Yesterday our staff met for our final PD session of the school year. We could’ve sat with our School Improvement Plan for Student Achievement documents to talk data, curriculum and assessment, but I wanted to take us in a different direction. Our monthly staff meetings don’t always give our entire staff an opportunity to really dig deep into discussions, and we had some new staff joining us for next year, so I wanted to spend our last few hours together talking about kids, and we do for kids.
Our discussion spun off from interview questions we had for our teaching candidates from previous weeks. We usually asked the straight-forward, dry questions like, “Tell me about your philosophy of teaching.” We got great answers, but I was looking for something more inspiring. We shifted to, “What’s the most important thing you do for the kids you teach?” What a difference.
Because of that, we put the same question to our staff. It generated truly inspiring and heartwarming discussions, and I saw many of my staff in a different light. But my favourite came from one of our new staff members. He said, “I don’t just teach kids. They are in my care.”
This was an incredible way to finish off our school year, and I left the building feeling hopeful and excited about our next.
So to you now. What is the most important thing you do for the kids in your care?
ErHead 