Positive Modeling: Building Strong Positive Relationships

Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach.

– Rosabeth Moss Kantor

INTRO

In schools where relationships are strong and positive, modeling is evident. It is a very Little Thing that could have been done yesterday, and you can do it tomorrow.

OBJECTIVES

Observe and then reflect on your school’s demonstration of positive modeling

Consider offering PD for staff regarding the importance and strategies of positive modeling

RESOURCES

ARTICLE: Positive Modeling – Model the Responsible Use of Power and Authority

EXPECTATIONS

Staff treat students, staff, and families with respect.
Demonstrate openly how to communicate, and resolve issues in positive and productive ways.
Modeling is an expectation for administrators, staff, older students, and key family/community members.

STRATEGIES

Demonstrate transparency: Teachers can achieve buy-in from their students when we explain our use of power and authority. Students are more likely to accept power and authority that they understand.

Share power where possible and appropriate: Though it is not always possible or appropriate to share power with students in all situations, students can learn to trust a teacher who shares power and authority in appropriate situations.

Provide learning opportunities through natural consequences: When students understand that an internal logic justifies the consequences for their actions, they are often more able to accept those consequences. Punishment, in contrast, is often arbitrary and aims to inflict suffering or humiliation on the student.

Enable healthy development through respectful interactions: Teachers can always find a way to protect students’ dignity and express our respect for students’ basic humanity through our mode of communication. We can demonstrate that even anger can be expressed in a respectful way.

Demonstrate assertiveness: Teachers transmit an extremely important message when we constructively assert ourselves with students. Through non-aggressive self-assertion, teachers communicate that everyone has the right to respect, and that it is possible to stand up for oneself without taking away someone else’s right.

TIPS

We can not underscore how powerful modeling is.
When “teachers” are named in the strategies, it applies to all adults in the school setting.
Little Things, such as the above activity, are smaller efforts you can do tomorrow, or within the next week.