FROM INDIVIDUAL HEROES TO COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE

1
FROM INDIVIDUAL HEROES TO COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE

• Sheldon Berman
• Superintendent
• Jefferson County Public Schools
• Kentucky

2
A New Era in Educational Expectations

• FROM Access for all

• TO Proficiency for all

3
The Implications

• This changes
• How we teach
• How we work
• How we use assessment
• How we think about school culture

4
HOW WE WORK PROFESSIONAL CULTURE

Deepening Student Understanding by Becoming a
Community of Learners
5
PROFESSIONALLY ENRICHING SCHOOL COMMUNITIES

• We found that in schools where professional
  community is strong, pedagogy tends to be more
  authentic where professional community is weak,
  pedagogy also tends to be weak. Because
  authentic pedagogy produces high-quality student
  performance, school-wide professional community
  contributes indirectly to student academic
  achievement.
• Karen Seashore Louis, 1999

6
THE FOCUS FOR THE FUTURE

• Professionally enriching school communities
• A culture shift
• From the individual hero to the interdisciplinary
  team
• From whole group instruction to individually
  tailored instruction

7
From Dr. Kildare to Medical Teams
8
From Perry Mason to Legal Teams
9
From Flash Gordon to NASA
10
FROM SUPERHERO TO SUPER TEAM
11
From the Stand Alone Teacher of the 1950s
12
To the Stand Alone Teacher of the 21st Century
13
From the Stand Alone Principal of the 1950s
14
To the Stand Alone Principal of the 21st Century
15
PROFESSIONALLY ENRICHING SCHOOL COMMUNITIES

• Reflective dialogue
• De-privatization of practice
• Collective focus on student learning
• Collaboration
• Shared norms and values

16
PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION

• We need to focus on deepening our work through
  understanding what young people are learning from
  our instruction.
• We need to build even stronger collaborative and
  collegial relationships that enhance
  instructional practices.
• In this way we model reflective collaboration and
  engagement for our students by living it.

17
SUSTAINING PROFESSIONAL GROWTH

• Schedule common preparation and planning time for
  teacher collaboration.
• Initiate lesson study, critical friends groups,
  and team study groups.
• Use videos of classroom practice, case studies,
  student work samples and action-research to
  support reflective practice and collegial
  dialogue about teaching.
• Support embedded professional growth to promote
  collaboration.
• Use data to better understand the strengths and
  gaps in curriculum and instruction.
• Refocus teacher evaluation on professional growth
• Take the time to assess, reflect on and
  strengthen the quality of professional community
  in the building.

18
LESSON STUDY

• Goal
• Foster collaborative dialogue about lesson
  planning and student thinking to close the gap
  between what we want students to know and what
  they have learned.
• Focus
• Lesson design and evidence of student
  understanding

19
Lesson Study Cycle
Select Goals for Improvement
Collaboratively Plan the Lesson
Review and Revise the Lesson
Teach the Lesson Observe Evidence of Leaning
20
Lesson Study Planning Protocol

• Focus What are our current concerns about
  student understanding or instruction?
• What do we want students to know?
• What are the key concepts of the lesson?
• Where does the lesson fit into the conceptual
  development of the unit?
• What are the building blocks (constructs) of the
  key concept?
• What concepts do we want to assess?
• What range of understanding do we anticipate?
• What confusions do we anticipate?
• How will we move learners forward?
• How will the launch of the lesson be structured
  to motivate interest, help students understand
  their task, and build on what they already know?
• How will the student investigation be structured
  to provide access across the range of anticipated
  understanding?
• How will we know what students do and do not
  understand?
• What supports or responses can we put in place to
  move learners forward?
• How will the lesson summary be structured to
  maximize student participation and encourage
  reflection?

21
Professional Growth Plan and Supervision and
Evaluation Procedures

• A NEW DESIGN FOR EVALUATION
• BUILT ON
• PROFESSIONAL GROWTH

22
KEY FEATURES

• Focused on professional growth rather than
  performance evaluation
• Provides teachers with greater control of the
  process
• Provides growth options for teachers
• Promotes collaboration between teachers on
  improving practice
• Encourages professional dialogue between teachers
  and administrators
• Provides intensive support to a faculty member
  identified as having difficulty meeting the
  performance standards
• The performance standards meet the required State
  standard

23
SIX YEAR CYCLE
24
OPTIONS FOR TEACHERS
25
POSSIBLE PLAN COMPONENTS

• Research
• Reading
• Courses
• Workshops
• Reflective writing
• Materials review and development
• Visits to other schools/teachers
• Consistent use of new strategies
• Collaboration with other teachers
• Business internship/externship

26
POSSIBLE DOCUMENTATION

• Portfolio
• Reflective journal
• Videotape
• Written reflections
• Presentation to peers, administrators, others
• Report on student reflections
• Other products

27
Challenge Building Bridges to Unknown Places

• Cultural Changes
• From individual private practice to collaborative
  open practice
• From peers sharing ideas to colleagues working
  in collaboration as co-designers and critical
  friends
• From managing activities to investigating
  childrens thinking
• From monitoring learning through tests and grades
  to diagnostician and orchestration of moving
  learning forward
• From supervisors as compliance monitors to
  partners in learning and improvement

28
CORE CONCEPT

• GOAL To provide meaningful vehicles for
  continuous collaborative growth of the faculty.
• IN A WAY THAT
• Supports organizational goals
• Promotes improvement of the school and the system
• Encourages risk taking, mutual trust, and support
• Structures collaboration into the daily life of
  the school
• Promotes self-reflection and fosters continuous
  professional growth
• Structures time for effective communication,
  implementation, and feedback
• SO THAT Student learning, effective
  instructional practice and staff job satisfaction
  are continually increased.

29
(No Transcript)