I have often heard the saying, “if we can impact one child, then we will have made a difference.” So what happens when one school impacts another? How big of a difference is that? Here is an email that I received from a principal in Texas regarding what they did for their “Identity Day“.
Hello George,
Where do I begin? Before school started I was really looking for something that would help students to begin building productive relationships with one another right away. Your posts about the Identity Fair held at your school was exactly the type of activity I thought would help accomplish my overall goal of being proactive against bullying. I sent home a letter in the summer to student/parents about the event and when it would be held. The staff received a letter about the Identity Fair with their summer welcome back letter. I borrowed a lot from the information in your posts and I hope you don’t mind. I wanted to capture in writing for parents and staff the same feeling that I felt from your posts.
I’m on car rider duty every morning with the staff. On Friday I watched as students got out of their cars with their displays. By that time I had already seen staff members with theirs and listened as they talked about hiding it until the “big reveal.” My assistant principal, leadership team, and office staff used one of the display cases for our creations. Later that day the classes rotated within the grade level areas allowing students to move from one classroom to another. In each room the students were able to see a display showing the “one” thing they were passionate about. They were also able to see the teacher’s work as well. It was very exciting. As I’m sure you can already imagine, the students loved sharing something about themselves and were excited to see what was special about others. They also found it hard to believe that a “principal from Canada” knew about what they were doing and couldn’t wait to see pictures!
There were two moments that really tugged on my heart with the latter bringing me to tears. One student’s display was about their father who was away in Iraq. The student’s father was due to come home soon. It was beautiful and it really let you know just how much our students deal with outside of the classroom that doesn’t really stay outside. The second moment came from an unexpected place. I was sitting in my office and I could hear music that didn’t sound like what we normally hear coming from the music room. It intrigued me even more so because my music teacher was absent that day just as she had been half of the day before. I went to the music room. When I entered I saw the substitute standing at the front of the classroom playing his saxophone. The students sat mesmerized by what they were hearing and seeing. This teacher is a familiar and frequent substitute at our school. He is about 63 years old and believes in education. When he learned we were sharing the one thing we were passionate about, he came the next day with his passion, the saxophone. It brought me to tears.
I cannot say thank you enough! I know you always give your assistant principal credit for implementing the idea at your school so please pass on my thanks to her as well. Because of your posts and tweets, I’ve tried things that I never knew existed. I’m out of my comfort zone technologically speaking (and loving it) but, I’ve managed to already show my staff that I’m learning and we all need to keep learning in order to keep up with our students.
Simply – Thank you.
This email brought me to tears last night. I was already so proud of what our school community did with our Identity Fair and now to see that they are impacting others is amazing. How powerful will this be when I share with students? They will know they are making a difference.
The great thing about this email is that all I did was share the information. Our school led the initiative and I took part as a participant and wrote about it. How many things have you done in your school do you think could impact other schools? Are you writing about them? Everyday that I read and learn about what other schools are doing, the more I am convinced that we cannot let our best practices live in isolation anymore.
cc licensed flickr photo by Tacit Requiem: http://flickr.com/photos/tacitrequiem/2981446879/
We need to share the achievements of our school so that we can work together as an educational community to make widespread change.
It is interesting that I received this email the same night I went out with Will Richardson for dinner. The last time we met, he and my brother convinced me that I need to get more involved using social media. It has now seem to come full circle.
I am so proud of what my school did that day. I am even more proud that their enthusiasm and passion is spreading to others around the world.
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George,
This is the amazing thing about what is going on with social media. The openness and sharing is not only impacting the adults involved, but as we both know it is impacting the most important people in the equations as well…the student!
Thanks for being "The Principal of Change." It is more than just the title of your blog and that is awesome!
Thanks Patrick
I am so proud of my school and am realizing more everyday that if we want to make change in schools, we need to get our students more involved in leading the way. I know that with the things we are doing this year, our kids are going to have more opportunities for this. This is the kind of "data" we need to see more of, wouldn't you agree?
Wow George! What an amazing feeling that must have been for you, and I'm sure that the entire school community will have this same feeling too. I think that your blog post here also speaks about the power of tweeting and blogging, for if you never shared this Identity Day information through Twitter or on your blog, you would have never received an e-mail like this one. I know that there are lots of teachers at my school, and principals in my Board too, that are very interested in your Identity Day initiative. I hope that all of us do something with it, as I think that this could send a very powerful message and really make the students realize just how special they are. Thank you for always sharing what you do and inspiring us to take risks and try something new!
