AD Connect
4-21-19
Culture of Feedback
People want feedback in real time. Good employees have the drive to grow and learn. But far too many managers come up with excuses as to why they aren’t offering feedback sooner. Ultimately, when a leader offers feedback to an employee, it can be uncomfortable.
As difficult as giving and receiving feedback can be, a strong feedback culture is absolutely crucial for the growth of an organization. Creating a school environment that welcomes feedback paves the way to building a growth-minded culture — and a growth-minded culture yields higher productivity and the retention of employees who feel truly valued.
There are benefits for employees, leaders and the entire district when a feedback culture is established. The foundation of a feedback culture can be formed by using these three pillars: ask, listen and act. Incorporating this method into a school's feedback culture sets an example that the employees' voices are heard and valued. When the leader asks for feedback from employees on a regular basis, it inspires the employees to do the same for themselves.
Ask: Weekly polling/feedback And Monthly Challenge
It’s important to set up a consistent feedback routine. Sporadic feedback will not establish a trusted feedback culture within an organization. A great option for a consistent dialogue is to ask for regular feedback about school events, decisions and communications. This can be done with Google Forms, through a survey tool or even better…face to face with groups (see critical friends protocol). The faster the employee input is sought, the better — remember, real time counts. This weekly polling will set the tone for a feedback-positive environment.
Once a foundation for a feedback culture has been set, a great way to get the employees comfortable asking for feedback on their own is through a feedback campaign. For example, a “Request Feedback Month Challenge” where each week there is a different initiative to tackle. This might look like:
Week 1: Ask one person to name an area of strength.
Week 2: Ask several people to name an area of strength.
Week 3: Ask one person for a developmental piece of feedback on a specific situation.
Week 4: Ask several people for a developmental piece of feedback on the same situation.
The first two weeks begin with receiving positive feedback, which allows for comfortable and encouraging dialogue and ensures that as many employees as possible participate. The last two weeks are set to be an excellent opportunity to learn how to give and receive constructive feedback.
Listen: Respond To Feedback
Once you have established a means of receiving feedback, the next big step to ensure that the feedback culture is sustainable is to actually listen.
One way to make sure the employee knows that you value their needs and voice is to create a “How I Like to Receive Feedback” worksheet for them to fill out. It can include the following open-ended statements:
• The best way to give me feedback is …
• The best feedback I’ve received was …
• My worst experience with feedback was …
• I like to hear positive feedback this often …
• When I receive constructive feedback, my first instinct is to …
This worksheet will open up a dialogue between the manager and employee and create a safe space for feedback to be given and received.
Act: Take Action And Communicate
Sustaining a positive feedback culture can happen when employees see real movement within the school with what they’ve shared. The leader doesn't have to agree with everything that is being suggested from the employees, but it is vital to recognize the suggestions publicly and to show they were heard.
Biweekly or monthly email communications can be helpful to keep up with the feedback coming in from the feedback. Not only can the communications convey the consensus, but it can also highlight certain ideas or concerns from employees and offer a response.
Feedback culture builds upon workplace morale and the individual growth for all members of an organization. Once the foundation has been set, sustaining it will become easier and easier with each feedback dialogue that is opened up between manager and employee. An organization with a positive feedback culture is an organization that has the opportunity to continually grow.
Anonymous Alerts and Hotline
With the launch of the Anonymous Alert system this school year, there has been some confusion around that system and the District Hotline. Please remind your staff that these two communication systems serve very different roles in our district.
Anonymous Alerts - This system is intended for students, parents, and/or citizens to report bullying and other urgent student concerns.
Hotline - This system is intended to insure standards of ethical, moral and legal business conduct. It is to be used to report serious concerns or questionable actions that are unlawful, are not in line with Garland ISD policies and procedures, serious improper conduct, or incidents that go against our freedom from bullying policy.
Performance Matters
We have a new point of contact for any issues related to the platform for T-TESS, T-PESS, and professional development. Please contact Eboney Forte enforte@garlandisd.net any questions you may have.DRA/EDL dates
Consolidate Performance Plans
The Consolidated Performance Assessment is an end of the year summary you provide in Performance Matters to demonstrate progress you have made toward your T-PESS goals. This documentation consists of the following:
A brief, concise summary of the actions you have taken toward goal attainment (this is typed in the Employee Comments section in the Consolidated Performance Assessment)
Artifacts related to goal progression or attainment for both goals (these are the artifacts that were agreed on during our Beginning of the Year Goal-Setting Meeting or adjusted at the Mid-Year Review). For example, if your goal was the consistent implementation the WDM process with a particular grade level, meaningful artifacts would include: video samples showing progress, meeting minutes, reteach lessons, data trackers for DOLs/reteach, and/or, follow up walkthroughs forms to observe reteach, etc.
This documentation will need to be submitted in Performance Matters in the Consolidated Performance Assessment by Friday, May 3, 2019. I will review submissions and begin completing the End of the Year Summary Rubric in preparation for our end of year conference.
Principal Action Plans
When we gear up for STAAR, we are busy creating teacher action plans to ensure students are prepared for the assessments. We do this with great intentionality and specificity. Do you do the same thing for your action plan? Are you as targeted in your own actions during STAAR review. Consider creating a plan for yourself with the following key components:
Look-fors - What do you expect to see when visiting 3rd-5th grade classrooms, and are teachers crystal clear about it? How much collaborative work is appropriate? How much independent practice is expected? What should teachers be doing to monitor learning and provide feedback to teachers?
Walkthroughs - Create a systematic plan for walkthroughs to monitor those look-fors and provide daily, in-the-moment feedback to teachers. With only two weeks remaining, issues must be addressed immediately.
Adjust - Meet with teachers regularly to track student progress and make adjustments to groups/areas of focus based on student need.
Leadership Survey
Retentions
As we near the end of the year, you should be reviewing student overall grades and those in danger of failing for the year. Before considering retention:
First and foremost, remember that the District’s ultimate goal is elimination of the practice of retaining students (GISD Board Policy EIE Local).
Ensure thorough failure prevention documentation - According to Grading and Grouping Guidelines, “All steps of the GISD Elementary Failure Prevention Plan (Appendix C) must be followed for every student who receives a failing grade on the report card, beginning with parent contact initiated by the teacher of record.”
Verify that parents have received consistent communication throughout the year. No parent should ever be surprised if this topic is broached.
Consider whether student STAAR performance will demonstrate mastery - if grades don’t demonstrate proficiency but STAAR does, investigate the gap and address it.
Dates Too Important not to Forget
April 22-New Image Awards at CCC
April 23-Teacher of the Year Luncheon
April 24-Deadline to submit General Educator of the Year nominations
April 26-Deadline to submit summer reading celebration and program launch (WAIP, 4/12)
April 27-STEAMposium at CCC
April 19-Student-staff holiday
May 3-Consolidated Performance Assessment for T-PESS due, School Lunch Hero Day
May 6-GISD Retirement Celebration
May 8-Deadline for T-TESS summative evaluations, School Nurse Appreciation Day
May 13-3rd & 4th Math STAAR
May 14-3rd & 4th Reading STAAR
May 22-MAP window closes
June 13-Title I Capital Outlay, Personnel Requests, and Technology Requests due (WAIP 4/18)
June 17-TEA Principal Survey due (WAIP 4/18)
If they don't find you Handsome...they should at least find you Handy...
Tuesday: Coaching; Teacher of the Year Banquet
Wednesday: CIA and AD meeting
Thursday: Coaching
Friday: Coaching