release the hounds

One of the wonderful aspects of summer is the opportunity to go to an amusement park. My daughter was very excited this week to join her friends at our local theme park and the excursion was going to be even more special because they are now old enough to drive there themselves. A great combination of gleeful anticipation of the thrill rides, turbo-charged with the adventurous sense of independence! But, on the morning of the big day she wakes up and it is raining. Not just drizzling, but a serious downpour; raindrops the size of your fist and enough thunder to let you know that Zeus is bowling a 300 game. Her tittering excitement quickly turns into a sullen and solemn demeanor as the joy is sucked right out of her life.

So on the first day of meetings before the school year starts, what administrative duty do you commit against your teachers that sucks the joy from their hopeful outlook? Yes, I know that certain administrative-oriented tasks need to occur early on when you have everyone together, but at what cost? Teachers are as eager to have a good year and are as hopeful as my daughter and her group of friends about the adventure that lies ahead. So why rain on the parade?

Consider this: If my daughter’s day had started with some brilliant sunshine and if she had the opportunity to experience some of the thrill rides with her buddies, and then it started to rain; she would have come home laughing about the fun they had dancing in the puddles. Her positive outlook would have been shaped by the context of the initial fun from the amusement rides. Administrators must establish the same scenario, create the bond of shared joy or amusement before taking care of the mundane.

Terrence Deal and Kent Peterson’s book, Shaping School Culture: The Heart of Leadership, emphasizes the role that emotions, vision, and ceremony have in creating a productive culture. “It is important to remember the formidable nature of the school leader’s unofficial power to reshape school culture towards an ‘ethos of excellence’ and make quality an authentic part of the daily routine of school life” (p. 86). Part of that ethos of excellence is evolves from accentuating the positive. They encourage administrators to “rabidly” celebrate the positive (p. 127).

Rabidly celebrate the positive!

Rabid. As in go-crazy-foam-at-the-mouth enthusiasm. However, if foaming at the mouth does not fall within the parameters of your personality traits, then you can focus on the celebration of the positive piece of their proclamation. If you have too much of a tame Lassie temperament, then show a video clip and let it serve the role of Cujo. My superintendent showed an Abbott and Costello comedy routine on mathematics that prompted some shared laughter before presenting the students’ scores on the standardized math test. It is that spoonful of sugar strategy that Mary Poppins sang about. And I feel like busting out that song about rubber tree plants…cause I have high hopes.

Still feeling like this is not in your comfort zone or that taking the time to create a celebration of the positive seems trivial compared to all the other tasks that are of high priority, then listen to some experts: page one from Deal and Peterson: “Highly respected organizations have evolved a shared system of informal folkways and traditions that infuse work with meaning, passion, and purpose.” Meaning, passion, and purpose. These are the targets for day one.

Make a good day,
Tod

PS. T. E. Deal & K. D. Peterson (1999). Shaping School Culture: The Heart of Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

PSS. Frankie singing High hopes: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x58asx_sinatras-classic-song-high-hopes_music

PSSS. In case you are not familiar with the Stephen Knovel, Cujo , here is the movie trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0k21yeVMbM

PSSSS. Abott and Costello math video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WMi5TUJDso