Onboarding Practices encompass purposeful alignment with the school’s shared vision for readiness and shared identity. They offer comprehensive support from a coach/mentor, including both formal and informal elements. The focus is explicitly on the nuances and key moves (rituals and routines) that resonate with the identity, promoting equitable practices. A multi-year progression of support is established, communicated, and provided, fostering continuity and growth within and between years.
Statements Depicting the Ideal Pursuit of a School
- Evaluation processes incorporate and align with the school’s shared vision for readiness and purpose.
- Provide explicit connections to key schoolwide moves, including rituals and routines.
- Align with and support the school’s shared identity, reinforcing values, beliefs, and shared mental models.
- Recognize the “Ideal Team Player” qualities (People Smart, humble, committed to professional growth).
- Reinforce the power of the collective, promoting a shift from “me” to “we.”
Quotes
“The ratio of We’s to I’s is the best indicator of the development of a team.” -Lewis B Ergen
Key Resources
All Toolkit Resources
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Build Unity Through Change: Engage Staff in Continuous Improvement Processes
Continuous improvement should be embedded in day-to-day work, in a systemized, organic way. You can think of the cyclical process as a formative assessment of the ideas being tested.
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Foster Instructional Best Practices: Add Learning Walks to Your School’s Evaluation Toolkit
The Learning Walk routine is a proven and powerful tool for getting smarter about teaching and learning. For almost 25 years this research-backed practice has been used to understand core instructional work across classrooms in schools and districts.
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Discover Your School’s Shared Vision Readiness: Rate Shared Vision for Readiness in Your School With Your School Leadership Team
This activity will help your team reflect and identify effective leadership practices that will support the elevation and inclusion of stakeholder voices.
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Assess Your Inclusive Practices: Bring Culturally Responsive Practices Into The Daily Routine
This activity will help your leadership team assess and identify how inclusive practices, supports, and structures, such as co-teaching and teaming, are at your campus. Are the environments on your campus (classrooms, extracurricular and common areas, virtual spaces) set up to be most welcoming and accommodating for your students, or for the adults?