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I’ve been thinking a lot about assumptions lately,  and as I started reading Simon Sinek’s  ”Start With Why”, something clicked. In his introduction Sinek cautions about trying to answer the wrong questions as they will always lead us to a place we did not intend to go. The same can be said about our assumptions, as administrators of teachers, as teachers of students, as teachers of parents, as parents of teachers, etc.  From this, and from my own thinking about the assumptions we make in education, and from reading a few blog posts recently (namely Peter Pappas‘ 2-part post here and here, and Jeff Delp‘s letter to his staff, my thinking all seems to be whirling around and I realize that there is an urgent need to explore these assumptions with my staff, and hopefully start working from the heart.

I’m hoping that after 2 years at my site I can ask my staff to become vulnerable with me and with each other as we explore these deeper questions.  For the staff that are new to us, I hope they are brave enough to join us. Some of the questions I want to explore with my staff:

What assumptions are you holding re: students, parents, teaching, admin, etc. that are either inspiring or motivating you to move forward, grow, develop, change?

What assumptions are holding you back?

In light of the assumptions that may be holding you back, what can we do to help each other?

I want to start the year by motivating the staff like Jeff by communicating with them about why we do what we do, not what. I plan to use Peter’s questions as well as the year goes on to keep ourselves focused on why we do what we do, not the what – the grades, the tests, the performance standards, etc. I plan to address my own assumptions and be more appreciative of the good that happens in the building.

It could be a great year…