Why Relationships Are the Foundation of Education

When I first started teaching, I wasn’t very good.  I had no teaching experience and really no interest in being a teacher.  I never really had a positive school experience in the different schools I went to.  I attended private schools for over 19 years of my schooling throughout my childhood and into adulthood.  During those years, I honestly thought a good education could be summed up into 3 areas:

1. Teachers having control over the classroom and students;
2. Writing notes and doing it as fast as you could was the recipe for success;
3. Never question the teacher’s or professor’s knowledge or teaching practices.

When you attend private schools for all of those years and see the same practices and rules over and over again, that’s really all you know about education.   I believed that was the way teaching was done everywhere and how everyone had to learn in order to be successful.

Believe it or not, there is research and data that supports the theory that many teachers teach  the same way they were taught to when they were in school if the practice was successful for them.   As you can imagine (and is usually the case with many educators), when I first began teaching, I taught the same way as the teachers did when I was in school:

1. I dictated and controlled the learning environment;
2. I presented information to students the way I wanted it presented and in the manner which was most comfortable to me; and
3. I expected students to memorize the information I had given them and regurgitate it to me when we had assessments.

Thus, I was sharing my awful learning experiences with my students.  Sort of taking it out on them.  That’s all I knew about education.

While my methods needed a lot of work and my expectations for students were out of touch with reality, there was one area where I was progressing nicely.  During my life, I have always been a pretty good judge of people.  I have also been able to build relationships with many different people throughout my life.  While I had a lot of work to do when it came time to presenting content in an engaging learning environment, I was pretty good at building relationships with students.  So while I felt I had a long way to go to be a good teacher, I knew I could relate to students and staff members.  The ability to relate and work with students and staff really kept me in teaching.  It pushed me to get better because I wanted to be the best for the people who counted on me each day to be the best.

I will always remember one student I had in particular during my teaching days.  He was a transfer student and this was his third school to date and it was only November.  His appearance was different than the rest of the student body: piercings, tattoos, hair over his eyes, black leather clothing.  He was distant and kept to himself.  In a small community, I’m sure it was difficult for him to make friends at all, let alone with one person.

The student was in my Web Design class and had academic success in the class.  He completed projects, he took notes while watching online videos to learn how to create better graphics, and he was always respectful and polite to me and the other students.  In his other classes, he was completely the opposite.  It seemed no other staff members could reach him and connect with him.  Once grades came out, he was failing all of his classes, except Web Design and my wife’s class (who is a master at building relationships).

One of his other teachers asked me what I was doing to get results from him.  I didn’t have much to say, I told her “Nothing.”  She replied, “Well, you must be doing something.”  I said, “Well, I treat him like a human being.”  The teacher laughed and said, “We all are doing that.”  I replied, “I disagree.  In my daily conversations with him, I’ve never heard him mention another staff member’s name or anything about his other classes that he enjoys.”  As you can imagine, that wasn’t taken very well, but it was the truth.

The point of the story is to show sometimes it just gets down to treating people the way we want to be treated and want our children or family members to be treated.  While I wasn’t the greatest teacher, even in my own department, I utilized my ability to build relationships to help others and help me get better.  Let’s take a look at 4 key aspects I always keep in mind when it comes to creating meaningful relationships:

1. Don’t make excuses

I don’t think making excuses helps anybody in education.  We can’t say, “I have over 150 students each day, I can’t build relationships with everyone.”  Each student is an individual.  Each parent of our students expects their student to be given the best learning environment as possible.  We need to make that happen each day.

    2.  Listen, Respond, Ask Questions, Repeat

Every student has a story.  Instead of always thinking the worst, we need to listen to students to feel where they are.  Model the behavior we expect to see from our students.

    3.  Compassion

At some point in all of our lives, we have needed something.  Someone has had to help us out at some point.  Always remember this when working with students.  Instead of initially feeling students are trying to take advantage of us, let’s look at it as students are reaching out for help.

    4. Sacrifice

How much time and investment do you put in each day for students and other staff members?  If our job as educators was easy, everyone would be doing it.  To be the best, in any endeavor or occupation, you have to make sacrifices.  Whether it is before school or after school sessions, being a part of teams and committees, or advising a club, we all need to make a sacrifice for your students and/or staff.  It will make a difference.

The above quote by Robert Meehan really does say it all.  The little things add up to a lot in education.  Little things are what make relationships successful.  Its our job to find the little things that help build relationships with students and staff.  Try making building relationships with students and staff a daily exercise and practice in order to improve the culture of your school and classroom.

4 Essentials to Improving Your Educational Programs and Classes This Summer

Starbucks.  Southwest Airlines.  Facebook.  Kahn Academy.  All successful brands and companies that produce quality service, products and programs.  We assume these companies are good because of their names and what they have done.   More times than not, we go to get our coffee at Starbucks or reserve our flights with Southwest simply because we know what we are going to get.  We don’t question the how and why we get what we need with great businesses and programs; we just expect to get what we want and need.  The expectations that they have molded in each of us are built on the foundation and culture within their organizations.

 The same goes for successful educational programs.  Many times we take them for granted because each year we know what we are going to get.  From the inside of the building or classroom, sometimes our staff and students almost make it look too easy.  They make pride, tradition and success look routine.  In reality, all of those things are anything but easy to duplicate. 

