Staff Meetings

We changed the format of our staff meetings in July. Instead of having us present to the staff housekeeping issues, we printed the housekeeping stuff on a sheet of paper that was handed out and we spent the meeting time in small groups where the leadership team listened and took notes while the staff talked about how we can improve our school. It was a huge success. For that first meeting we discussed communication in three areas:

1. Among the whole staff
2. From the Teaching Team to the Leadership Team
3. And from the Teaching Team to the Families

We came up with a number of suggestions that have been implemented- including this blog. It was a huge success.

We had our second staff meeting with the new structure tonight. We used the same format and we discussed the 4 Big Ideas of the school. We asked 4 questions about each of the 4 Big Ideas. For those of you who haven't read them in awhile, they are on the school website with their own tab. Just to remind you, they are:

1. Observation/Portfolio
2. Natural Play
3. Conscious Discipline
4. Reggio Emilia

We asked the staff these 4 questions:

1. What do you know about this idea?
2. How are we implementing this topic in your classroom?
3. What are we doing well/need to improve?
4. How can we carry this idea to the parent community?

The feedback was WONDERFUL. The teaching team is incredibly optimistic and committed to growing individually, as teams, and as a school. We are so fortunate.

One of the immediately obvious things that came out of the discussion is that we can do a much better job telling all of you about the ways that we are growing. We will begin to use the community board in the Waterstone main hallway and the Davis main hallway to post information about our focus area. You can expect to find your hallway waiting for you when you arrive on Monday.

We are starting an in-depth study of Conscious Discipline. This study will last for the next 7 staff meetings. We are starting with chapter 1 of Becky Bailey's books Conscious Discipline and Easy to Love Difficult to Discipline. For those of you who want to read along with us you can order copies of these books by writing to Christa at christaniven@thelittleschool.net. The cost of the books is $25 for Conscious Discipline and $15 for Easy to Love Difficult to Discipline. We would LOVE it if you decided to read along with us. These books and Becky's work in general are overarching themes to most of our interactions with your children. We welcome your participation and hope that you will get creative about how you could become a part of the process with us.... MAYBE even the formation of a formal parent book club- gasp! We welcome you to be a part of this with us.

We want to also remind you that it is time to pre-order your packages from Big Star Studios. They will be on-site the weeks of September 20th and 27th. The classroom schedule will be posted in the weeks to come.

Christa Niven