Relationships Over Everything: Why Perspectives, Teamwork, and Connections Matter Most in Education!

Outline

The presentation begins with some basic pictures and scenarios which have participants make choices based upon what they see, then moves into music. The music changes as the slides change, getting people into it and using their points of view to decide if they remember the songs and enjoy them. The first music session ends with Journey (Don't Stop Believin) and then moves into a story about my sister who passed away from a brain tumor. The song gets people going, but then the entire narrative changes as they find out that this was her favorite song.
From there, participants then see videos of my daughters fishing, again, to hammer home the idea of looking at items from a different view point, because in the end, I narrate the 2nd video from the viewpoint of the fish. We then move into some school topics and see what other previous participants have said about schools, colleagues, parents, and teaching styles. This leads into an interactive session from the crowd in which they use a QR code and their answers for the question, “Name two words that describe a great school” and their words appear as a word cloud.
 Following this, with the idea that we have defined what makes a “great school”, as well as the idea that we need to look at topics from multiple perspectives, we can then discuss the ‘V’ principles that lead to dynamic teamwork in schools. Through various videos and activities, we examine collaboration, adaptability, communication, and encouragement.
Following this section, we get to another round of “who loves MORE music” which leads us to a story about my favorite student, Karen. The last song in this section is “Drops of Jupiter,” by Train, which is a song about the lead singer’s mom, who died of cancer. The connection is that Karen sadly took her own life in 2019, a connection that hammers in the idea that we must make schools better for all students because we affect the future more than we know.
Next we move back to the principles and discuss roles and responsibilities, trust and reliance (with an interactive activity), and diversity.
The presentation wraps up with showing videos of how some slight changes (using the ‘V’ principles) created huge success (discussing the end of the movie clips and activities).
Finally, we wrap up with some “Perspective” hills I would die on, which highlights ten opinions I have developed over my 18 years as an administrator. We end with a moment where we take a ‘selfie' as a tribute to Tyrone Thompson, the namesake of the school I opened, and then head out to more music.
In this presentation, I bring the passion and it is my goal to leave participants inspired and amped up as well as ready to implement positive change in their schools.

Supporting research

Building Dynamic Teamwork in Schools by Brad Johnson and Robert Hinchliffe

More Than Just Teaching by Robert Hinchliffe

It's All About Perspective by Robert Hinchliffe

Mr. Rogers is featured as well