This year, two of my teachers attended the Chicago Public Education Fund Innovation workshops. The workshops encourage school teams to create prototype projects to improve education that are then funded based on merit.
As a result, we introduced the idea of prototyping to our staff this year through an activity called the Marshmallow Project, where teachers had to build towers with spaghetti and marshmallows. The most successful teams were those who built as they planned (they were able to build the highest towers) versus those who spent the most of their time planning (they built smaller towers IF they were able to complete a tower).
We emphasized that teaching should be like this - quick cycles of problem solving and evaluation. I really enjoyed the project, and I decided to employ the strategy into my own leadership, which has meant selecting one thing to really focus on and build quicker cycles into.
My prototype cycle has gone like this:
1. Present/plan with staff expectations
2. Provide coaching to staff through various venues (coaches, e-mails, feedback on initial tries, etc.)
3. Meeting with each staff member to look at evidence of implementation
4. Follow up meetings with written feedback and observation cycles
I used the Domain 4 rubric for my individual staff meetings, which helped the teachers frame their work as "professional practice". Domain 4 of the Danielson rubric is about what each of us usually deem as administrative expectations.
These meetings were a great opportunity to make sure that every staff member really understood expectations, to get detailed feedback on school implementation, and to see where both the administration and teachers needed to focus to take our school to the next level.
Our school, as a whole, learned something. For instance, we found that teachers made phone calls, but that the calls were about academic failure and behavior. So, we had very few teachers contacting parents to share what was being taught or how they might support their students. Definitely something to think about!
The meetings with the individual teachers:
*Resulted in immediate teacher collaboration to address areas that they needed improvement in - each grade level immediately added Domain 4 to their weekly meetings, including helping each other identify and review evidence
*Innovative ideas to address gaps that were identified - grade level teams and teachers begin to design/update their websites, one grade level is sponsoring a monthly academic scavenger hunt for parents/students, and all levels begin planning a grade level presentation including schoolwide community service
*Clear direction for both the administration and teachers in day to day and school planning - the curriculum scope and sequence is now emphasized in e-mails with the actual standards/objectives listed and these are also the topical focii in grade level meetings, rather than just hyperlinks; the result has been more focused academic collaboration
Even though it took 3 weeks to complete all of the individual meetings, the impact of that three weeks has really been powerful to move teachers to action as professionals.
We are now moving to the observation and feedback phase of our prototyping cycle, and we are excited to see what changes we will see when we go into classrooms specifically for this purpose.
So, what have I learned so far is:
1. Face to face, structured, individual meetings are more powerful than any other form of communication, especially when there is common understanding - evaluation/observation meetings are not enough
2. Grouped meetings/feedback with teachers help them to collaborate more meaningfully - rather than spread out meetings. Teachers are able to help others understand their feedback, especially if they, themselves, received similar feedback.
3. The individual meetings are a great way to collect detailed data on school implementation - quantitatively and qualitatively.
This experience is shifting the way that I organize my work, and I am excited to start next school year, when the administrative team will be able to put even more structure into our process and hopefully speed up our cycles.
But, in the meantime, I thought I'd share and see if others are having similar experiences.
I am new to blogging, and I am starting a Google+ Blogger, Instructional Principal. I'd love to get feedback and have a dialogue with other ed professionals, so check it out at http://principalinstruction.blogspot.com/. Or, converse with me @AzizSims on Twitter.
