TGIM

An organization’s culture, how people and policies operate in a workplace (Farrell, 2018), impacts an employee’s motivation and creativity (Guo & Zhu, 2022). It can influence an employee’s feelings as Monday morning approaches. Leaders want their employees feeling energized and inspired rather than deflated at the start of a work week. A recent survey’s results support some academic findings about how to nurture a positive and healthy organizational culture. 

The anonymous survey involved a random sampling of fifteen professionals from a variety of fields such as education, textiles, and healthcare. The majority of respondents self-identified as being happy at work overall. Three themes emerged from this group to reveal recommendations for developing an organizational culture that promotes employee well-being and happiness.

Clear organizational values. A leader sets the tone for an organization. Their words, actions, and policies are watched by members. When these internal characteristics align with the outward-facing, self-proclaimed organizational values, there is clarity for all stakeholders about how things should be done (Demissie & Egziabher, 2022). This clarity provides comfort for employees because they understand expectations. In addition, Employees can accurately gauge how much their personal values match the organization’s values. 77% of survey respondents who are happy at work stated that the organization’s values mirrored their personal values. People want to work at a place that matches their philosophies. Leaders can further support members’ understanding of organizational values by providing targeted training on how to implement these values during workplace activities (Farrell, 2018). By doing so, employees understand not only the what, but also the how. Those who are resistant to training can be replaced to ensure cohesiveness amongst departments (Farrell, 2018). These vacancies are then filled by the strategic hiring of individuals whose values align with the organizational culture (American College of Education, 2025; Farrell, 2018). Clear communication of values and purposeful, values-driven actions put employees at ease resulting in improved well-being. In contrast, frustration and negative stress increases with ambiguity (Rice, 2019). 

Trust. When individuals feel safe, there is comfort. They are willing to take creative risks. This theme emerged from the survey through two questions: 85% of the respondents felt they could trust their colleagues and leaders, and 100% felt they can be themselves at work – they can be vulnerable. For leaders, trust can be established gradually through positive, one-to-one interactions. Yet, there are other ways to establish trust too, for example, providing employees with autonomy to make decisions on projects (Demissie & Egziabher, 2022; Rice, 2019)). Such freedom sends a powerful message: you belong here and leaders believe in your judgement. This sense of belonging nurtures happiness. For new-to-the-organization leaders, it is also important to be respectful of employee history (Farrell, 2018). Such leaders must recognize the contributions of the past to make members feel seen – a key element of trust. With trust in place, stability and contentment rise.

Stress. Some may think that a low-stress job will result in improved personal well-being, but this is not necessarily the case. Survey results challenge this notion. 84% of happy-at-work respondents stated that their job was not low-stress. Put another way, these employees were experiencing stress, but were still happy. This phenomenon can be explained by research that found moderate levels of stress increased innovation in the workplace (Rice, 2019). Employees want to be challenged, they want to grow and develop. Training programs and other forms of professional development can be extras for employees, but they are good extras as they instill confidence and develop new skills. 100% of happy-at-work employees from the survey also felt that they were provided with opportunities to learn – and stress is an essential element of the learning process. From a leadership perspective, this realization should trigger a close monitoring of worker stress levels though. Leaders need to adjust demands so that individuals do not get overwhelmed or understimulated. Leaders must be responsive to the struggles of their employees so that motivation remains high (Guo & Zhu, 2022).

Clear and consistent organizational values, trust, and moderate stress levels all contribute to a healthy workplace for employees. The small-scale survey results match what has been found in larger studies. If leaders keep these concepts in mind, they will have employees thinking TGIM (thank goodness it’s Monday) at the start of each week.

References

American College of Education. (2025). LEAD6323 Organizational behaviour and culture. Module 8[Part 1 video]. Canvas. https://ace.instructure.com/courses/1986746/external_tools/118428 

Demissie, D., & Egziabher, F.G. (2022). An investigation of organizational culture of higher education: The case of Hawassa University. Education Research International. Wiley Online Library. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/1222779 

Farrell, M. (2018). Leadership reflections: Organizational culture. Journal of Library Administration, 58(8), 861–872. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2018.1516949  

Guo, Y., & Zhu, Y. (2022). How does organizational compassion motivate employee innovative behavior: A cross-level mediation model. Psychological Reports, 125(6), 3162–3182. https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941211037598 

Rice University. (2019). Organizational behavior. OpenStax. Retrieved from https://openstax.org/details/books/organizational-behavior

A Hero’s Journey

Recently, we’ve been exploring mythologist Joseph Campbell’s work and his idea about a hero’s journey. Using his template as a guide, students have analyzed stories from books, TV, and movies.

