My school is based on the Professional Learning Community format. AS principal, I am there more as a facilitator. There are non-negotiables that I will step in and be the boss if I have to.
To be a professional learning community you need leadership at the top that is not into control. I have committees set up for almost every concept imaginable. I have a school council comprised of parents and teachers that are involved with decisions involving the running of the school.
More often than not, I am trying to keep up with them. Generally, I present the staff with DATA to demonstrate there is a problem. For example, I felt that from my observations science/ social studies was not being taught effectively. Because there is no standardized test until grade 5 (my school goes to grade 4) there is no pressure to change anything. I presented the staff with four years of grade 5 data broken out by the seven elementary schools that demonstrated our students were not performing as well as the other schools grade five students. Since that staff meeting, my staff has developed a strategy to change this. The solution did not come from me, the prinicpal sitting on top of the throne. I said, these results are not where I think we should be as a community. What are we going to do about it? They came to me with the plan, and I am there to support it, or ask them to revisit it. I am not there to give them the solution, they are there in the trenches, and if it comes from them, it means more than me saying you need to do a, b, and c. I do not care how they get there, as long as they are following the plan and our results change in the next three years.
I also gave up staff meeting time to support their initiatives. Not ONCE did I regret it. They used the time like it was a treasure to accomplish objectives to make the school a success for children.
One other thing that has become part of the culture is they are working together to develop lessons and common assessments at their grade levels to measure what they are teaching. They are responsible for demonstrating an action plan if the standard they taught was not learned. AS a team, they work together to remediate if necessary and provide enrichment to those that have learned it. There is a set 1/2 hour in the day when every sped, title one, remedial reading teacher comes to a grade level to help with the intervention or enrichment of students. This gives multiple opportunities for small group instruction.
I believe that ALL of the best initiatives have to come from within a school community. I think that is the way to build meaningful change in a school.
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Teacher prep - ugh - I would say, that the mentoring program is essential. Having expert teachers who are willing to share their ideas and strategies with new teachers is essential. I find the student teacher program in Massachusetts to be ridiculous. Teachers have TWO weeks of running a classroom on their own. That is insane. You cannot learn it in two weeks. PERIOD. Ideally, new teachers need to have a mentor that can observe them weekly, provide feedback, and make suggestions. You also need principals who can get their asses out from behind the desk and be in the classrooms providing feedback to rookie teachers, in a non threatening manner. This past year, I spent quite a bit of time working to support a new teacher who had classroom management issues. I was not there judging threatening, but supporting.
Again, I am not a typical principal. My staff and students see me three to four times a week in the classroom. I refuse to let the paperwork pull me from what I feel is important.
To be a professional learning community you need leadership at the top that is not into control. I have committees set up for almost every concept imaginable. I have a school council comprised of parents and teachers that are involved with decisions involving the running of the school.
More often than not, I am trying to keep up with them. Generally, I present the staff with DATA to demonstrate there is a problem. For example, I felt that from my observations science/ social studies was not being taught effectively. Because there is no standardized test until grade 5 (my school goes to grade 4) there is no pressure to change anything. I presented the staff with four years of grade 5 data broken out by the seven elementary schools that demonstrated our students were not performing as well as the other schools grade five students. Since that staff meeting, my staff has developed a strategy to change this. The solution did not come from me, the prinicpal sitting on top of the throne. I said, these results are not where I think we should be as a community. What are we going to do about it? They came to me with the plan, and I am there to support it, or ask them to revisit it. I am not there to give them the solution, they are there in the trenches, and if it comes from them, it means more than me saying you need to do a, b, and c. I do not care how they get there, as long as they are following the plan and our results change in the next three years.
I also gave up staff meeting time to support their initiatives. Not ONCE did I regret it. They used the time like it was a treasure to accomplish objectives to make the school a success for children.
One other thing that has become part of the culture is they are working together to develop lessons and common assessments at their grade levels to measure what they are teaching. They are responsible for demonstrating an action plan if the standard they taught was not learned. AS a team, they work together to remediate if necessary and provide enrichment to those that have learned it. There is a set 1/2 hour in the day when every sped, title one, remedial reading teacher comes to a grade level to help with the intervention or enrichment of students. This gives multiple opportunities for small group instruction.
I believe that ALL of the best initiatives have to come from within a school community. I think that is the way to build meaningful change in a school.
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Teacher prep - ugh - I would say, that the mentoring program is essential. Having expert teachers who are willing to share their ideas and strategies with new teachers is essential. I find the student teacher program in Massachusetts to be ridiculous. Teachers have TWO weeks of running a classroom on their own. That is insane. You cannot learn it in two weeks. PERIOD. Ideally, new teachers need to have a mentor that can observe them weekly, provide feedback, and make suggestions. You also need principals who can get their asses out from behind the desk and be in the classrooms providing feedback to rookie teachers, in a non threatening manner. This past year, I spent quite a bit of time working to support a new teacher who had classroom management issues. I was not there judging threatening, but supporting.
Again, I am not a typical principal. My staff and students see me three to four times a week in the classroom. I refuse to let the paperwork pull me from what I feel is important.