Reading chapter four of "How to Create a Culture of Achievement in Your School and Classroom" by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Ian Pumpian, helped reinforce my beliefs that our choice of words have a powerful impact on developing students' agency and identity. According to Frey et. al, "[c]hoosing words carefully so that they build students' identities is an important aspect of building the culture of a school" (Loc 1082). At my school we empower students by using language carefully. We use a lot of the Leader in Me by Steven Covey language and encourage students to use that type of language when expressing themselves, especially though problem-resolution situations. My principal, and staff, acknowledges the impact our choice of words have on our students' self-esteem and we actively take steps to consciously use empowering language.
If I were the school leader, in order to make using choice words a more conscious and accountable school wide practice, I would encourage all adults who work on-site to reflect daily on how they feel their interactions with students turned out each day and if they felt they were successful in using empowering language in their interactions throughout the day. We will all make mistakes and at that point, we can replay the scenario in our minds, at the end of the day, but this time we would replay it the way we wish we would have participated in that verbal exchange the first time around. Replaying the situation in our mind the way we wish we would have done it the first time around will help reinforce a more positive habit of mind.
To make the use of choice words a more conscious and accountable personal practice as well as one embraced by others on my site I could model how to do it in a genuine way with my interactions with adults. Choice words is not just something to be used only with students. It can be a way of life that increases your sphere of influence. When you live it, you model it and as a result you stand out and increase your sphere of influence because you will have an approachable demeanor and personality. You can lead by example and that's the best way to spread any practice that you wish others to take on and adopt.
Five things I am willing to do this semester that will make my school choose words wisely include the following:
*Create a "Gratitude Board": a place where students, and any adult on campus, can go up to at any time during the day and add anything they are grateful for choosing choice words.
*Encourage students to go up to five different people during lunch time and use choice words within those interactions.
*Teach my students to give and receive genuine compliments. They will practice with each other and then with any adults they come across during the day.
*Have my students create skits in which they demonstrate how to use choice words and then I would video-tape some of them and share them with the staff so that they can use these videos as examples for their students to view.
*Create a monthly check-off list of different ways we can exercise using choice words throughout our days with students and colleagues.