A particularly therapeutic endeavour has been crafting our own Hero’s Journey story. This process involved reflecting on how our own experiences can connect to Campbell’s template. The resulting stories have created a safe space for our writers to explore their well-being during this latest wave of the pandemic.

As a mentor, three tenets emerged for me as I conferred with students about their writing.

1. Good stories are captivating. Great stories are meaningful. Some students created amazingly detailed plots that brought readers through epic battles and quests. The great stories did that as well as revealed an internal triumph for their main characters. For those what were ready for this, we spent time crafting stories that had actions connected to a main character’s flaw. For example, if the main character overcame bullies, considerable time was spent exploring the character’s internal struggle with courage.
2. Write what you know. When initially generating ideas, we leaned into our own personal experiences, no matter how minute. We listed everyday challenges. This list grew after three sessions of exploring questions such as “when have you faced a difficulty?”, “what difficulties do you see your friends or family struggling with?”, “what are your observations about problems in the world?”. From there, we opened up the genre choice and simply started with a slight tweak to reality. For example, a difficulty about making it to class on time was tweaked with fantasy as the student gained the ability to teleport.
3. Layer, layer, layer. We’ve spent a lot of time on making revision a habit this year and that is paying off now. The process of crafting a scene involves a quick draft of the events followed by at least four “revisits”. During each revisit, writers go back and layer in character thinking, character description, setting details, and if applicable, purposeful dialogue. Each layer must support the emotion (positive or negative) writers aim to reveal to their readers.

By the end of our inquiry, students crafted gorgeous story scenes packed with details and meaning.

Ignite

It’s the start of a new school year and for both students and teachers, it takes some time to get back into the daily learning rhythm.

For some writers, they may encounter some entrenched myths that temporarily block their progress.

One such myth is: “I don’t have any ideas”.

A way to clear this hurdle and to get the pen moving on the page is to speak to three craft principles:

1. Writer’s block is a thing. Reassure young writers that their feelings are similar to the feelings that published writers experience. Staring at a blank page and wondering what to write can be daunting. Acknowledging these feelings and highlighting that these feelings are what all writers feel, keep a student’s writer identity in tact.

2. Writers write what’s fun to write. Ask a student what movies or books they like to watch or read. Is there a particular genre they are pulled towards? Even asking them what they last watched can provide insight into their preferences. As a writing coach, it’s important to shape the narrative here by stating “Oh, you are watching that? That’s [insert genre]. That means you like ideas that are about [insert genre description].”

3. Writers write what they know. Typically, my students begin the year with a few “quick-write” prompts related to their past experience. For example, spend a few minutes listing the scars (physical, emotional, mental) that have shaped you to be the person you are today. Or, spend some time writing about your duality (who are you in public vs who you are in private; who you are at school vs who you are at home). Once this bank is established, a writer can go make a withdrawal. I’ll coach writers to look back at one idea and combine it with the genre of interest they previously identified.

This process results in some “high buy-in” ideas.

For example, a student who likes mystery might look back at an idea of how they broke their wrist and combine these two to write something about a kid detective who has to solve the mystery of how an accident happened.

Or, maybe a student who likes informational texts looks back at a personal duality and opts to write a short article about a family tradition.

This entire process does two things for hesitant writers: it nurtures their writer identity and provides concrete meta-cognitive steps for how writers come up with ideas.

Variety

With school closures, some parents have been spending time at home teaching their child.

One recurring concern I’ve encountered from parents is “how can I ensure my child is ‘keeping up’ with year-level expectations and learning targets?

A suggestion is take on the mindset of a personal fitness trainer. If you are one or if you’ve been coached by one, you’ll know that variety is key. You want to target muscles from different angles with a variety of movements.

The same goes for academic learning, particularly for reading.

