I started this week by thinking about new teachers. What advice would I give new teachers? At first, I thought about advising new teachers to “find your people.” And while that is solid advice on its own, I think better advice is to find your bell weathers.
There are different kinds of bellweathers:
- Influencers and trendsetters: These are individuals who drive change. They inspire others with their behaviors. And they have the potential to be leaders.
- Representatives and barometers: These individuals act as a microcosm. Their responses and attitudes can be used as a measurement for the reactions and opinions of a larger group. They are not radicals and are often reliably thoughtful.
Here’s how bellweathers can be helpful in education:
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Classroom Bellweathers
In the classroom, teachers will find both types of bell weathers. Some students will be strong leaders, influencers, and trendsetters. Other students will be better barometers. In some classes, teachers will find a balance of personalities. Often, there seems to be a few leaders, a few barometers, and a lot of followers. Here’s some ways recognizing bell weathers can be helpful:
In the classroom, a trendsetter or influence can be any student. However, these students are often the most outspoken. They may not be your most popular students. But trendsetters are often well liked or respected. Knowing your trendsetters and influencers can be helpful for several reasons:
- Trendsetters and influencers often have big personalities. When designing seating charts, choose a plan that capitalizes on these personalities.
- Because trendsetters and influencers are also leaders, when grouping students for projects, consider the balance of personalities.
- Finally, knowing your trendsetters and influencers can help teachers “sell” instructional choices. While a teacher’s goal is to engage all students, knowing your bellweathers can help you sow buy in. In other words, if you can “sell” a trendsetter on an instructional choice, then she can lead other students to buy in.
Similarly, knowing your representatives and barometers can be helpful. However, it’s worth noting that representatives and barometers aren’t always the highest-achieving students. And they aren’t always the most outspoken. But they are students that are usually willing to try.
- Barometers are reasonable. For this reason, looking to your barometers can help you verify that your instructional choices are appropriate. If an instructional choice is too easy or too hard, your barometers will act as indicators. In other words, barometers can help calibrate instruction.
- Additionally, barometers can help develop classroom procedures. For example, if you explain a new classroom procedure, barometers will be good indicators of its efficacy.
Professional Bellweathers
Like classroom bell weathers, professional bell weathers can be helpful in understanding leadership decisions. Professional bell weathers can be co-workers, team members, instructional coaches, support staff, and administrators. Like students, some of these bell weathers will be trendsetters and influencers who lead and drive opinion. And others will be representatives and barometers who act as metrics for understanding building culture.
In education, trendsetters and influencers can be individuals in leadership positions. However, often times trendsetters and influencers are individuals with potential for leadership but who choose not to lead. Sometimes this can lead to discord rather than unity. For this reason, identifying trendsetters and influencers and selling them on leadership decisions can be important. This can help create unity. Similarly, inviting trendsetters and influencers to share their experience and knowledge can be a good way to grow leaders, to create buy in, and to help teachers inspire one another.
Additionally, professional barometers are a great indication of the success of building initiatives. These teachers are “game” for anything. They are willing to take risks in the interest of their students and in the interest of professional growth. For this reason, these teachers are a good measure of the success of building initiatives. Similarly, these teachers can be a good measure of the success of leadership decisions. As barometers, these teachers are not wild reactionaries or radicals, but they will let you know if a decision is out-of-bounds.
Photo by Link Hoang on Unsplash
