This post is cross posted from Connected Principals.
Today I had the opportunity to sit in on an MST vision planning meeting in preparation for the 2013-2014 year. I am changing campuses next year and my new campus is Watson MST. The MST stands for Math, Science, & Technology. There is a strand of MST schools within our district that follow this focus. Students who score above a certain percentile are “invited” to attend.
Anyhoo. In this meeting, while trying to establish a framework of beliefs for the MST program, a brilliant colleague, the principal at the other elementary magnet, Jason Adams, explained in a unique (to me) way of looking at what were doing.
He said, “Think about your refrigerator at home. What’s on it? Pictures of your kids? Schedules? Recipes? Postcards? You have things on there that are important to you and that you want a reminder of, to be able to look at every single day. We want these beliefs to be on our MST refrigerator. What’s so important that we want to remember and be reminded of it every day?”
What a GREAT activity for teachers (and students!) to do at the beginning of the year. Have something that represents your school or your classroom and let each teacher or student “hang up” what is important to them.
We, as a group, voted on what was MOST important, but I can see this being something to keep up all year long…with everyone’s input, to help keep that vision front and center all year long. Vision is crucial!
Magnet-ly,
Amber
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