LM-Lion Leaders: Improving Dialogue in our Schools

“We should make it easy for others to tell us what they think even

if what they think, conflicts with our views.”

~Jim Knight, Better Conversations p. 82

If you have spent any time in education you learn quickly that each year our world is filled with new buzzwords, acronyms, and strategies to use with students and staff.

One topic that has remained constant during my twenty-three years in education is RELATIONSHIPS. Each year I read several books, and most of them include information on fostering positive relationships with students, how to make connections, and how to create classrooms with high trust and positive climate. I’ve spent a majority of my summer pondering on how hard teachers work to build relationships with students. Yet, I’ve spent enough time in PLC meetings and conference rooms to recognize we often do not hold the same standards for how we work with our colleagues.

This summer, I read the book: Better Conversations by Jim Knight. He shares in his book, that better conversations are about finding common ground, asking better questions, fostering dialogue, redirecting toxic words and emotions, and building trust. All things we need in our schools.

He also shares several stories from coaches around the country in this book, and several studies and research about what teachers think. What Knight captures in his book is that sometimes as adults we focus on obvious differences rather than finding common ground with our peers.

Dialogue is hard, but I believe that dialogue is an opportunity for each of us to learn something about our own thinking, as well as the thinking of the people sitting across the table from us, or standing next to us at the water cooler. If I want my students to appreciate diverse opinions and beliefs in my classroom, then I have to do the same with my colleagues just a few doors down in the conference room. I have to appreciate diverse opinions and beliefs. And that. Is. Hard.

We want what's best for students because if we didn't, our schools would be empty. There would be no teachers.

Our passion for students is ignited by our experiences, our beliefs, and our values—They are important to bring to the conference rooms, but sometimes they can deter us from productive conversations. This concept of agreeing to disagree is the very thing that can make some conversations GREAT and some conversations PRICKLY.

So how can we do this? All of this begins with that magical six-letter word: LISTEN. If we truly begin to listen to each other, we can begin to find common ground. When we find that common ground, we can begin to build trust, improve our collegial relationships and work as productively together as we do with our students.