First off, you need texts, stories, books. With libraries shut, it can be tricky to keep a steady stream fresh texts flowing. One online resource (that’s free) is CommonLit.org, another is Newsela.com (sign-in required). These sites provide articles and stories that have adjustable text complexity.

Now that you have some texts, what to do with them? Some suggestions for parent-teachers:
1. Read for basic comprehension (ask: “so what is this about?”  “what’s the main idea?” “what’s a summary of this?”)
2. Read for analysis/interpretation (ask “so what’s the author trying to reveal to you?” “what’s the message?” + specific text evidence to support your thinking)
3. Read as a writer (ask “what did the writer do there?” “what does that word mean and why did the writer choose it?”)

Cycling through these three approaches periodically helps young readers work on their thinking-while-reading skills from a variety of perspectives. 

Sometimes a child can read to themselves, sometimes they can read aloud, sometimes they can listen to an adult read aloud with expression.  Then, focus on one of the three approaches listed above for discussion/responding to the text.

A daily session might be 20-25 minutes first thing in the morning. 

It’s also beneficial for learners to read longer texts too of course so a parent-child book club makes sense.

The parent and child could read one book together over the course of several weeks and discuss at “meetings” the types of questions listed above.  A “meeting” could be held once a week.

All of this takes time – which might be something a parent doesn’t have available at the moment. But, if time is available, these suggestions might help give at-home reading instruction some structure.

Traction

Well, it’s been about seven weeks of online learning for my students.

Never before have we (students and teachers) ever had to build a learning relationship 100% online completely from scratch.

For my students, they transitioned from a different campus so they had never even seen me roaming the hallways prior to joining our class on Zoom. I was pretty much a complete stranger.

Yet, here we are, six weeks later, feeling like some positive momentum has been building.

Here’s what our community has learned about how to nurture “learning traction” given the circumstances:

1. Make connections to the community top priority. During the first two week, approximately 40% of our time was spent making connections with each other in order to build the trust necessary to take risks with our learning. These activities are paying off now as students feel comfortable speaking on Zoom and asking for collaborative help when needed. One such routine that has aided this has been opening each session with some sort of low-stakes community activity that involves humour (e.g. sharing corny jokes – who doesn’t love a good pun?).

2. Get people talking and do a ton of name naming. Quick whole-group surveys about topical questions get people sharing on Zoom. Their voice is heard as they have an opportunity to address the entire class (even if it is just a few words). For those that are shy, providing a template sentence to say can be a security blanket. Also, greeting every individual by name as they enter a Zoom call further nurtures community as people learn each other’s names and they are individually recognized. These practices build a sense of belonging.

3. Spend time on systems. And, then, some more time. Walk students through the systems they will be using in order to engage with their learning. I like to consider the 20% rule when sharing an idea on Zoom. That is, at best, only 20% of students have heard and understood what has been shared. With this in mind, taking small bits of time to regularly remind students of the system has paid off in the long run even though it might seem highly repetitive.

4. Keep learning activities short and “complete-able”. In order to build academic confidence, every activity so far has been broken up into small morsels. Every activity has been modelled by the teacher too (as in, the teacher completes the assignment/activity alongside the students). This modelling approach lets students see the thinking involved when engaging with a learning activity. And, it provides insights for teachers so that they’re aware of the duration an online learning activity might take for their students. The learning has been in short bursts too. Sticking with the “20” theme, if students are being asked to sustain their engagement for longer than 20 minutes, that’s asking a lot – particularly for Middle School students. Therefore, insert regular games, brain breaks, and stretch breaks (even a drinking water break can be invigorating).

5. Do 7-minute individual conferences. Making time (either in a breakout room or during “office hours” or even after school) to meet individually with each student has resulted in significant learning leverage. These conferences are all about building rapport. Students share what they do in their free time, I’ll do the same. They’ll talk about their home life, I’ll do the same. I might ask one “tough” question: “what’s something I should know about you as a learner so I can support you best?”. And, that’s it. Three simple questions. Make time for a good conversation with each student – it will pay off.

As students transition back to in-person learning, the groundwork has been laid for stable learning relationships.

Now

Equality is long overdue.

And although we need to be a commanding voice for it on a daily basis in our classrooms, right now there is a teachable moment. A moment we must utilise.

