Shared Vision

Shared vision is something that my school has been talking a lot about because we have a new superintendent and are working on forming a standards based curriculum as a cohort school for the RISK program. More experienced teachers than I are frustrated because they have been through this more times than they would like to count. They complain that when someone new comes on board, they try to overhaul all the work that has been done, the shared vision gets shoved in a closet, never to be referred to again...at least until a new person takes over. I can understand their frustration, but I find it an interesting and inspiring process (ah the freshness of a newbie). The key to me is in referring back to the vision statement as decisions are made. It should not be a stagnant statement, once written and then posted, becomes something we have but do nothing with. I like the idea of a shared vision statement that everyone buys into and refers to frequently. As the staff and administration make changes the vision statement is taken out and before anything new is adopted, make sure it fits under that statement. In this time of more and more things being placed on our plates, we need to make sure that what we do adopt for new ideas and policies is moving us closer to what we envision for our school and our students. As this process of creating and agreeing on a shared vision progresses, I will be interested to see how it plays out and how veteran teachers and new teachers come together to adopt a vision for our school that everyone can adopt.