One Thing Differently...

"While we can't continue to do more things, we can do things differently." ~Unmapped Potential, by Julie Hasson and Missy Lennard, pg. 109

Ain't that the truth!

This is one point that made me go "Ooooh! I have an idea for our T-Wolves of the month!"

What? You might not know what I mean, so let me back up... First off, Julie and Missy (authors of the above quote) want teachers to uncover - and tap into - the limitless potential of their students. Secondly, this was in the chapter right after the chapter about better ways to lead a team. My brain, therefore, was on my team and a struggle we often have - coming up with "T-Wolves of the month."

We currently have six teams at my middle school (two in 6th, 7th, and 8th), and each team chooses two boys and two girls (I'm waiting for the gender stipulation to be lifted soon) to receive the designation of "T-Wolf of the month." Usually our team starts the year by making a list of students that have made an impact on their class right away, and then we go from there. Some months (March or April, anyone?!) are tougher than others, when it seems even the students who are excellent in character all year suddenly are... how should I put it... not living up to their potential. Remember - this is middle school. They have a lot of growing still to do. During our 40 minutes of team time, this decision could take up to 20 minutes - as we all see students in different situations, and (even though it's a team of ELA, math, PE/health, science, and social studies) we don't each see ALL students.

As I read the above quote, I had an "aha" moment - let's invite the students to help!

First, we'd have to explain to students what the process is that the team goes through to choose this person ("character counts" traits, consistency, etc.), and then we can let them know there is a spot for them to nominate someone - this form, ideally, would be on each of our homeroom web pages. When it comes time to choose, we can use their responses as a resource! Their ideas will be taken into consideration. We'll need to let them know that the team will look at every response, and the person they nominated may or may not be chosen that month, depending on our discussion and other student names we're bringing to the table.

You KNOW the kids see a lot of what we don't see - and I'm excited to see the more quiet students step up in this fashion. I've made the form only for students in our district (yes, it will collect their name automatically), so you cannot view it, but I took a screen shot of it here for you to see the simplicity...

Thoughts? Ideas to add? Wording to change? I thought I'd bring it to my online PLN before I share it with the team school in August, so let me know! Thanks for the spark of inspiration, Julie & Missy!