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Gas in the Tank:

What Is Really Needed From Leaders

To Keep PLCs On Track Amidst Competing Priorities?

COSA - Salishan

January 2016

Missi Thurman

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www.educationalexcellence.org

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Objectives

Build shared understanding of effective strategies for moving teams to increased collective efficacy

Increase awareness of the “Must Haves & Cant Stands”

Discuss Tools of the Trade that support efficiency while increasing student outcomes

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Cycle Overview

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L2 Matrix

Understanding Antecedents of Excellence

Achievement of Results

Lucky

Losing

Ground

Leading

Learning

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Let’s Make Some Predictions: What is the effect size of increasing teachers’ collective efficacy?

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Newsflash:

This is NOT what is happening for most teams

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The Questions Remain…

What can I do about it? How can I help my teams?

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“Must Haves”

“Can’t Stands”

When you don’t even show up

When you sit there & answer emails, we have emails waiting too.

When you prep for other meetings, we have a few things to prep for as well.

When you ask for a retell on something we just discussed

When you cancel PLCs for things you FEEL are more important, but balk when we have the same request

When your feedback is “nit-picky”

Presence - If this is how you think we are going to improve our school, it should be important enough for you to show up.

Feedback - We need to know what we are doing right as well as wrong! We want to improve just as much as you do and we don’t want to wonder what you are thinking.

Support/Back up - When we’ve tried everything, but a teammate is sabotaging.

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So What Really Matters…

Presence
Feedback
Monitoring & Support

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Monitoring & Support

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Goal: Ongoing Monitoring

Preservice

Norms & Roles

Early Fall

Agendas

Deconstruction of Standards to Learning Targets

Winter

Progress of Cycles

Early Spring

Matching Standards to Assessments

Late Spring

Reflection & Goal Setting

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Tools of the Trade

Black Box Running Agendas (team owned) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YVQgRHVYiLbs9S5AV7gJJkKrYdQ9k_1jHo7gwm7bZ54/edit?usp=sharing
Team Process Sheets/Notes (team owned) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X_GSnmWOJl1r8UqU0jKOWxd24uP0k3bJFBsvJTiETFI/edit?usp=sharing
School Wide Monitoring Sheet (support team owned) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19j04VJ5gf8qEumE8j6yGa_uxeMUIFQ2AvDwLWO1zshU/edit?usp=sharing

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Tools of the Trade Tips:

Get Google
Learn to Love it (or at least learn to use it)
Create Shared Folders for the Teams (and “pre-share” them with yourself)
Start a Feedback Bank with your Colleagues (thou shalt not work alone)
Use Comments to Give Positive/Neutral Feedback and to Ask a Question
DO NOT USE Comments for Stronger Directives/Course Corrections
Little bits of feedback often = support :)
Long lists of feedback & multiple course corrections rarely = PLC Police :(

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