Last night I witnessed something which I really feel is a critical component of why our school works so well. 10 teachers sat around a table and ate together and openly discussed our recent MYP camp.
There were no accusations of blame or discussion of which teachers may have not pulled their weight; there was just an open discussion on how can we improve this camp. In about a 30 minute discussion, the group had outlined the successes of the camp and the failures of the camp. In about another 20 minutes, they had analyzed and categorized the successes and failures and come up with solutions to the problems that they saw.
They should have gone home to their families and rested, after all they were all tired. They could have decided to wait until later to discuss the issues. "Let’s hold off and wait until our meeting on Tuesday to discuss this," they could have said. Instead, they sat down in their dirty and smelly camp clothes and discussed improvements to the camp for an hour, almost immediately after the last child was safely on their way home with their parents.
It is this kind of commitment to our organization and to what we do which has made my school so much fun to work at. I love working with a group of people who are fully committed to what they do and in which everyone pulls their weight.