How Visiting a Model Teacher Impacts Professional Learning

  

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

~Helen Keller

In the past, education has been an isolated profession.  Teacher leadership has allowed us to shine a light on the benefits of collaboration, observing our peers, and coaching each other to improve our practice.

Every teacher faces challenges.  Various academic needs, schedules, testing mandates, daily paperwork, and behavior issues plague our direct instruction of students.  Sometimes we become bogged down in the grit of the day and struggles we face, that we lose our perspective.  Sometimes we need an opportunity to see the same lesson, content, grade, or curriculum modeled in a different way. 

Linn-Mar teachers have the liberty of visiting thirty-five model teachers this year.  These teachers cover a variety of content, and grade levels PK- 12^th grade.  Specialty areas, the arts, music, physical education, and student services are also represented.  To help teachers in our district access these teachers, Erin Watts, one of the Teacher Leader Coordinators, created a website.  Teachers can visit this link to view all the model teacher’s schedules, a short bio, and skills they demonstrate.  Videos will soon be added.  

This website just launched end of September and has experienced high traffic.  These visits can take place during teacher prep periods, and instructional coaches, mentor coaches, technology coaches, or teacher leader coordinators cover classes for teachers to observe, collaborate and discuss what they observed and how to apply it to their grade level or content area.

Visiting another teacher not only provides a model of how to teach a lesson or content area in a different way, it allows teachers to reflect on his/her current practice and see how colleagues produce results with different strategies, techniques, and tasks.  Teachers are building relationships, rapport, trust, and learning to direct their professional learning to improve practice and impact student learning.

Having visited these model teachers this fall, I learned an extreme amount about teaching, student learning, collegiality, and empathy.  Sometimes in education it feels like our current reality is more stressful than any other grade level or classroom.  

I learned to appreciate my peers.  I know that teaching high school math is not in my wheelhouse, but I certainly am in awe of the pace and strategies the teacher modeled for students.  I cannot play any musical instruments, but have great respect for the teachers who instructed students how to master the craft.  I do not have any experience in student support services, but I quickly observed the skill sets teachers in these classrooms have mastered to help students be successful, and to keep classrooms running smoothly.  I saw strategies in elementary classrooms that could be used in secondary rooms, and I saw secondary classrooms that could offer valuable grading, assessment, and common core teaching strategies to elementary classrooms.  

We clearly are better together. If you haven't considered stepping out of your four walls to learn something new, or to reaffirm why and what you do on a daily basis, or to gain some perspective on what your colleagues face each day, I strongly encourage you to schedule a model teacher visit.  

Collaboration Solves Problems

As a classroom teacher there is no shortage of problems to solve.  At the middle school, CJ McDonald found a challenging one to help resolve.

The problem: Taking attendance accurately in a handful of large middle school classes in an efficient manner

The solution: Collaboration with the Teacher Leadership Program

With a vocal classroom that typically has around 75 students, Kelsey Brown was always looking for ways to create efficient procedures.  Attendance has been a challenge in the past.  The second her students aren't engaged in singing, they are tempted to turn and talk to their neighbors, so it is hard to see exactly who is where when they aren't facing the front and standing still.  "Calling roll" took way too long.  Having student volunteers do attendance from a seating chart was inconsistent and sometimes became a distraction.  

Kelsey mentioned this to her mentor coach, Jennie Lorenzen and to her Instructional Coach, Steven Starkey.  They, in turn contacted the Technology Integration Coach(TIC), CJ McDonald.  Collaborating with his fellow TIC Ryan Gotto, CJ tried a handful of different attendance strategies such as using an iPad to scan QR codes that students held up at the beginning of class.  After a few dead ends, Ryan suggested having students scan in with their ID card like they do at lunch and the library. 

CJ then created an Excel spreadsheet that would automatically identify students with their bar code number, refer to a master class roster, and black out the name of students who scanned in at the beginning of class.  The scanner was purchased with building funds, by the Excelsior building principal, John Christian. 

