Monday, June 25 – Much Better Staff and Team Meetings

• Presented by Rushton Hurley 
• Session resources

**Note: I don’t proofread live blogs due to the intensity of these conferences. So, apologies in advance for typos or ramblings!! Just trying to capture the learning here, people!

How can we use time better with staff meetings?

• Every decision you make about time sets the tone. Every decision you make about time in staff meetings sends a message. And remember, you have competition (the whiners).
• The whiners think they are speaking for everyone else.

How do we celebrate the wildly cool?

• Remember that a lot of times, wildly cool things happen in the classroom, but no one knows about it except the students and teacher in the class.
• Everyone on the campus does something wildly cool at least once a year, even if it’s by accident.
• The wildly cool things that happen have to be shared.
• Our job is not to protect fragile egos. Don’t shy away from sharing wildly cool moments because we are afraid of breaking fragile egos.
• First few moments of any faculty meeting should be time for a cool stuff survey
• Name, email, and the cool thing (Tell about the cool thing!)
• Get the results is something public, so people can see the cool things. Figure out how to highlight/showcase the cool things.
• No matter how jaded teachers are, they are THAT CLOSE to getting excited again.
• For each meeting, do shout-outs with the cool things from the last meeting’s feedback. Use the survey so that you aren’t putting people on the spot to talk about new things.
• Be sure not to always shout out the same people – that creates pariahs.
• We are battling to win the tone in the room. This will win the battle against the whiners.
• Having the list of cool things can also serve to balance out how exhausted we are. It can remind ourselves about all the things we do and why we are so exhausted!

From a video we watched (Look Inside; Mick Ebeling, by Intel): First you commit. Then you figure out how the heck you’re gonna go it.

If the first way doesn’t work, we learned a way not to do it.

Remember that if teachers don’t believe that you will listen to what they are saying, they don’t be eager to share. If you do something (ex: giant chart paper, etc.), there has to be follow up. They need to know you’re listening. You must show that you are getting your team to act on good ideas.

Remember that the goal of a staff meeting is to inspire the team. You might have to keep trying, but it’s possible. You’ll get there.

Rushton is willing to connect via videoconference if we want to do a book study (Making Your School Something Special)

Steps of the staff meeting:

• Survey for the cool stuff
• Shoutouts from last month’s cool stuff survey
• Inspirational video
• Break people into 3s – cannot be with grade level or department peeps
  • Have them go to a resource of some sort and tell them to find three crazy ways to impact our kids.
  • Make it three ways because that’s what will push them to be more creative.
• You will move in the right direction if teachers have the time and opportunity to play with crazy, creative ideas. The more creativity you use, the more you’ll have. It’s an unlimited resource (via Mia Angelou, paraphrased by Rushton)