100 Posts in 100 Days
The last several posts have felt “fast and furious” to me. I’ve written them in real time in the week our teachers are returning to campus. Every educator knows how full these weeks are. The lists of plans to be made, materials to be prepared, conversations to be had, and communications to be sent is long. Emotions are in full swing: excitement, anticipation, and anxiety, just to name a few. Only educators know the unique kind of tiredness that comes with these weeks.
And so, I have written my posts and quickly published them, hence the “fast and furious” tone. I’ve posted and then had new or additional thoughts. So, today’s blog is a bit different than previous ones. I’m adding on “one more thing” to the last few posts.
Post 93: Professional Learning Environments
In this post I noted how we have been allocating time this week for the myriad of activities, meetings, and tasks that our teachers are engaged in. I showed the distribution in this graphic:
The one more thing is to to note that this distribution is across 5 full days. As a professional developer, of course I like to see the orange portion as the largest part of the pie. After my post, though, I was thinking back to other years and other schools where the length of time for teacher preparation was much shorter, only 2 or 3 days. I was thinking that in those circumstances, I don’t know that this distribution would be ideal. If this chart represents 1 day, then the time to prepare a classroom is likely an hour or so. Not enough. Knowing how big the pie is makes a difference in deciding how to allocate the various pieces.
“Nudges” shared some observations about two impetuses that nudge teachers: responsiveness and cognitive dissonance. This one more thing is a third impetus that my team of coaches talked about today: clear focus. Without a doubt our school is focused on deeper learning for all students and we see developing our teachers as a leverage point in achieving our goal. That big orange piece of the pie from Post 93 is on one topic. It is about the learning principles and teaching practices that we believe will best serve our students. It is not an eclectic mix of sessions on a variety of topics or programs. So, as busy as the week (and school year) is, the professional learning is one continuous and predictable thread.
Post 95: Engaging Teachers’ Curiosity and Creativity
This post described the value of collaboration and of having the teachers actively doing work in their sessions. So far this week the sessions have followed a routine of activating prior knowledge, annotating readings and watching a video, making connections and deepening understanding, and reflecting and extending. The result has been the development of shared understanding and consistent language across teams and across the school. My one more thing is that I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s sessions because that is where I think creativity will really emerge. Tomorrow teachers will be guided to work with their teams and set a goal for a strategy that they will apply in their classrooms in the first 2 weeks of the school year. All of the discussion, thinking, questioning, and reflecting will be formed into a specific action. I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing what our teachers decide and design.