Since my last post I have been busy. Busy learning and busy doing. The big learning curve for me at school has been learning how to develop a team. Due to continual growth the PYP section of the school added 8 new classes this academic year. This created opportunities for staff to move within the school. As a result of staff moving into the primary program, I employed 14 new kindergarten staff within a team of 25 and 5 new Fritids staff out of a team of 8. This required a focus on team building both between new class teams and between the old and new staff. The old were happy with the way things were done and it was working well. The new members had new ideas and different ways of doing things and were challenging the status quo, My take away message, spend lots of time on developing relationships, and have staff involved in the process of connecting with new team members, Combinations of people that I thought would work well together have not done so and it has required negotiation and time to get the partnerships working. People handle change and new ideas in different ways and communication skills in a diverse community are essential to develop with everyone.
Building teams has required lots of collegial discussion, making explicit the expectations from all staff regarding the curriculum and behaviours as well as developing a shared sense of values between all team members. It has been challenging and rewarding. As a new leader I am also learning how and when to support. How much is to controlling, how much is to loose and leaves no direction.
In addition, in my role as PYP Coordinator we also had new members join the primary years team and developing a shared understanding of the PYP is a work in process. Once again it is challenging to balance giving enough information at the time it is of value and most useful to the teachers and not over or under whelming them with untimely information.
Building teams has required lots of collegial discussion, making explicit the expectations from all staff regarding the curriculum and behaviours as well as developing a shared sense of values between all team members. It has been challenging and rewarding. As a new leader I am also learning how and when to support. How much is to controlling, how much is to loose and leaves no direction.
In addition, in my role as PYP Coordinator we also had new members join the primary years team and developing a shared understanding of the PYP is a work in process. Once again it is challenging to balance giving enough information at the time it is of value and most useful to the teachers and not over or under whelming them with untimely information.
