• work side by side and face to face with colleagues
• obtain time release to see how others around them operate; a common human error in most organisations is that everyone thinks they know everyone else’s job.

Nearly all schools have high quality operators who have much to share:

• why send staff out of the school for professional development when there are excellent coaching and mentoring opportunities available at home at the coal face
• build the school’s capacity from within

 

Another significant advantage to WOW is the building of shared beliefs, principles and practices within your school leading to:

• a culture of “the way we do things around here”
• a reduction in the variation in teaching and learning between classrooms
• staff being more readable for students, resulting in fewer behavioural issues
• role clarity and empathy enhanced amongst staff

 

The diversity of WOW opportunities is vast to say the least.  For example:

• team teaching with colleagues from different key learning areas
• shadowing a student for a day, without his/her knowledge, to experience first hand the variation in pedagogies between teachers
• working in the office, canteen or library
• shadowing the school’s leadership team

 

WOW is a perfect opportunity to engage in high quality life long learning that:

• builds consistent and productive school wide pedagogies
• creates a climate in the school in which the staff feel empowered and willing to give and receive developmental feedback
• reduces judgemental tendencies amongst staff

 

Time spent engaging in WOW will benefit your school’s culture, your staff’s professional growth and morale and most importantly your students’ learning outcomes.

“Don’t ask that your job or life be easier, ask that you were better”  Jim Rohn