Raise The Floor
The journey to shatter the ceiling is truly admirable. However, there's another perspective or formula that we should consider– raising the floor. It's not always about reaching higher. Sometimes it's about adding your best to what you have. A solid floor means a strong foundation, and the idea of lifting the floor applies everywhere – making commitments, dreaming up possibilities,smoothing out conflicts, leading with your heart, setting athletic goals, and spreading high energy.
Raise the Floor by Making A Commitment
Author and educator, Tisha Richmond shares on a recent podcast with the The Dave Burgess Show, that she was not okay with the way things were going in her classroom, so she made the commitment to re-engage with the profession by seeking out new professional development resources and opportunities. Tisha explains that she had the desire to gamify parts of her day and Make Learning Magical, so she started by making adjustments in small areas rather than focus on attacking an entire course or curriculum. In her newest book, Dragon Smart, co-written with her son Tommy (illustrator), explains that raising your self respect in students comes from a realization of all the ways that they are Dragon Smart. Raising the floor to encourage yourself or someone else sometimes looks like making a commitment to celebrate everyone's unique intelligence by sharing how someone is dragon smart.
Raise the Floor by Pausing to Imagine a Possibility
Natasha Nurse, featured on Principal Liner Notes Podcast, articulated the benefit of envisioning the potential in students. Instead of reacting solely to current behavior, Nurse advocates for a pause to consider the future success of students in fields such as medicine, science, law, or innovation. This perspective encourages a wider view of students beyond their current high school roles, encouraging a belief in an extraordinary future. I have started applying Nurseś tips and have noticed that I find a lot more magic in each hour. It only takes a few minutes to pause but has tremendous potential.
Raise the Floor with Handling Conflict
Roni Habib's latest work, Happy and Resilient,provides a clever approach to creating connection and smart conflict resolution with students. Applicable in diverse environments, the ideas outlined in the book particularly resonate within the secondary classroom. Habib emphasizes the need to move beyond destructive conflicts by sharing inferences rather than being limited by conclusions. The structured approach of "I notice, I imagine, and is it true?" offers a framework for conflict resolution, enabling educators to point to observed behaviors, confirm assumptions, and question the validity of those assumptions. Many of these ideas are not new, but it is the way in which they all work together that makes them feel like they have incredible potential.
Raise the Floor by Holding True to What You Want Most
Elijah Carbajal, educator and author of A Place They Love, suggests that school can be a welcoming place. Committed to creating an environment highlighting safety, compassion, and creativity, Carbajal advocates for a focus on defining what one desires the educational space to be and feel like, instead of being worried about new things to be added.
Raise the Floor as an Athlete
Raising the floor outside of the classroom is an important piece in holding yourself accountable to the things you ask students to do. Setting a floor, as opposed to a ceiling, becomes a reasonable strategy, with a focus of commitment to a minimum miles per week rather than continually setting a new goal each week. Raising the mileage floor feels manageable and therefore becomes a goal worth meeting each week.
Raise the Floor: A New Way to Achieve Success
Beyond conflict resolution and athletic goal-setting, raising the floor is a way to commit to core values,vision and purpose. Raising the floor holds people accountable and requires that we examine what is in front of us to meet a standard. Raising the floor is about going deeper. Raising the floor is a formula that makes dreaming, conflict resolution, athletic goals, leading with your heart and spreading high energy possible.
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