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800-970-6123

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Contact Evelyn by email

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719-633-7135

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116 E. Washington St. 
Colorado Springs, CO 
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I look forward to hearing from you. 

1. Assess your school's culture by listening to the kinds of stories people tell. Are people telling rut stories or river stories?

2. Transform your school's culture by telling river stories.

3. One kind of rut story, although subtle, is the language of hierarchy. For example:

* “I’m just a teacher.”
* “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”
* “The buck stops with the principal.”
* “I’m not the leader of the school so I’m not responsible.”

Eliminate the language of hierarchy in order to promote a culture of teacher leadership.

4. Practice the steps of changing rut stories into river stories.

5. Bring others to the awareness of the importance of telling river stories.

1. Start a ritual of telling river stories at staff meetings.

2. Tell stories of accomplishment and success to community members.

3. Use data to support river stories of progress.

4. One kind of rut story, although subtle, is the language of hierarchy. For example:

Today's issue of Leading Teacher Leaders is about stories and their impact on school culture. The kinds of stories we tell determine if we're in a rut of inaction or in a river of change. Teacher Leaders can play an important role in transforming school culture by telling river stories.

Best,
Evelyn

School Culture

School culture can be understood as the attitudes and beliefs, cultural norms, and relationships of the members of the school community. School culture is powerful because it can facilitate or impede change. Said another way,

school culture can be a barrier to school improvement.

Creating and nurturing a culture of continuous improvement is the work of leaders - both principals and teachers. Leaders, you can take the first step in assessing the health of your school's culture by listening to others.

What stories do you and others tell about your school? 

The Stories People Tell

People generally tell two kinds of stories: rut stories and river stories. Rut stories reveal interpretations of past events that are not accurate and based on assumptions. Rut stories are disempowering because they keep a person or a community stuck in old ways of being.

Typical rut stories include:

• "We’ve tried that before and it doesn’t work. Why bother?"
• "The administration doesn’t listen to teachers. We can’t do anything to make things better."
• "Our students didn’t perform well on tests because the elementary school teachers didn't prepare them."

River stories communicate personal growth and progress based on learning. River stories are empowering and have the potential to transform individuals and groups.

Typical river stories include:

• "The teachers in our school collaborate on issues of teaching and learning in this way....."
• "When I first came to the school, students were not progressing. We had a lot to learn about how to meet the needs of students. Here's how we did it...." 
• "Our school shares leadership. It all began with our school leadership team...."

Getting Out of the Rut And Into the River

It is important to change rut stories into river stories. The unintended consequences of rut stories are disempowerment, hidden incompetence, lack of learning, and inaction. Changing rut stories into river stories is a matter of the following steps:

• Recognize when you or someone else is telling a rut story - awareness is the first step in change.  
• Interrupt the rut story by challenging the beliefs and assumptions behind the story - are the assumptions limiting?
• Offer a new perspective - what other interpretations of the story are there?

When someone walks into your school are they walking into a rut or into a river? 

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