Turn Your Mission and Vision Statements into Clear Guiding Principles with a Colorful Graphic to Help Shape Your School Culture: An Interactive Workshop Michele Gregoire Gill, PHd UCF Center for creating and sustaining innovative schools ucfccsis.org

Common Mission Statement Problems Too much educational “jargon” Misaligned with school’s real values/goals Too vague Un-actionable Not used for school decision making

https://www.ucfccsis.org/

MISSION STATEMENt The Galileo School for Gifted Learning provides innovative, research- based education in a nurturing environment for gifted and talented students and those who want to learn in a gifted learning environment that will challenge and motivate them to pursue their passionate interests in service to others.

Galileo School Guiding Principles ©2013 Michele Gregoire Gill. All rights reserved.

vision STATEMENt The goal of the Galileo School for Gifted Learning is to engage our students through an integrated curriculum using science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content while simultaneously providing them with the guidance to see its applications and purpose through history, literature, and the arts; thereby producing our country’s next generation of independent thinkers.

Now it’s your turn First, examine mission/vision see which one you want to work with If you think yours is too vague, that is fine. Still work with it. You can go back to your board and CEO and work to refine your mission/vision if possible. You may prefer to work with your overall school philosophy. Identify your school’s target goals for the education of its students.

Action Steps: Step 1 Break down each line of your mission or vision statement into separate ideas Example, Galileo vision: To engage our students through an integrated curriculum using science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content while simultaneously providing them with the guidance to see its applications and purpose through history, literature, and the arts; thereby producing our country’s next generation of independent thinkers. So here we have: --engage --application/purpose --integrated curriculum --independent thinkers --STEAM

Action Steps: Step 2 2. Create Guiding Principles Consider how you might restate each separate idea into “plain” or everyday English. Are there any fun or relevant connections you can make to terms that relate to your school? What is the research support behind each idea? --engage: Motivation, engagement, interest --integrated curriculum: meaningful learning --STEM: need for STEM majors, importance in 21st Century economy --Application: Applied learning, problem solving --Independent thinkers—critical thinking, reasoning skills

Action Steps: Step 2 2. Create Guiding Principles Engagement principle: Instruction centers on deep engagement in learning Connected curriculum: We maximize opportunities to teach content in an integrated rather than isolated format to promote meaningful learning. STEAM Rules! We ensure that all students find success with STEAM based courses Problem-Solving: We provide opportunities for students to engage in problem solving to help them apply what they are learning to the outside world Independent Thinkers: We encourage students’ thinking, even when their thoughts and ideas are different from our own.

Action Steps: Step 3 3. Examine how these principles are related to each other Discrete ideas? Hierarchical? Cyclical? Connected? For our example, I think engagement is the core, and the other principles all relate to it, so I am going to look for a graphic with something at the center or underlying the other components

Action Steps: Step 4 4. Choose a graphic (or create one) that reflects their conceptual relationship spatially and sketch out principles

Engagement Connected Curriculum STEAM Rules! Problem-Solving Independent Thinkers

Action Steps: Step 5 Are they phrased without jargon? 5. Share with a peer and provide helpful feedback Are the principles easy to understand? Are they phrased without jargon? Do the principles capture ALL of the parts of the school’s mission or vision statement? Does the graphic accurately depict the interrelation of ideas?

Action Steps, Summary Break down each line of your mission or vision statement into separate ideas Create Guiding Principles Examine how they are related to each other Choose a graphic (or create one) that reflects their conceptual relationship spatially and sketch out how this might look Share with a peer and provide helpful feedback Hand out lined paper. Write it out with each idea on a separate line. Also, hand out examples of graphic organizers.

What kind of school are you trying to build?

Thank you! Any questions?