Building a Community of

Educators: Fostering a

Growth Mindset Dr. Kelli Cedo

Assistant Principal

Virginia Beach City Public Schools

Discussion Points

• Setting the tone as a leader

• Knowing and shaping the culture of your

building

• Fostering a Growth Mindset

Why is setting the tone so

important?

• Tone relates to culture

• What is your mirror reflecting?

So what might be a starting point…

• Tone relates to expectations, beliefs, and

stance on topics

• What are your core beliefs about

leadership?

Setting the Tone (How?)

• Ask yourself what do I need to brush up on around shaping school culture? – Culture Re-Boot: Reinvigorating School Culture to

Improve Student Outcomes • Words and actions of the administration

– Academic, Social, and Emotional Model • Shared learning and collaborative culture

• New administration: email the staff, hold a meet and greet, open door policy

• Consistency in everyday practice (People during the day)

• What are some ways that you model and

mentor around academic, social, and

emotional capacities?

• How do you share your thoughts, ideas,

and feedback?

Understanding Your School’s

Culture • Recognize and acknowledge current status

– How does your school feel when you walk into the building? Welcoming?

– How do your teachers show their thoughts on effective teaching?

– Do your teachers embrace new ideas or feel they are distractions?

• Recognize and acknowledge the past – Strengths of the preexisting practices

– What were the patterns that were developed?

– Did staff do learning walks?

– Did staff embrace learning walks?

Shaping School Culture

• Words and actions of the administration

• Knowing your staff- personally and

professionally

• Prediction of how staff might react to

change?

Influences on Culture

Recognize:

– Degree of effort

– Fidelity to implementation

– Attitudes toward coming to work everyday

– Attitude toward families

Whitaker 2015

• What do you believe is the administrator’s

job?

• What goals have you set for yourself and

how do these related to the goals set with

staff?

Mindset

• Teachers to be their best

• Mindset- “the assumptions and

expectations we have for ourselves and

others that guide our practices and

interactions with others” Robert Brooks

Mindset of Effective Educators

• Understand lifelong impact they have on students

• Believe that all students yearn to be successful

• Appreciate the foundation for successful learning comprises of a safe and secure classroom climate and authentic relationship between teacher and student

• Realize that fear of making mistakes and feeling embarrassed or humiliated are obstacles to learning

Robert Brooks

Refocus Mindset on the

Administrator • Understanding they have a lifelong impact on staff

– If a staff member leaves your building, what will they take with them?

• Believes that all staff yearn to be successful

– If a staff member is not growing, the administrator must ask how they can adapt their feedback and support to meet the needs of the teacher

• Appreciate the foundation for successful learning comprises of a safe secure school climate and authentic relationship between administrator and staff

– Thank you to teachers- when was the last time you thanked a teacher?

How does mindset relate to

culture?

• Your mindset establishes the culture in

your school

• It can foster growth or it can inhibit growth

Know thy leadership self: Give some thought to

the leader you aim to become, and the mark you

hope to leave on others. • http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2015/04/02/the-best-part-of-

leading/?utm_source=brief

• “Leadership is hard work. It takes making accurate decisions based often on inaccurate or incomplete data. It requires bringing about change and contending with the resistance that it prompts. It requires caring about those you lead, but remaining objective enough not to get swayed by peoples’ sucking-up. It takes having a thick-enough skin to weather the unending second-guessing and Monday-morning-quarterbacking of critics who assume that could do better than you.”

• “I will have built other leaders who themselves are building other leaders.” When done right, leadership begets more leadership.

Bill Treasurer

Here are a few questions you can ask

yourself to survey yourself and come of up

with next steps.

• How do you show that the foundation for growth and a safe and secure school is the relationship the administration forges with staff?

• How do you adapt your leadership style to meet the needs of teachers?

• How do you appreciate the emotional intelligence of teachers and lead through the lens of human dignity?

Ideas for Nurturing a Growth

Mindset

• Ask staff questions that make a difference

for the community

• Dedicate a portion of every professional

learning opportunity to cultivating a growth

mindset and its impact on learning

• Teacher centered professional learning

• Focus feedback on staff needs as they

relate to school goals

Growth Mindset and Teacher

Evaluation

• The complexity of maintaining a positive

relationship while fostering continuous

improvement is evident in the teacher

evaluation process

• Staff have an emotional attachment to

being evaluated

• Model how to care for someone while

helping them grow

So how? • Know your staff’s areas of interest and growth

• Allow teachers the opportunity to provide input on their learning

• Ask questions such as: – As a professional where do you think you excel (start

with strengths)

– What areas of professional learning are you interested in pursuing?

– What are your learning goals for you and your students?

– In what areas of teaching and learning do you feel you can grow?

– Which of our school wide goals do you feel would be most difficult for you and your students to accomplish and why?

Book Pass Strategy

• Have books out on the table. Have each teacher pick one book.

• Allow 2-4 minutes for previewing the text

• Log one observation or comment

• Rate the book

• Pass the book to the next person

• Repeat for 4 or 5 books

• Discuss

Additional Resources

• Adam Saenz- Teacher Wellness: A Conversation with Adam Saenz

http://www.naesp.org/principal-janfeb-2013-teacher-staff-development/teacher-wellness-conversation-adam-s-enz

Chard- TedX talk- http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/No-More-Bad-Coffee-Professional

• School Culture Rewired- Gruentert and Whitaker

• The Center for Collaborative Classrooms blog

http://inside.collaborativeclassroom.org/?utm_source=cccblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=ICClaunch

Contact Information

Dr. Kelli Cedo

Kelli.cedo@vbschools.com

Twitter @kecedo