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Education Opinion

Communication and Relationships Support Change

By Jill Berkowicz & Ann Myers — February 19, 2015 1 min read
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Two of the challenges faced by schools today are getting a critical mass of the community to understanding and agree upon a vision for the future and, once that happens, knowing how to lead schools and communities through the change process. These challenges are related to building relationships and good communication. Words are helpful, but today we take the liberty to share some video resources we think are worth watching may be helpful resources to support a change process.

Relationships Support School Improvement
Improving student achievement by teaching differently and testing differently is, at best, an outdated, narrow view. Schools are dynamic human institutions. They exist within larger systems. The type of change needed requires acceptance that school reform is dependent on the development of individuals and of crucial, interdependent connections within and beyond the school community. Can this be described in a short video? Check out this one from the Albert Shanker Institute.

Communication Facilitates Understanding
In 2006 Karl Fisch, a teacher at Arapahoe High School in Centennial Colorado developed a presentation called “Did You Know: Shift Happens” that successfully captured the need for educational change. It struck a chord and went viral. Together with Scott McLeod, they have brought it forward through several versions and now version five can be found here.

Sir Ken Robinson world-renowned education and creativity expert speaks about his beliefs about why changing educational paradigms is needed. A creative and informative twelve-minute animation of the full talk is a great resource and is here.

Sir Ken Robinson’s full talk, on which this animation was based is here:

The skilled use of communication and the the ongoing development of relationships within and beyond the school community are vital in leading change.

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