Students – young minds – are hearing about “George Floyd”, “equality”, “protests”. Their bubble worlds are being pierced. They can no longer distract their minds with a Netflix binge and ignore what’s happening “in the news”.

Now is an opportune time to shine a light on the darkness that is racism. Expose it for what it is: hate driven by greed and a lust for power and control. An ideology born from murder, kidnap, and lies, passed on from generation to generation.

So how can we best support our students?

How can we ensure that they are able to gain impactful meaning from yet another life lost to ignorance and hate?

As educators, this is our time to guide and advise, it is our responsibility.

Here are some principles to keep in mind when initiating discussions:

1. Provide context. For some Middle School students, their awareness of their world dates back to fifteen minutes ago. They are still developing the ability to analyze the past and make sense of how it influences the present and future. When aiming to engage students in a discussion, provide them with a short and clear video or text that will anchor their thinking. The short video or text won’t answer all of their questions, but it’s a starting point.

2. Create a safe environment for sharing. Not knowing or understanding, or fearing that they might say something “stupid” can paralyze some adolescents. It’s important to set the tone for the discussion. As the discussion facilitator, it’s powerful to show your own vulnerability in order to nurture a safe, open environment. For example, acknowledge that you do not have all of the answers, share examples of misconceptions you once held.

3. Model critical thinking aloud. Don’t feel that you have to have all of the answers to all of the questions. Share your perspective, provide evidence, model critical thinking by talking through thoughts aloud. Being vulnerable, open, and genuine is powerful as young minds learn the habits of critical thinking.

4. Address misconceptions. When a student shares a perspective that might be best described as illogical, take time to talk the student through any hasty generalizations or other fallacies in logic. Guide them with open-ended questions such as “what evidence supports that idea?”. Letting a misconception sit in the room sends a message that that idea is okay. Some ideas are not okay and need to be exposed as such immediately. Drill down into evidence to expose misconceptions.

5. Allow time for individual reflection and thinking – often by writing. Everyone processes information in a slightly different way. It’s important to provide different options for young thinkers to explore concepts – some may not be very vocal and prefer to be more introspective. Writing attends to these types of learners. Writing also demands thinkers to clarify thoughts. The act of choosing words and phrases to write can combat lazy conclusions.

6. Be on the lookout for a passive stance in students. Reach out to students who have rationalized the status quo. A common tactic used to deflect critical thinking is analogy and metaphor. Opt instead to speak of real people in real situations. Sometimes lazy thinkers will also prioritize a secondary issue (for example, focussing on the effects of riots rather than the cause). Our role is to keep the issue of equality front and center.

Humanity cannot afford to let these teachable moments slide by. We must nurture and be the voice for change.

Zoom!

 

Students and teachers are currently immersed in home learning as many schools in parts of the world have temporarily closed due to health concerns.

As teachers and students engage in home learning activities for their students, attitude is everything.  Keep the following in mind to ward off frustration and anxiety:

1. Make learning bite-sized.  For students, particularly young students, the ability to maintain focus and engagement is considerably lessened when working online compared to face-to-face instruction.  Keep this in mind when planning activities, particularly sequential activities that build upon concepts.

2. Engagement is engagement – no matter how fleeting.  As students spend large portions of their day staring at a screen, it’s only natural for their brains to fatigue.  For teachers, focus on the positive moments of engagement.  Did a student engage, even partially, with their learning today?  If so, that’s a win.

3. Monitor well-being closely.  “Bad days” can snowball quickly during online home learning because personal, face-to-face connections to a variety of personalities essentially cease.  Students are instead interacting with family members (who middle-school-aged students might deem “annoying”).  Thus, be sure to reach out to individuals on a regular basis to ensure they’re coping okay.

4. Zoom-in.  Take advantage of Zoom’s free download to host live video calls with your students.  Conduct mini-lessons, conference with small groups in breakout rooms, conduct polls, have students annotate the screen – these are just a few of the features available to teachers seeking to replicate the classroom experience for students.

With the above in mind, teachers can craft lessons that allow student learning to zoom upwards despite school closures.

Patterns

 

As students become more familiar with regular self-reflection prompting (see previous post), they get better at thinking about why they are learning what they are learning.