Great educational programs are lot like the successful brands above.  They are built on basic principles that stand the test of time.  When I think of success, I think of the performing arts at Gahanna Lincoln High School.   While all of the programs (theatre, band, choir, orchestra) are successful in their own rights, they all have foundation built on the same principles:

Relationships Are Vital

Everyone in the department and program needs to work together, even if they have different individual styles and personalities.  To have a successful program at any level, you need to have a foundation built on relationships.  Your department needs to have the same goal in mind: all students, our students.  Don’t focus on grade levels, focus on students.  Relationships stand the test of time when everyone has the same overall goal to achieve.

Communication Must Include Everyone

To have successful programs you need efficient and effective communication techniques.  Everyone within the department needs to know what the rest of the staff is doing.  For effective communication you need strong relationships.  When you are thinking about your own program, remember to make building strong relationships a priority in order to help the flow of communication.  When you care about others in your program, you will communicate better because you want to make sure everyone is informed.  You won’t do it because you feel you have to communicate to everyone.  You will communicate to make sure the relationships inside your department and program remain strong so everyone can achieve the ultimate goal of helping others.

Structure Can't Take Days Off

Create a structure for the entire program for everyone to follow.  Surprisingly, more structure allows for others to be more creative and flexible in their instruction.  You would think it would be the opposite, but it isn’t.  The formulated structure of a program allows for staff to step outside of the normal routine and try different methods.  If they work, the rest of the staff in the program can also use the methods and make improvements on their end.  If it doesn’t work, other members of the program can add input and everyone knows the new attempt wasn’t successful and can help make improvements to either use it or not use it.  That is only possible when a solid structure exists and all members have a part in creating the structure.

Success Breeds Success

Successful programs have a healthy culture.  Many times, a healthy culture has the foundation of a solid structure.   Besides culture and structure, successful programs also have talent.  But talent alone doesn’t create success.  A mixture of culture, talent and structure creates success.  Winners win!  We know that’s the case.  But there is always a foundation to a winner’s success story and it focuses around culture.

When you are thinking about your classroom, your building, your district, or even your business, remember what great organizations or programs represent.  Visualize how you can make improvements in your organization or program by focusing on the characteristics discussed above.  Use the next couple of months to figure out how you and your team will help transform your programs or classroom to be the best it can be.   Build a culture to make success the norm and not the exception. 

7 Facts About Modeling as a Leader

We’ve all heard the saying “Walk the walk and talk the talk” and John Maxwell’s famous quote, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”   As leaders, we need to abide by these wise words everyday.  Modeling what you want to see in your organization or building is critical for the overall growth of the culture.

Every effective leader has the intentions of modeling of what they want to see in their organizations.  The problem is, once things get busy, we lose sight of our intentions.  It is too easy to fall back into our daily norms instead of surging ahead with our original goal of modeling what we want to see each day from our staff.  Great leaders make sure modeling is a focus on their everyday practice.  They do this in many ways:

Great Leaders Who Model Have a Plan and a Vision

Well of course they do!  They model the plan and vision each day.  Leaders focus their modeling on where they want their organization to go.  Don’t model what isn’t important to your organization.  Streamline your platform to give your staff a clear picture of what you expect from them.

Great Leaders Who Model are Accountable

Leaders want their staff to be accountable.  If we want to see that each day, as leaders, we have to be accountable too.  In any organization, there are daily situations that arise that create a detour in our schedules.  As a leader, it is important to avoid these pitfalls.  It is important to hold yourself accountable and set out what you planned to do when the day started.  If we expect our staff members to handle adversity in that way, then we should model that behavior on our end.

Great Leaders Who Model Take Pride in Educating Themselves

If you want your staff to continue to grow, then as a leader, you need to do the same.  Having a constant push to get better and learn more ways to help students and staff starts with pride and want.  There are an abundance of resources available for leaders to grow each day (even if your not technology savvy or using social media).  Use the resources and share with your staff and others.  Others will see your lead and follow.

Great Leaders Who Model Get Out of Their Comfort Zone

We can’t preach to our staff to take chances if we as leaders are not going to do it ourselves.  Try doing things differently with your meetings or with school programs.  Your staff and students will notice.  If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.  As leaders, we need to incorporate more inquiry into our decision making process and ignore the fear of a new initiative not being perfect at the onset.

Great Leaders Who Model Build Relationships

Building relationships within your organization increases trust.  Staff will be more open to what is being modeled when trust exists.  When relationships exist, leaders can ask others for assistance with modeling the initiative and to carry the torch to help others.

Great Leaders Who Model Lean on Others

As a leader, it is important to identify talent.  Find the people on your staff that can help you model your expectations.  Using others to help you model will only make your building stronger.  There is a reason staff EdCamp professional development days are some of the biggest growth opportunities for staff members.  They love learning from each other.  Let the power of peer-to-peer self-development help you help your staff.  Let your staff help you model the great practices and programs in your building.

Great Leaders Who Model Are Visible

Increase your visibility in your organization and you will see more great practices in your building.  Seems simple enough.  This allows you to see the different practices and share them with the rest of your staff.  Visibility allows for conversations and feedback to take place too.  Being visible throughout your building shows others that you value having a presence in the building and that it is important to you.  Getting out of office will hopefully encourage your staff to step out of their rooms and share great practices with staff and build relationships with students.

Leaders need to set the bar.  We need to show others the way.  That’s part of what makes a strong leader.  It also helps make a strong organization.  Leading by example sets the tone for the culture and climate of your organization.  I believe Albert Schweitzer said it best, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others.  It is the only thing.”