My principal lead us in a wonderful closing meeting today, and I wanted to take a moment to share the structure of this meeting with other principals to gain inspiration from. In our 2-hour division meeting, Bobby (my principal) lead us in an activity that was so thoughtfully constructed and showcased many best teaching practices. First off, instead of starting us all off in a large group together (to explain the agenda), he had us gather immediately in smaller, assigned groups. Each group had a designated leader who had been given all instructions in advance through a Google Doc. To set the scene, Bobby used Flipgrid to create an introductory video. This was a simple, easy way to bring his voice and tone into all rooms and set the stage for the activity ahead. Bobby had asked us all to read a short article over the weekend (Edutopia’s 6 Traits of Life-Changing Teachers) to be prepared for the activity. Reading the article in advance not only saved valuable time but, more importantly, allowed us to reflect and let the ideas from the piece simmer before we were asked to talk about it. Bobby did not give us the talking points ahead of time; so when reading the article, we were not zoned in on looking for specific “answers.”
Back to the activity. After showing the introductory video, group leaders were asked to share the 5 talking points. Most of these questions revolved around reflecting on things we did to teach/touch students beyond just teaching the curriculum. Each teacher was asked to create their own Google Doc to record individual answers. The reason for writing everything in a Google Doc was so that we can reference this at the beginning of next school year (Bobby has planned a follow-up activity so that, come fall, we are reminded of the goals and intentions we set for ourselves at the close of this year). As we answered the prompts individually, we turned to a partner and discussed our response. We did this for each of the 5 questions. At the conclusion of the activity, Bobby left us with a final prompt — In Flipgrid, respond to the following: “The 2017-2018 year brings new promise, new students, new opportunities… How will you approach the year differently and why (we always need to know our why)?”
We came back as a large group for the final 30 minutes of our meeting time to debrief on the article and to share things that came up when talking in our small groups.
I loved so many things about the way this activity was structured:
1. Bobby created a wonderful activity for us and then stepped aside to allow us to lead. As teachers, we all know the importance of letting go some control to allow students in our room to take ownership. This is not an easy task, but Bobby modeled it so well in this activity.
2. Using Flipgrid, Bobby was able to set the tone in each of our rooms with his message without requiring us all to meet in a room and then move to separate rooms. This saved time and energy.
3. The article Bobby asked us to read in advance of the meeting was uplifting and reminded us (or me, at least) of why I love teaching so much! At the end of one of the busiest years I’ve experienced, this was what I needed.
4. We will revisit this activity in the fall, to help ensure that we remember the goals we had set for ourselves.
5. Bobby modeled innovation and risk-taking in using Flipgrid for this activity. As with anything where technology is involved, some people will have trouble and things will not go ‘perfectly.’ This was Bobby’s first time using Flipgrid with an entire faculty. Some teachers had Flipgrid issues (I’ve found that this is almost always due to someone not having the most recent browser update on their machine), so there were some frustrations. But we were able to create something much more powerful than if we had just done things in a large discussion forum. Without taking that risk, and without accepting the fact that perfect is not always better, we are only able to achieve ordinary results. Personally, I know that what I shared in my Flipgrid was something that I would not have shared in a large group setting. So to me, activities like this are particularly valuable and worth the “risk.”
I hope you enjoyed reading about this activity and gained some inspiration/ideas from it. If you’re thinking I’m lucky to have a principal like Bobby, I already know!
techieMusings 
Love this idea! Thanks for sharing. I am working on an intro to Flipgrid for my schools for the beginning of new school year, but I am still looking for a motivating focus for the work in FlIpgrid. I try really hard not to just feature and teach navigation of new tools, but to model and show the instructional implications of the tools through meaningful engagement. What is the title of the article you guys read? I’d love to build off of the idea you shared for the upcoming year.
I absolutely agree with that approach! The article was Edutopia’s 6 Traits of Life-Changing Teachers. I thought it was an uplifting read for the end of the year, getting at the heart of why we do what we do. Another thing we did with Flipgrid recently was a “celebration of colleagues.” I sent out a flipgrid to all teachers with a prompt asking them to record a message of thanks, appreciation, or a highlight from the year.
Awesome! Thanks for both ideas. I think both can be adapted to beginning of the year activities and integrated into the flipgrid intro!!
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What article did you read?
The article was Edutopia’s 6 Traits of Life-Changing Teachers: https://www.edutopia.org/article/6-traits-life-changing-teachers-betty-ray
Stacey, do you have a copy of the 5 talking points? Excited to use this with my faculty!!
Hi Eric! Glad you’ll be able to use this. Here are the talking points:
1. What did you teach? Think beyond your curriculum; what did you teach about empathy, citizenship, stewardship?
2. What did you learn? What do you know today about your students and yourself that you did not know in August?
3. What did you do well? We tend to be overly critical of ourselves. Think about your successes and write them down. Learn from them as much as you try to learn from your failures.
4. What do you need to work on? Where can you become stronger? Organization, planning, wait time, 1v1 interactions, patience?
5. What impact did you have beyond your content and the classroom? Team planning? PLCs? Task force? Club Leader?
Conclusion: The 2017-2018 year brings new promise, new students, new opportunities… How will you approach the year differently and why (we always need to know our why)?
Hope the activity you run goes well!
Thank you so much for sharing these! I will let you know how it goes. Our teachers have been experimenting with FlipGrid, now it is time for the Admin team!
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Hi,
Thanks for sharing this great idea. You mentioned about a video that your principal showed in the meeting, could you please share the video with us.
This was just an intro that my principal recorded using Flipgrid (just him talking to the camera).
Hi,
Could you also share what were the instructions given to the teacher via google docs?
Hi Taz,
I have the talking points in a reply to Eric in the comments I responded to earlier. I hope that helps!
Hi,
When you returned back for the following year. What happened when you revisited this activity? Did you do it in the same way or something new was in place waiting? How did help teachers during the new year.
Stacey,
This reflection activity is just what I was looking for to segway into a focus on social-emotional learning for our coming year. Would you be able to share what the principal’s follow-up activity was? I could create my own, but having an example to start from is so very helpful.
I’m so happy to hear this was helpful in your planning, Laura! I don’t remember specifically what we did when we came back in the fall of that year — but in general, we usually start the year by creating SMART goals that we share with our department chair. This goal-setting activity would involve beginning with the end-of-year reflections we had done (in this case, through the Google Doc and Flipgrid) as a reminder to look back before planning forward!