They begin to view their in-class learning as having much more personal significance and applicability to their out-of-class lives.  And, there is less compartmentalisation of their learning (e.g. “this is Math class, the thinking strategies I learn here are only applicable to mathematical situations).

Periodically, students can re-visit some of their responses to the self-reflection prompt.

The purpose of this routine is twofold:

1. It reinforces the goal of their learning: to become a better thinker (both inside and outside of class).  By sitting down and re-reading several of their own past responses to the prompt, students are again reminded of this ultimate learning goal.

2. It provides time for students to notice patterns in their thinking routines and strategies.  This step is key for any responsible thinker.  It’s best practice to reflect and take stock of which thinking routines or strategies are improving our overall happiness, and which might need some tweaking.

Take a look at these four self-reflection responses that were collected over several weeks (all written by the same student).

 

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It’s quite impactful to be again reminded of the applicability of in-class practice on out-of-class lives (especially over an extended period of time).

It’s also great for students to do a quick self-analysis on their progress as a thinker.  Have they noticed any patterns?  What’s been working well for them? 

In this case, the student can ask “how have my conversations been going?” or “how understanding have I been of other people lately?”.

Incorporating this routine into classroom culture will promote student self-awareness.

Focus

 

 

In some academically-driven schools, students can be so compliant that they’ll pretty much engage in any sort of learning activity without question or hesitation.

Although such an attitude can lead to considerable learning flow, there is a possibility that both teacher and students lose sight of the bigger-picture purpose of a particular activity.  The default purpose becomes: “You need to know this for the upcoming assessment.”

In order to help keep teachers and students focused on the bigger-picture purpose of a particular lesson, skill, or activity, it can be helpful to provide thinking time for students to respond to the following prompt:

 

Typically done at the end of a lesson, this prompt helps students see how their in-class thinking routines, habits, strategies can be applied outside of the classroom.

The prompt challenges students to view their education as personally relevant.

The prompt also ensures that teachers are framing lessons in a way that is less curriculum-focused and more learner-focused.

Providing students with an example of how they might respond to the prompt can be useful as well (see below).

 

Ideally, we want to get students taking ownership of their learning and move them away from hoop-jumping.

Adding a simple end-of-class reflection prompt reminds all stakeholders of the ultimate purpose of schooling.

M’n’M’s

 

Model and mentors.

Or M’n’M’s, as I like to call them, can sweeten your instructional practice.

The first “M” is model.  When I rank my classroom behaviours in terms of how they’ve impacted student learning, I’ve always found that the act of modelling my thinking rises to the top of the list.  Whenever I’ve talked through the explicit steps of my thinking, students have exhibited growth in their own thinking.

This is not to say that all students’ thinking mirrored mine.  I emphasize that what I’m showing them is “my way” and they are welcome to take what they wish from it.

What inevitably happens: students take some idea about how to get started.  They also see that – even for an adult thinker – any process involves many micro-decisions.  And, these micro-decisions often result in missteps that are self-corrected.  My thinking process reinforces concepts of grit, resilience, and the importance of vulnerability when seeking growth.

Utilizing an overhead projector and visualizer, I’m able to write and read in front of students.  Live.  In-the-moment.  I talk through my ideas aloud.  They’ll write along side of me or watch me before starting their own process.

Modelling thinking is an essential of any inquiry-based learning environment.

For the second “M”, mentor pieces – or examples of what may be – provide students with a target.

I liken mentor pieces to holiday destinations.  You’ve packed your bags, booked tickets, you of course need to know where you’re headed.  Mentor pieces provide learners, adults and children, a good idea of where they’re headed (often a published piece of writing for writers).  Once you’ve arrived at your destination, how you spend your day-to-day time is up to you, but at least you’ve arrived.

Mentor pieces don’t have to exclusively be published pieces of writing.  When modelling my reading analysis, I can share mentor pieces of how I track my thinking.  Mentor pieces can also be student samples so learners can gain insights into how peers think, organize, and solve.

With colleagues, we’ll look at mentor pieces from students to help us calibrate our scoring practice.

Teaming mentor piece analysis with assessment data can help teachers see trends and gaps in student progress.

Modelling and mentors.  Two key components of an instructional practice that will boost student learning.