10 Comments

  1. sfernandez

    After reading and reflecting on your paper, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School (OLPH) will have a motivational climate that enhances teachers to grow intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. Also, with increased motivational intelligence: motivation, teacher self-efficacy, teacher engagement and effectiveness will increase and fulfill your school’s goal of its mission, vision and philosophy. Further, with all these elements in place there will be an improved faculty and staff relationship as well as the campus climate of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School. This a great application of organizational theories to your school.

  2. ataramona

    Amanda, I think that EI is a huge contributor to success within any school! The following are some quotes that I found important:

    – “Therefore, I argue that while we as educational leaders cannot alter what motivates the faculty and staff of our school, we can build on the motivational pieces that are already in place and assist the faculty and staff in reconnecting to one another on the basis of shared values and mutual respect.” Pg. 6
    This seems like such a “duh” concept, but it is something that we need to truly focus on; we, as leaders, cannot try to manipulate the faculty and staff to be motivated in a way that is not natural to them. We need to identify what exactly motivates them now and build upon in order to help us become a more effective team.

    – “It is important to give teachers more and more information about emotional intelligence as well as to inform them on signs of burnout and how to overcome it as well as how to deal with stressful problems.“ Pg.8
    Knowledge is power. If we are not aware of different contributors that can make us successful/unsuccessful, then how can we prevent/utilize them? We need to provide information to all of our team in order to help them as holistically as possible!

  3. mwillis2

    Amanda,

    You mentioned that it would be good for a teacher to get more and more information about Emotional Intelligence(s), presumably about the teacher’s own self, so as to forestall burnout and alleviate stress. I was struck by a thought that, as concerns our students, the absolute best situation would be for each teacher to have a detailed (I don’t know what that would entail, or even if it is actually possible) emotional Intelligence data for each student. Although our modern American research-based teaching techniques can be specific for our own discipline (science often uses the 5E teaching cycle, for instance), and thus highly effective, and we know that, overall, the best strategy for having our students learn involves our using multiple Intelligences to guide our lesson planning – both to target the student’s strong learning intelligences and to “stretch” the student’s ability to learn in her “weaker” intelligences – wouldn’t it be great if we know, day by day – even hour by hour – the emotional state each student was in. If we did, we could truly tailor our instructions to the student, thus maximizing teacher effectiveness and student learning.

  4. afragoso

    I agree and think emotional intelligence is very important. I also agree with the humanistic view, that its important to want to continuously grow. I think a key to keeping the foundation of your school culture was keeping those strengths that created it. The level of commitment to the community, the feeling of home and belonging and the roots of those that stayed during all of the changes.

  5. pmartinez48

    This paper had a lot of great insight! You stated that, “Over the last six years, our school has had three principals and four assistant principals, each with a very different view on the importance of the Catholic identity of our community.” This is very strange to me. The faculty was and probably is still in somewhat of disarray with so much change. I can definitely see the need for some faculty retreat and team building activities. In your year-long plan you say that you will implement a video study. I am interested in The Sophia Institute called The Spirituality of the Teacher for myself. As a Catholic School Educator we could all use some reminders on why we do what we do!

  6. mcuervoybennet

    With the high turnover rate of three principals in six years, I am impressed that your school has been able to maintain the original philosophy and values. Of those values, I really appreciate how the philosophy is to educate the whole child: spiritually, morally, intellectually, physically, emotionally, and socially. Additionally, working with the family and church, with the parents being primary educators, is so important. Not only does that incorporate more responsibility, but it also allows for the collaborative culture that we have discussed before. With the emotional intelligence component, I like how studies have shown to understand character development and deepen faith, which is one of the issues at your school. By recognizing that all individuals are different and that each interaction should be personalized, I agree with your concluding statements and believe that will increase the emotional intelligence of the faculty at your school!

  7. kbarton

    I was very interested in reading you paper. I do believe that emotional health can have a very big effect on not only the classroom, but the school as a whole. One bad day can change they dynamic of a school forever if it is not addressed properly. I have been both a Catholic school student and an educator in the high school and middle school environment. In the classroom alone, I have noticed that if one student in the classroom has decided to have a bad day, it can ruin the whole class for the day. The same is true for a teacher bringing down the school. It is beneficial for a school to have events or activities that allow teachers to bond with each other and be outside of the classroom so that their emotions are positive and they have built a relationship with their colleagues.

  8. mlopez100

    Amanda,
    I could relate to your paper in so many levels. As you know we shared the common theme of administration turnover. As our faculty and staff transitioned with each new administrator, they found themselves getting frustrated as the transitions became more often than expected. I found your quote, “Therefore, as leaders of the school, it is vitally important that we support the same ideals and values of the faith and spirituality and foster that growth in the faculty and staff who are charged with this responsibility” (p. 3) to hit the nail on the head in terms of what the administration team needs to carry out. No matter the transition, the rest of the administration team should foster that support for the teachers to make the transitions as smooth and with less interruption as possible. As the same time, I found the quote, “Understanding who we are and what we bring to the community will strengthen that bond” (p.6) demonstrates the importance of the relationship between faculty and administration. In my personal observation and in conversation with you, I know that this has been a tremendous concern. I know that through your hardworking and continuous drive, your goal to foster that relationship will be reached. Your plan seems sound and attainable. I would be interested in following up on how teachers respond to your organizational plan. Best of Luck!

  9. aboone

    I applaud the approach your administration is taking in working to help each member of your faculty to understand and develop themselves. I think these efforts will show the value you have for them, their well-being, and the gifts that they each uniquely offer to the OLPH community. I think this well help people gain clarity in not only their role, but also one another’s roles in the school. Furthermore, I think this is excellent modeling by the administration of developing trust for each school member to execute their role well, even if they do so in their own way, according to their talents.

    I also appreciate that your plan roots this process of building emotional intelligence and self-efficacy in Gospel values and the school’s mission. I think this will help everyone clearly understand the rationale and buy into a shared vision of a stronger school. Personally, I think tying the spiritual aspect into this development process will strengthen the results.

    As we mentioned previously, your approach to developing self-efficacy dovetails with my research on collective teacher efficacy. I think the decision to start by focusing on the individual in the case of your school is the best approach, as I think it is necessary to repair relationships and trust after so much instability in the administration. That said, some of the methods used to build collective efficacy would certainly help in this case. I think primarily, that helping teachers to recognize mastery experiences (such as their attainment of their goals), by showing them evidence of their improvement would go a long way in helping develop their self-efficacy. I also think that vicarious experiences, like watching others or learning about others schools that have gone through a similar experience, and then seeing how they used similar methods to obtain their goals may also help.

  10. ephillips8

    I like that you acknowledge that you cannot control the things that motivate people, but you CAN build on those factors that already motivate the faculty and staff. In reality this makes your job much easier, because instead of getting everyone to conform their views into yours, you meet in the middle and work together to create positive results. As people who seek affirmation and success, it is important to know yourself and constantly find ways to grow and become a better version of yourself than the days before, this is especially important in a school environment because you deal with young people who are creating their ideals and perceptions of their surroundings and these things will shape who they become. As an educator or someone who works in this environment you have serious potential to create a positive lasting impact on peoples lives, but it begins with emotional intelligence. Being able to show empathy where it is needed, kindness, being stern, etc. Basically to be aware of your emotions but to have CONTROL over them, we all want people to show their emotions but nobody likes people who are too emotional. therefore emotional intelligence is a very important topic.

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