At the beginning of the 2015 school year, the new TIC Todd Lane worked with CJ McDonald and Kelsey Brown to set up the Excel document, the scanner and to brainstorm classroom management strategies to have students scan their cards as they walked through the door each day. 

SUCCESS.  Kelsey had this to say:

“This new ID scanning system has created a very efficient, reliable procedure for attendance.  I take attendance much more consistently and save time during class.  Some days last year I either forgot, submitted it all at the end of the day, or got frustrated and didn't take it at all.  This year the kids think it's sweet and high-tech, too.

Each grade level has an Excel workbook, and each day has its own tab.  I look at PowerSchool shortly before class starts and make a note of excused absences.  As students come into the room, then know that they need to grab their folder, scan their ID, and find their spot.  I usually stand by the scanner to expedite this process, and to make sure nobody is sneaking out after they have scanned!  About 5 minutes into class, after our warm-up, I call the names of students who have not scanned in.  If a student doesn't have their ID, they just say "no id" and again, I make a note.  

At the end of the process (which takes less than a minute) I have a short list of names, in alphabetical order, to mark "absent" in PowerSchool.  I also have a permanent record, of class attendance and specific reasons kiddos missed class, without having to log into Powerschool."

Problem solved.

The Power of PLC

The Power of PLC by Sheri Crandall

Have you ever attended a workshop that made you not only want to be a better teacher, but a better person?  Sue Atwater, mentor coach and I had the opportunity to attend the PLC Conference in Minneapolis this summer with some of our HS colleagues. 

From the moment that Dr. Becky DuFour took the stage for her Keynote on day one, until Mike Mattos took the stage for his Keynote and closing speech on the last day, including Dr. Richard DuFour’s Keynote on day 2, I was inspired to be better and do better. 

If you have ever had the opportunity to attend this conference, I’m sure you know exactly what I mean. Becky DuFour set the stage and explained so very clearly how to build the solid foundation of a PLC and what a successful PLC should look like.  She encouraged everyone to NOT settle for “collaboration lite”.

 She talked about the importance of knowing our mission, vision, values and goals.  Why do we exist?  What must we become?  How must we behave and which steps do we take when? 

Mike Mattos discussed when ALL means ALL with such passion that you feel like you are at a church revival.  When he stood on stage and shouted at us, “Who are we to play God?”, he actually made me shake in my seat, yet I found myself nodding along with him.   We cannot allow our students to play the teacher lottery, we must insist that we work together to have success for all students by providing them with a guaranteed viable curriculum.

He encouraged us to make this promise to every parent:  “It does not matter which teacher your child has at our school, if your child needs extra time and support to learn at high levels, we guarantee he or she will receive it.”

Rick DuFour praised American Educators saying that we are the greatest generation of educators yet, but we still must improve, because the consequences of failing to succeed in school have never been more dire.  The gap in earnings between college graduates and HS dropouts is the largest in the industrialized world.  Therefore, we must implement what we know to be the most promising practice.  We must work in collaborative teams interdependently to achieve commons SMART goals for which all member are mutually accountable.  We must focus on the right work. It is obvious what the great Dr. Richard DuFour means by the right work … PLCs.

I could go on and on about the information learned at this conference, but that is not the point of this post.  The point of this post is that we drank the Kool-Aid and we saw the light and we knew we must focus on the right work when we returned to school.   For years we have been committed to blocking out the time weekly to meet in teams, but were we having team meetings or truly PLCing?  We weren’t quite sure where to start or what our next steps might be and we had the honor of working one on one with 2 of the greats:  Rick DuFour and Mike Mattos.  Dr. DuFour sat with our HS team and guided us step by step through what we could do when we returned to school.  We did exactly what he suggested and started by meeting with our HS principal and asking him about his vision and mission.  We, as teacher leaders, set our goal for the HS this year as making the PLC process really work.  We asked our principal to make some commitments to us about supporting and enforcing PLC work, as well as asking our staff to commit to this important work as well.

