So every summer, I like to do a book study with my staff. It is 100% optional. I give out professional development points for it and a free book. With anything I order extra books just in case. Last year, I did my favorite book Kids Deserve It by Todd Nesloney and Adam Welcome. I had extra books so I opened it up to other schools in my district. The response was amazing. I set it up as a closed group on Facebook. I know it sounds crazy doing it on Facebook but I wanted to do something my staff was comfortable in. So 90% of the staff was already on there. For the teachers who were not on there, I sent them an email with the questions.
For the 2018 summer book, I wanted to challenge the thinking of my teachers. So I picked the Wild Card by Hope and Wade King. I wanted to have my teachers to start to take risk in their own classrooms. I wanted to see more engaging lessons. This is the perfect book to jump start their thinking, to light the fire. As a leader you hope that the book you select will be one that the staff will learn from but also enjoy reading. I did the closed Facebook group again. I have only had it only open for a couple of weeks and the group is on FIRE. So I broke the book down into six sections. I have three questions for each section. Teachers are to read section 1 point, answer the three question for 1 point, and then respond to one other person for the third point. So in total they can get 18 points professional points.
So the big thing how to start off the book study. The book is about making your classroom engaging so that students actually want to be there and not just have too. So I thought about something that the teachers HATE doing: END OF THE YEAR CHECKOUT SHEETS! Ugh! SO much time and you can never find anyone! So I set up stations where the teachers can turn in stuff. I had the people sitting there ready to go. We did it in chunks of three with the sign out sheets. If you complete what you need to get signed off, your group got a turn on Hungry Hungry Hippo - The Human Version. I have never laughed so much in my life. To say my teachers are competitive is an understatement. They also appreciated me taking the time to carve out for them to have everything in one place.
In order to get teachers into the book, I, as the leader, had to take a risk. I had to be willing to try something out of my comfort zone.
In the end we are going to set up a box for teachers to use this in their classroom. Which that is the whole point for teachers to take back tools to use in their classroom.
Just another way that I am not your typical principal.
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