Aviva
Wow George! Congratulations! You're doing wonderful things and thanks to social media you are able to spread the word and share what you do. Not only do you inspire your students and staff, but also many other educators all over the world.
Thanks for inspiring me and sharing what you did, what you do and what you are planning to do. I learn from you everyday.
I'm sure you'll receive lots of emails like this one…
When you consider how much time out of every day we concern ourselves with curriculum, schedules, bus transportation, standardized test scores, blah, blah, blah, it's comforting knowing there are so many administrators and teachers who understand that this profession should be focused on relationships. The heart of education, to me, consists of people who love to learn together. Thanks for continuing to reflect on all that you do in your school to help inspire others!
What a great story! Schools should be about relationships; you have to know each other to have a relationship. What a cool activity to bring teachers and students together.
Powerful stuff George, this is the kind of story that may help convince people to get on board. I'd like to talk to you about sharing it with our staff.
Jesse..we would love to see more schools do it in the division. It ties in so well with CSR and Critical Thinking, while improving school climate. Would love to see what you could do with it!
George, One fantastic sharing! We both know – Make the connection then learning will follow. Identity Day is a number one connector with kids! Our staff plans a number of relationship building activities for their students during the first three weeks of school. I shared your identity day story during staff development week. Hoping some will use it as a class activity. After reading this post, maybe we should kick off the first week with some version of identity day. Wishing you and your staff a terrific opening week.
Thanks for the comment Rich! I have been thinking about you and your school lots…I hope you have had a fantastic start up
What a powerful message to send to your students. I am hoping when I share this with my new principal we will be able to do the "Identity Day" at our school! Keep sharing these stories! I have a feeling this is the first of many!
I hope so Kelly!
Great post George, and congratulations. You always talk about sharing, inspiring and leading. what better way to show someone that they have made a difference or give them a compliment that following your lead. Both posts, this one and the original are great and inspirational posts.
I would think that this would be a great thing for BB to do this year? Join the Forest Green day. Could be great!
What a wonderful post – thank you for sharing! What really resonates with me is the authenticity of these opportunities for learning (i.e. the Identity Day activities at your school and the other). What these students and adults did was deeply meaningful and relevant; it wasn't about watching a movie or reading from a text book … it was as real and as personally important as it can get. I know that they won't soon forget this experience! I wonder how many other students' lives will be impacted in a powerful way by the simple sharing of this idea using social media?
I hope a ton of them Kelly…not because we want to get credit, but because it focuses on students passions. That is what is really going to engage students in their own learning. If sharing inspires that, I am glad that we have done it!
Thanks for sharing that George. It motivates me to write more often about the amazing things I see happening in every school. There are so many wonderful teachers with innovative ideas working in isolation. We certainly need to share them more often.
We definitely do..Knowing what I do now at the start of the year is really going to change my practice. We need to be a more transparent school and share what is going on. Hence the reason I am starting this: http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/1107
Share it forward- something we seemed to have known innately as kids that gets schooled right out of us (along with expressing our passions)- thanks for reversing the trend and passing it on.
As you have shown, it does not take much to spread and do an Identity Fair- I hope other schools catch the fever.
Thanks Alan! I am seeing more written about it and I can't wait to see what the year brings from our school and others!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Alec Couros, Alec Couros, Steven W. Anderson, Shelly S Terrell, Joe Stahl and others. Joe Stahl said: @gcouros A Difference a Schl Made http://bit.ly/ctJPy6 <- just think of all schls u haven't hrd from; at times we never know impact we make [...]
I have been following the Identity Day
story since you first blogged about it in
June. You are, potentially, the proverbial
pebble dropped in the water creating an
endless wave across the education
community. Congratulations, George!
Cyndie…this is such a great compliment! I am happy that we inspired at least one school! The thought of others doing it is mind boggling. Hopefully our kids can push for some lasting change in education. I appreciate your positive support always! Thanks
[...] Connecting with schools all over the world. [...]
ugh this color palette is so great. it reminds me of a magazine cover i saw for dwell. it is so hot right now. love.