Optimizing Professional Collaboration to Improve Teaching and Learning

GVSU Learning NetworkAugust 2013

Framing the Day &

Laying the Groundwork

Essential Question

How do we best leverage our various forms of professional collaboration for improving learning in classrooms?

Day 1 Objectives

• Assist school teams in:– Clarifying the purpose of their professional collaboration.– Clarifying the areas of needed improvement for the

operation of professional collaboration.– Understanding the aspects of professional collaboration

that make help explain when it will help support professional growth and improved student performance.

– Creating a practical rubric for communicating expectations for professional collaboration through the school.

Learning Network -Norms

• Silence mobile phones and other devices

• Be present and engaged• Listen actively• Make this relevant to your

work and your school• Call the baby ugly (call it

like you see it)• Reduce side conversations

• Speak honestly• Vegas rule• Share speaking

opportunities—watch talk time

• Avoid negativity and complaining

• Arrive on time, start on time, end on time

Making Your Bet ExplicitWhat is your core

professional collaboration structure?

What is your guiding theory? “If we . . . , then

. . .”

What are your indicators of success? What will

tell you if it is working?

Identifying Your Team’s Learning Agenda

Individual ReflectionGiven the theory undergirding your school’s professional collaboration and your

takeaways from the Hattie and Fullan readings, what do you see as the key barriers for optimizing the impact of professional collaboration in your school? (jot your individual

notes below)

Team DiscussionGiven the theory undergirding your school’s professional collaboration and your

collective takeaways from the Hattie and Fullan readings, what does your team see as the key barriers for optimizing the impact of professional collaboration in your school?

(capture your shared sentiments below)

Identifying the Difference Makers

Video Case Study

• Context

“The Bet” (articulation from principal and leadership team)

Professional learning communities by grade

level that include regular education

teachers and teachers in the bilingual

program.

What is your core professional

collaboration structure?

If we foster collaboration among teachers of regular

education and bilingual classrooms,

then we will raise expectations for

students, teachers will share best practices, and student learning

will improve.

What is your guiding theory? “If we . . . , then

. . .”

Teachers sharing lessons and

instructional strategies in meetings; teachers

able to discuss changes in

instructional practices

What are your indicators of success? What will

tell you if it is working?

Video Observation Exercise

• What do you see? – Descriptive– Objective– Fine grained

What Should They See

• Given the school’s “bet,” what should success look like for this school’s professional collaboration?

• Practically speaking, what should the leadership team see when they observe the professional collaboration in this school (if the bet is to pay off)? – And put yet another way, what should they monitor?

Consider . . .

• An accident . . . where a child in Hartford, CT has lost a hand. Boston, MA is the location of the best extremity reattachment surgical unit on the East Coast.

“Flying Northeast” is not the same as Getting to Boston

Or, as the Cheshire Cat put it . . .

“If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you

there.” Source: Lewis Carroll. Through the Looking Glass

Revisit Your BetWhat is your rubric for success?

Instructions.

• As a team, revisit your “bet.”

• Identify the main categories of quality.

• Once identified, complete the cells for the “fourth column” (what it looks like at proficiency).

• As time allows, try to complete the other columns.

Professional Collaboration Rubric

Quality Domain1. Beginning 2. Emergent 3. Functional 4. Proficient