Due to the new teacher leader grant in our state, we were able to hire a PLC facilitator for each HS department this year.  This PLC facilitator will bring all the PLCs in their department together once a month to discuss curriculum alignment, student struggles, cross department issues and deficits.  Possible guiding questions:  * What are the areas in which our students consistently struggle, and what is our theory regarding why these skills or concepts are proving difficult for them? * What are the obstacles that are impeding progress? *What support and resources can we provide to promote progress? *How can we identify and celebrate examples of progress to build momentum to increase individual and collective confidence about taking on the next challenge? *What do we need to learn individually and collectively to improve upon our ability to help students succeed (What PD do we need to make this happen)?

The focus of our PLCs are 5 guiding questions:   

·         What is it, exactly, that we expect students to learn in our classroom?

·         How will we provide instruction to allow for the most student learning to occur?

·         How will we know when they have learned it?

·         How will we respond when they don’t learn it?

·         How will we respond when they already know it?

It is so exciting to see teams of teachers discussing what they as a group can do to help students achieve.  The paradigm shift from MY students to OUR students.  For those staff members that haven’t had a chance to attend the PLC conference we have made handouts and cliff notes of characteristics of a successful PLC, along with some guiding questions.  For those teachers that are still struggling with writing SMART goals, we offered a Professional Development session taught by our principal, where he broke it down for them step by step.  On our first PD day in August, our principal also led a session where teachers got into teams and ran a practice PLC meeting, as he guided them through the steps that should be seen in a PLC meeting.  We are striving to reinforce and clarify the PLC process that our teachers have started.  We are seeing an eagerness in our staff to improve their PLC work.   

We are off to a great start this year and I think Dr. DuFour would be proud of how our work is progressing.

 

In the meantime, keep up the great work LMHS and

Thanks Dr. DuFour for your hard work and dedication to PLCs and the PLC process, and to your entire team that inspired us this summer.   Not only is Dr. DuFour responsible for our LMHS focus this year, and motivating us, he is responsible for me taking my first selfie.

  

Professional Development that Wins

After 21 years in education, I've spent a fair amount of time in Professional Development settings. Some of those have been more engaging than others.  I am constantly hearing from my colleagues in education about what they do and don't like about adult learning.  As our Teacher Leadership Program begins the second year of implementation, we wanted to focus on activities and learning that fostered trust, teamwork, coaching, and above all a lot of fun.  Filling eight hours is a daunting task. Who really wants to sit in one spot and listen for eight consecutive hours?  Likely none of us.

After a year of focusing on leadership, Cognitive Coaching, and meaningful professional development training,  Erin Watts and I began to map out our Year 2 kick off plans for our full-time coaches.  Our goal was to provide opportunities to collaborate, gain trust, and hone our team work skills.  All while providing relevant material, nuts and bolts of the program for year two, a review of coaching practice and philosophy, and welcoming five new members to our team.  WOW. Cramming that into one professional day seemed IMPOSSIBLE.

To launch our day,  we started with a TRUST BOOT CAMP.  The four station event was comprised of a trust walk with planks, a hoola hoop relay, pantyhose bowling, and a bean bag toss.  The premise of each station was for your team to complete the goal together in the least amount of time.  Times were compiled to see which team/group had the overall best time.  I struggle to find words to describe the essence of the day.

It was MAGNIFICENT.  

We saw PRODIGIOUS teamwork, MELLIFLUOUS cheering, and heartfelt COMPANIONSHIP. 

Teacher Leaders at Linn-Mar  PD day, August 13th, 2015

Todd Lane calls upon his past gymnast skills during a game of pantyhose bowling.

Teacher leaders@ Linn-Mar participating in bean bag toss and pantyhose bowling.

After a year of building our plane while flying, it actually felt like we were flying.  The greatest moment; the joy and laughter on the faces of our teacher leaders.  PRICELESS.

Ryan Gotto, Sue Atwater, Dana Lampe, Nicole Redington, and C. J. McDonald master the art of the Trust Walk.

After debriefing about our game experience, Erin planned several Ice Breaker activities in between the housekeeping items, and intense material.  It was a winning combination of activities. We provided opportunities for our coaching to partner up in trios or pairs and read, discuss, and practice coaching.  I saw conversations and ideas happening all over the building, in the nooks and crannies of the halls, and in our parking lot.  They were INVESTED. INTENTIONAL. INSPIRED..........and SO WERE WE.  

