The school community knows who they are and what they collectively value and believe.
“I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.”
Maya Angelou
Elements of Shared Identity
- The identity includes a clear sense of purpose and a holistic set of outcomes for all students.
- The identity is well-known and embraced by all students, families, staff, and the community.
Toolkit Resources
-
Understanding & Visualizing School Identity: If Your School Was an Animal:
Thinking about and understanding your school’s identity can be a challenging process. This activity helps you consider this complex concept in a fun and creative way that may actually help you better understand your school identity than by thinking about it in more direct terms.
-
The Two Anchors that Make or Break School Change Efforts: Shared Vision for Readiness & School Identity
This activity will help your team begin to understand, reflect on, and identify practices that will support the elevation and inclusion of all students because schools can work for every student.
-
Envision the Future of Your School
This activity is designed for the entire school community and will be conducted with staff, leadership teams, families, and students. This is an opportunity to look into the future, and envision your school identity and culture with all your stakeholder groups.
-
Discover Your School’s Identity: Rate Your School’s Identity With Your School Leadership Team & Teachers
An activity designed to develop a shared understanding of a school’s identity and explore specific values and beliefs that are necessary to implement a (MTSS) in secondary schools.
Reflection Prompts
- What might be possible ways, even if they were unintentional, that staff, students, and/or families could feel their values and beliefs were not included in a school’s identity?
- What groups do you have in your school that may not feel connected or valued?
- What might be some ways to incorporate the voice of school/community groups who do not feel included to increase their sense of belonging?
- You run into a key stakeholder “in an elevator.” This person asks, “I heard you are working on creating your school identity that tells who you are as a school and what you are all about. Can you tell me more about this?” Prepare and practice an informative and concise response which you can deliver in 60 seconds or less. Try out your ideas by filling in the sentence frames: Our initiative is about… and… It is important because our students… We need to change because… When we are successful… What we need from the staff….from the students…from the families…from all of us together…
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
John F. Kennedy