Detroit Future Schools, an organization whose work is deeply embedded in using digital media to create more just learning spaces for teachers and students recently got me thinking about this idea to "make our schools more human." How do we do this when our students often arrive in our communities with such dire needs and pressures from policy makers cry the need for greater accountability through PARCC and SBAC assessments? Are the two mutually exclusive? I beg to argue that they are not but just require us organizing our schools and communities into places where shared leadership is not an idea but a living and breathing organism. Its where we as a collective of teachers, school administrators and support staff, all take responsibility in developing professional learning communities and dividing the work to accomplish the amazing and be the people we are waiting for. Our culture, the collective conscious and communicated, norms, values and actions of people, reflect this elevated energy; in fact we might begin to see the following emerge:
* No one person being burden with everything
* Everyone has voice
* Accountability for both students and community
* People feel validated
* Systemic improvement
* People begin to feel belonging from the beginning
* Students can feel that teachers and staff are united towards a common cause
This culture is conducive to not only realizing the collective power and energy of the school, but also can organize, design, draft, revise and implement powerful, highly engaging and challenging curriculum that aligns to the rigors of these new, untested, assessments. It's only by working together, as a collective, can powerful curriculum provide exemplary student achievement. For so long, much of my beliefs centered around designing powerful curriculum for optimal results; but as I facilitate and learn, I'm discovering no one can achieve these results unless there is collective, transformative power, sustainable and cultivating in nature, that pulls on strengths, identifies potential gaps (as well as determine what type of gap we are dealing with and provide necessary training) and then make goals and appropriate plans to change. It is in this spirit that I am inspired and fully engaged with the work in the communities I dedicate myself to. Peace*
