Building Culture through Teacher Residency

We have a very specific culture at Leadership Prep School. People don't come here just for a job - they come here because they know that they can get more job fulfillment and satisfaction at LPS because of our culture of trust and agency. We take pride in our culture and work tirelessly to preserve it. In order to ensure that all new staff members are fully immersed and invested in that culture from the start of their employment, we have crafted a staff onboarding experience.

During this experience, new staff members will learn the details of our culture centered around PBL and the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and while this is the general goal of onboarding, it is not the only purpose nor the only result of the experience. In fact, the onboarding experience is as beneficial for our current staff and administration as it is for the newcomers. In addition to teaching new staff about our culture, the onboarding experience:

• Allows new staff to complete the entire PBL process as both students and facilitators

• Provides a safe environment to ask questions

• Ensures that new staff will receive one-on-one instruction, clarification, and assistance

• Demonstrates how to relate PBL to TEKS

• Allows newcomers walk away from the experience with the skeleton of a project

• Explains why we value our culture, which builds buy-in

• Fosters relationships and builds trust between newcomers and PBL leadership

• Fosters relationships and camaraderie within the cohort of newcomers

• Allows PBL leaders to identify areas of growth for our whole school PBL program