“Each teacher’s positive behavior rubbed off on the next,” she said. “We developed a vision, modeled the vision, talked about the vision, and we lived the vision. Any staff member who didn’t want to buy into it eventually left.”
Organize planning time and teams
Principals must find a way to enable their instructional teams and sub-teams to organize in ways that allow them to have productive discussions about student work, the speakers agreed.
The principals noted that some of the key ways in which instruction is organized include:
- Regular collaboration meetings with specific agendas.
- Teachers developing individual learning plans with regular reports to the principal.
- Instructional rounds, in which teachers observe how classrooms are organized, what is posted on the walls, and move toward observation and feedback on lessons.
- Grade-group meetings and staff development (after school, if all teachers agree).
- Regularly review student data.
“We’re creative with the preciousness of time,” Hall said, adding that his school schedules itinerant staff and interns in a way that allows teachers to have common planning time, during which they talk about student problems or issues and possible interventions.
Hall organized common planning times and collaborative times so that teachers have the opportunity to look at student work, talk about challenges and instruction, and understand that the teachers, too, are still learners.
Teachers use an “instructional rounds” professional development model, in which teachers observe their colleagues’ work in a non-evaluative manner in order to talk about instruction and student learning.
“That time is critical to keeping that adult culture going,” he said.
Eressy’s teachers have common planning time Mondays through Thursdays, and then on Fridays she meets with her instructional leadership team and a team that focuses on building school culture.
Teachers receive bi-weekly agendas for common planning times to ensure that conversations are productive and cover specific topics. Additionally, Eressy’s staff is beginning to implement the instructional rounds professional development model.
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