How has your school year been so far? Challenging? Rewarding? Frustrating? Maybe a bit of all three?
As you begin planning for next year, how can you make next year more successful and enjoyable? We asked longtime teacher and FISH! facilitator Steve Mintz, who has helped hundreds of schools build stronger cultures, for his thoughts:
“When I visit schools preparing for a new year, they’re mostly focused on technology, first aid training and so on—all important but functional tasks.
“But they are not as focused on how to make our school feel great for every student and staff member. That’s the foundation of everything we want to achieve.
Relationships are key
“Educators know they need the human element but so many demands push that aside. People talk about working ‘smarter, not harder.’ What they mean is ‘We have to do more and we don’t much time to do it.’ The danger is if those demands squash people’s spirits.
“As educators, we do what we do because we want to help students become capable, healthy people who take care of themselves and care about others.
“To do that, we need caring relationships with our students and colleagues. The cool thing is these relationships decrease the negative behaviors that happen when students and staff are not excited to be at school. When you get those behaviors out of the way, learning improves and all of our functional tasks are easier.
Source: subscription mail of FISH philosophy.