Jessica Zimmerman, Kim Ophoff, and Beth Hayes engaged in a Cognitive Coaching conversation at a recent PD Day.

Local Field Trip Provides Students a Window to the Past

Students from Excelsior and Oak Ridge visiting Usher's Ferry

Planning lessons for your classroom each day can be a challenge.  Planning an educational field trip off campus for 548 middle school students can be equally demanding.

Students from Oak Ridge Middle School and Excelsior Middle School had the unique opportunity to experience life in the mid-to late-1800s, just like the character Tom Sawyer did in the novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.  Students read the novel prior to their trip to Ushers Ferry and teachers talked about the background of the author and the time period, but those lessons really came to life when they traveled to Ushers Ferry. The staff at Ushers Ferry did a wonderful job of helping Literacy Teachers Julie Pfeiffer, Christy Good, Ryan Shaffer, and Instructional Coach Nicole Redington determine the activity and learning stations to offer as well as work out the details of taking all 7^th grade students in the Linn-Mar District through Ushers Ferry over four days. 

Teachers led groups of students around the town and helped make the days even more fun by leading games over lunch and had a great time with the students. With the help of Karla Terry and volunteer coordinators, parent volunteers accompanied students throughout the village and were a monumental help with running some stations. One of the favorite stations parents helped at was the old-fashioned games station. Students played old-fashioned games like jacks, graces, badminton, Annie Annie Over and three-legged races.  Annie Annie Over was a particular favorite! Another station that was a hit was the butter-making station, and Mentor Coach Jennie Lorenzen became an expert at teaching students this particular skill! 

Ann Cejka and Kathy Scanlon from Ushers Ferry both gave students a taste of what it was like in a one-room schoolhouse in the 1800s, having students solve sample math problems, recite spelling words, and practice manners. Students also got a small taste of some of the discipline Tom Sawyer experienced at the hands of his teacher, Mr. Dobbins, by standing with their nose touching a circle on the chalkboard and wearing a dunce cap in the corner of the room. Students took a tour of the lower village, receiving information about town life in general at the time, and they learned about the importance of the river in the transportation of goods, people, and ideas. 

Instructional Coach Nicole Redington gave information about medical practices in the 1800s, such as tonsillectomies (students agreed that they are glad of the surgery practices today) and herbal medicines. Students were able to smell some of the herbs commonly used in medicines, and none of them were ones students thought particularly enjoyable! 

Linda Starbuck demonstrated woodstove cooking, and Mike Duss demonstrated blacksmithing. Both had a wealth of knowledge about the time period and about their particular area of expertise, and had students thoroughly engaged! Students had a great time at Ushers Ferry, and they were able to gain valuable insight about the town life Mark Twain described in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  This real world experience helped Linn-Mar students relate in a personal way to events of the past and promoted a deeper understanding of the novel, the content, and the time period.

Far-A-Way Friday

Do you ever need to get away from it all?  Students at Wilkins Elementary have used their research skills to virtually learn and travel to far away places this spring.  In order to accomplish this inquiry based learning project, the fifth grade teachers needed some time for planning and collaborating.   The team met with their building instructional strategist, and talked through some goals for students and the project.

Last fall, the teachers worked together to reach a common goal and use a common assessment.  The purpose and goals of the project were to have the students pick a place in the world or country to study.  Fifth graders had specific criteria to find in order to meet the standards, but they were able to apply these skills to a place they were interested in learning more about.  For example, students needed to find the latitude and longitude of their place as well as discover important landforms and bodies of water.  

     The teachers worked together to decide on ways the students should present their information.  Some students chose a travel brochure, poster, and some even created power point presentations. 

Students were learning and applying many necessary literacy skills such as: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.  The travel projects have been a success for the teachers and the students. 

Collaboration is such an integral part of successful teaching and learning.  The fifth grade teachers successful planning of their travel project has had an impact on their students in the classroom.