Why a Culture Wall?

Defining Culture Unites Us in Purpose

My fascination with school culture began years before I ever came to The Joy School. Culture to me is a way of life within a group that makes it distinctively different from similar groups. I wrestled with what makes some schools feel seamless and united in purpose while others feel fractured and unable to move. I have personally witnessed both scenarios in the same building. How can a change in only one leader, with the same high-caliber of teachers and staff, make an entire system crumble in one and not the other? This complex question led me to pursue a degree in Educational Leadership.

During my master's program, I left the school district I had been in for 13 years to teach at The Joy School, which was obviously the best decision I have ever made. Several years later, I was honored to become the founding Dean of Faculty at TJS. One of my very first tasks was to create a faculty evaluation that aligned with the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest (ISAS) expectations. The original evaluation plan held teachers accountable for planning and delivering lessons, but those were only performance-based standards and not what really made The Joy School different. I wanted to improve upon our evaluation process to more authentically capture what it means to teach at The Joy School. It’s here where the culture wall began.

Around this same time, I read the book Culturize by Jimmy Casas. In his book, I learned that a school's culture is the most important part. It isn’t something mysterious because you get lucky. School culture is a conscious ideal you strive to reach. It comes about by intentionally identifying and setting forth explicit expectations, though some are not written but understood. Inspired by J. Casas and motivated to create a more comprehensive faculty evaluation, it occurred to me that we need to display a visible, friendly representation that articulates expectations not only of our teachers but of our entire team. Such a display would serve as a snapshot of our evaluation standards that could be viewed by all who pass the halls; no need for anyone - parent, teacher, administrator, student, visitor – to guess at what we value in our teachers. #howschoolshouldbe!

 

From the idea's inception to hanging the tiles, we thought and re-evaluated many times over two years.
September 2018 · Administration agrees to further define TJS culture · Gaping Void, a culture design group, is hired · Gaping Void facilitates faculty and staff meetings to identify our unspoken culture · Facilitator reports TJS has a strong sense of itself and needs to articulate it more clearly · Gaping Void creates 60 tiles depicting our various ideas as a culture		September 2019 · Faculty and staff retreat focuses on the 60 tiles · 20 tiles are chosen to capture our culture · Retreat leaves us feeling more united as an organization

 

In 2020, our creative and well-designed culture wall was installed upstairs in a place of prominence. We could not be prouder! The array of tiles is so much more than an art installation. It accomplishes exactly what I had envisioned: an active statement about how the TJS faculty and staff build and keep a culture of acceptance and tolerance, second chances and do-overs, of zany fun, and constant learning and striving for personal bests. How does the faculty help sustain our type of culture? We follow three essential steps in bringing on new faculty members: hiring, onboarding, and accountability.

Hiring is one of the hardest tasks we do. There are many great teachers, yet being the right fit for TJS carries more than exceptional teaching credentials. The variety of culture wall tiles provides interview questions that help us understand how the candidate would respond to different situations. Although they may have glowing teacher qualifications, fitting in with the TJS culture is a major criterion.

Once hired, the culture wall plays a significant role in onboarding. Integrating our newly hired team members is so important to us. We want them to feel welcome and informed. One of the biggest challenges is figuring out how to best support them as we all strive for the high bar we set for ourselves. It involves mentorship with curriculum and academic assessments, yet most importantly, it involves exemplifying the mindset of making a difference in our students’ lives.  

The 20-tile display collectively illustrates the importance of teacher accountability, especially with the complexities of our students. Accountability is essential to what we do here. Being a TJS teacher means wanting to delve into the complicated profiles of our kids and being proactive about finding solutions and implementing interventions. Our "Respect the Journey" tile shows how our faculty and staff accept families without judgment and support them in navigating their particular paths with patience and compassion. Insert 2 tiles – respect journey and complexity

After many years in education, I learned that when schools communicate expectations to their faculty and staff and are confident in their accountability, those schools function seamlessly, united in purpose. A positive culture with a cohesive team is one of the most important factors of school success. The array of tiles will proudly show for years to come, the heart of The Joy School culture.

 

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If you are interested in exploring teaching opportunities available at our unique school, please visit Work at Joy.