Take a Positive Approach for School Transformation
Many school district personnel are feeling discouraged by the pressures of the
accountability movement. LifeTrek Coaching International uses Appreciative
Inquiry (AI), a strengths-based approach to transformational change, and personal
coaching to turn around that discouragement at the speed of imagination.
We know how to make schools fun.
The AI process involves as many stakeholders as possible in an
engaging and enjoyable process of discovering the best of what is, dreaming of
what might be, and designing the strategies to make it so.
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The Fostoria Schools Summit,
in Fostoria, Ohio, outlines a typical AI process. The newspaper stories in
the Fostoria Review Times
document both the process and progress made. You can also watch two videos,
one that was used as part of the
Promotional Campaign and the other that documents the
Summit Process itself.
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 Strengths-Based
Focus Improves School Climate, by Bob & Megan
Tschannen-Moran, explains the results of the process in Fostoria as well as the connection between AI and schools as professional
learning communities.
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From Problem to
Possibility: Leadership for Implementing and Deepening the Processes of
Effective Schools, by Alan J. Daly and Janet Chrispeels, sets AI in the
context of increased school accountability.
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Appreciative
Inquiry: A Transformative Paradigm, by Jane Magruder Watkins and David
Cooperrider, provides a brief and general overview as to the history,
philosophy, and practice of AI.
As part of the
AI process, LifeTrek Coaching International offers
professional development and personalized coaching to key district leaders,
including School Board members, central office administrators, building
administrators, and teacher leaders. Through dynamic work sessions and
individual coaching conversations, LifeTrek builds the collective efficacy and
success of schools.
Five-Principle Coaching, by Bob Tschannen-Moran explains how the process
works.
Based,
in part, on the work of LifeTrek's Vice-President, Dr. Megan
Tschannen-Moran, a member of the faculty in Educational Policy, Planning and
Leadership in the School of Education at the College of William & Mary in
Williamsburg, Virginia, and author of
Trust Matters:
Leadership for Successful Schools (2004), LifeTrek has put together a
program that generates measurable improvements in school culture, working
relationships, and student success.
Want to see if LifeTrek Coaching International can assist your district or
building to
celebrate what's right with schools? Submit the form below to get the
conversation started. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
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