May 31st

I was thinking, what contributed to my great feeling of success from the ELA EOG?  Was it our culture or our climate?  Below is some information regarding both. 

Culture is “a pattern of shared basic assumption that have been invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration… that has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relationship to those problems”

In effect, it is the commonly or underlying shared:

• Beliefs
• Values
• Norms of behaviour, thinking and emotional intelligence
• Routines
• Traditions
• Sense-making
• Perspectives

That pervade or infuse through the organization.

Climate on the other hand is the sense, feeling or atmosphere people get in the organization on either a day-to-day basis or just generally.
You know when you walk into a place and you either think:

• ‘wow this place has an amazing energy. People are really friendly and it feels positive’,

or

• ‘wow it feels like something has happened here. I don’t think these people like each other. Feels like everyone is scared. The atmosphere stinks.’

That’s the climate.  Essentially, the climate are the perceptions and attitudes of the people in the culture.

So, what about today, will we create a climate that supports an apex performance from our students?