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