Friday, June 25, 2010

Bright Spots

I am re-reading Chip and Dan Heath's Switch. The concept in the "direct the rider" section about BRIGHT SPOTS is so compelling that I cannot get the idea out of my mind. Why are we so problem-solving oriented versus bright-spot-reproducing oriented? We should be recreating more of the moments when things work well, when our strengths are revealed and engaged, when our efforts are at our best. We should write and send more "class acts" than "class demerits." What has made us so focused on locating and addressing "the broken" that it has us habituated to such behavior? At my school, we use teacher peer visits as an element of a growth system. As the peer visits model is expanding,several are resisting the idea. Much of the resistance seems to center around who will read the peer-visit notes. But the peer-visit notes are strength-based...they are bright-spots notes. Yet he habit in people seems to assume that admin is looking for what's broken. That's something to fix - the assumption that we are mining what's broken versus building on what is strong. Here's to a bright-spots movement!

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