them as part of OUR team and not divide them by only recognizing a few.
Take the time to watch this video! It may inspire you or your class just like it has inspired me 🙂
