After a considerable amount of thought and lots of
collaborative talks with my Assistant Principal, Counselor, and Instructional Coach,
I took a leap of faith and jumped right into the beginning stages of
implementing the “House” concept. The
first thing I did to begin this process of transformation was to meet with my
Transformational Leadership Committee. I
was not surprised that they all bought into the concept right away! They saw the value of what the House concept
could do for purposeful planning and more individualized instruction for each child. They were excited and offered to be the first
to implement the concept! I was thrilled
and began planning
a “Pilot House” with my Transformational Team. Then, the word spread around campus, and
teachers began asking questions about the House concept. I noticed there were some that seemed genuinely
interested and also wanted the opportunity to try it and be part of a “House.” Although this was extremely promising to have
a number of teachers ready to jump on board, it also made it more difficult
because I had enough to “Pilot” one “House,” but not two in these beginning
stages.
So then I decided to venture out and include all grade
levels in the implementation process. I wanted
feedback on their thoughts of implementing this concept in a “Pilot” program. I also wanted to get a feel on how many were
interested in being part of a “Pilot” to see if I could add another “House.” The feedback I received was mixed. Some were immediately excited about the possibilities,
and some were somewhat resistant.
Everyone thought the concept made sense and could understand the value
of the approach, but some of the upper grade levels were hesitant about going
self-contained (teaching all subjects).
Some were just afraid of change and weren’t excited about leaving their
teams and working closely with other staff members they didn’t know well. In the end, I had more teachers that wanted to
try it that didn’t. So, even though I
knew that it would not be easy, I made the decision to go school-wide because
trying to add two “Pilot Houses” into a rotation schedule for Specials could
not be done. There just wasn’t enough
time in the school day to rotate 6 grade levels and 2 Houses through Specials. It just made sense to bite the bullet and dive
in school-wide. And with the approval of
my Superintendent, we did just that!
Then we began rolling out the plan. I met
with my staff to go over the roll out plan and what it would look like here at
Madeley Ranch Elementary. I immediately
got in touch with the Principal at Lee Elementary to schedule a day for my
staff to tour her school. I felt it was
important for them to see this concept in action! In April, I sent 21 of my Teachers along with
my Assistant Principal and Counselor to tour Lee. They came back just as excited and in awe as
the three of us were in January! Buy-in
had definitely started to set in on my campus!
In the month of May, we held three Parent Information
Sessions about the “House” concept. I
set it up in a town hall format where I explained what the “House” concept was
all about, why we were going to implement it, and how we would implement it on
our campus. Then I gave time for parents
to ask questions. I had a panel of
teachers who volunteered to speak and answer questions. The panel of teachers did a phenomenal job of
explaining the concept and answering questions.
You could see the passion resonate from each one as they spoke about the
benefits the concept allows for teachers and for students. Most parents were receptive to the idea. Some were very excited! And, there were some that were not on
board. Change is difficult, and I could
see that our journey would have some ups and downs along the way. I knew this journey would not be easy, but
one worth taking the risk. In my heart,
I knew this was what was best for kids.
After the meetings, I put together a FAQ about the “House”
concept to send home with students. I also
placed it on our website. We wanted to
be as transparent as possible. We felt
it was vital for parents to read the FAQ and feel free to ask questions through
emails, parent conferences, and phone conferences. It was also important for our parents who
were not able to come to an information session to have literature on the “House”
concept. There was also some inaccurate
information and misconceptions floating around the community regarding this
concept that needed to be put to rest.
We wanted only the facts to be disseminated.
In June, a group of teachers, administrators and I presented
the “House” concept to our School Board.
They were impressed with the benefits of the concept and what it could
do academically for our students. They
were also very fond of the relationship piece that “House” lends to the
approach. We were excited and ready to
get started! We were ready to embrace
the long hours we knew we had ahead of us to plan, write new schedules, revise
procedures, tweak curriculum alignment, move classrooms and place students into
Houses. We had a lot of work in
store to
make this a success!
The summer was spent planning to be the “Change!” Our staff was busy making plans to go “Above
the Line” for our students!
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