After going to that first training, I came back to my school and met with my principal and told her about the CFG training. I gave her my plan to expose the staff to some of the activities and invite them to try some of the protocols, and by mid year try and start a monthly CFG meeting. She was both intrigued and skeptical. She trusted me and said that we could go with it.
My other fellow trainee was "all-in" for this idea too. We plotted the right activities and began conducting them in teacher meetings. We first did Compass Points. Followed that up with a ChalkTalk. We did a Zones of Comfort Activity, and finished up with a Tuning Protocol inside a "fishbowl". We had given enough information to our staff that many were chomping at the bit to do more.
In December we asked about 8 representative staff members to join us for a half day CFG meeting. We started with Transitions followed with a Micro-Lab. We then setup our Group Agreements. We then used a text protocol and closed the meeting. We planned to have a Consultancy at our next meeting. Our reflections from the group showed that they were excited by the CFG and could not wait for the next meeting.
The rest of the year went quickly and had our group excited by the idea that we had protocols to help each other improve ourselves and help students learn. We began to use some of the activities in our classroom with students. By the end of the school year we had four of our CFG staff members who were planning on being trained as CFG coaches. This allowed us to expand our experiences outside our ten people.
Our CFG experience also changed how our principal wanted to do leadership and improvement. We began to use protocols in our improvement meetings and our leadership team began to plan the teachers meeting. The processes we used, we became more "shared leadership" instead of "top down leadership". Almost everyone was more satisfied with the outcome. Teacher meetings were timed and on time and became Professional Development sessions too.
Our principal really shined with the new "shared leadership model". Her school led the district at leading and innovating in most of the corporation initiatives. We were deciphering the "5 pillars" that had been set-up for all schools to master. I think we perfected a few before our Superintendent really understood the intent and use of some of those tenants that we all observed as important. I also feel that our principal did not feel alone in the process of running a school. She really became a great leader once the burden was lifted a little.
