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Another Layer of Knowing

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I know two amazing math brains. They can both do calculus, applied mathematics, and whatever else it is that amazing math brains do.   They know their stuff. One of them is an amazing teacher. The other is not. When one sits down with a student to tutor him through a difficult math problem, he prompts and supports and explains and leads his student into understanding. When the other sits down with a student to tutor him through a difficult math problem, he demonstrates how to solve the problem. He gets frustrated and can’t understand why the student can’t do it, too, after the clear procedure he has provided. I know two amazing math brains.   One is a teacher. The other is not.   It is clear that teaching requires more than simply knowing the content. The skills necessary to support a learner along the path to discovery go beyond content knowledge. Pedagogical knowledge supports good teaching. Similarly, there is more to good coaching than knowing the content. Even being ...
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Sustaining Change through Support Over Time

In recent weeks, I’ve posted about how to sustain changes that lead to improved student learning.   In order to stay the course in educational change, teachers need the opportunity to engage in ongoing, focused, challenging, professional learning.   Teachers’ professional learning can (and should) take many forms, however, sit-and-get is not one of them. Passive professional development experiences tend to result in more frustration than change.   Instead, teachers benefit from the opportunity to think and talk together, to try the new ideas they will be using, and to have time to plan for their revised instruction. These opportunities can occur during released-time trainings and summer institutes. They can also be job-embedded, supported by instructional coaches and department heads.   Planning periods, PLC time, and faculty meetings can be oriented toward professional learning.   During the first year after we created our shared vision for literacy instruction...
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Buoys for Stability to Sustain Change

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In order to sustain change, we have to decide what is worth being consistent about. Every classroom has a different combination of learners who have unique needs and experiences.   Every classroom also has its unique collective culture: webs of relationships, ways of doing and caring, and shared experiences. Because of this variation, there are many, many things that must be left to teachers’ judgement.   What, then, is the focus of our change efforts?   What are the things about which we stand firm? In previous posts, I’ve described a process for creating and maintaining shared vision through ongoing communication .   The things that we stay firm on are rooted in best practice and determined by common consent.   They chart our route to the hoped-for future.   Having common language about that work can be a rudder that provides stability as we move forward.   This common language is important for both teachers and students.   When we call things...
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Creating Shared Vision: Back to the Future

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In a recent post , I discussed the importance of sticking with an innovation for at least three years so that the benefits of the change would be noticeable and enduring.   An understanding of the current reality and ongoing communication are required to create this kind of persistence.   Creating change that lasts also requires shared purpose and vision.   Henry David Thoreau wrote, “It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” (goodreads.com, 2018).   We define what we will be busy about, not by being visionaries ourselves as leaders, but by walking with others, so that together we create a picture of what we hope will be. Envisioning possibilities together energizes action and creates collective commitment for the long haul. We need to know our destination.   Choosing the future doesn’t mean selecting from the paths that are already before us – it means creating that path. When my district started working on a litera...
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Making Tracks for Change

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In a recent post , I discussed the importance of sticking with an innovation for at least three years so that the benefits of the change will be noticeable and ongoing.   Continuous communication is required to create this kind of persistence.   It’s also important to recognize that change that lasts is built on a deep understanding of our current reality. Too often, schools completely alter their course rather than making minor corrections that can result in major improvement. Imagine a train leaving town and taking a branch off of the original track. Initially, there are only a few feet between the old track and the new – but the further and further the train is from the branch in the tracks, the more those tracks diverge. This image demonstrates how even small pedagogical changes, if they are maintained, can result in significant improvement. Rather than making drastic course corrections, appropriate adjustments are suggested through careful data analysis.   We can lo...
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Sustaining Change: Just Keep Talking (and Listening)

In a recent post , I talked about the pendulum swing of education and the ongoing search for the holy grail that will solve education’s ills. I cited research that it takes three years for new initiatives to be implemented sufficiently to produce significant, measurable improvement. How can coaches and other instructional leaders encourage the necessary stick-to-it-iveness? When I faced this problem leading a million-dollar literacy adoption, I dug into the research about change – personal, business, and educational, and I mined a few gems that I could apply.   Perhaps the most important tool for creating persistence is communication . Throughout a change process, communication within and to stakeholder groups is key. “Stakeholder groups” is a clinical term for “everyone who cares.”   This means teachers, parents, administration, and even students.   This means bringing groups of people together to talk, collecting what they talk about, and doing something with it.  ...
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Turn Up the Learning

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A teacher’s day is full of hundreds of decisions: instructional decisions, like, “How should I phrase the next question?” Logistical questions like, “Do we have time to finish this activity before lunch?” Psychological questions like, “What does this child need to feel safe in my room?”   Questions like these have become so routine that they are subconscious, asked and answered almost without our awareness.   Raising these questions to the level of awareness helps us define and refine our teaching philosophy, our values and purpose, and our teaching craft.   As instructional coaches, helping others define and refine their own responses to such questions is a way to support their ongoing improvement. One way to bring instructional decisions to the fore is through a pre-modelling conference.   You know that modelling provides a vision for what an observing teacher’s future instruction might look and sound like.   To turn up the learning that modelling provides, el...
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