TIPS and ADVICE
Things I learned from this project:
- You need a shared vision. Grounding the work around Core Practices of Social Emotional Educators served as a roadmap for teachers’ development. Spend some time with you staff creating your own version of this.
- Successful partnerships need to be thoughtfully planned out. Pairing teachers that had something in common (i.e. same grade level, same students taught, same subject taught) made for more positive experiences. Flexibility is also key, allowing for people to have some choice in their partners, and giving them an out, should the pair need a “divorce.”
- It's important to provide teachers with ways to share their work and gather reflections and data. You also need to provide them with protocols to follow that support their coaching conversations.
- You will need many resources for SEL readings that spark new ideas for teachers to try. Having teachers add to an existing bank of resources allows for this to continue to grow and for teachers to have their voices heard.
- Someone should serve as a hub to connect with teachers about this work and to see if it’s working. Connecting your data gathering to the PDSA Cycles can be easy, as it requires participants to record their thinking throughout the process. You can use the teacher reflections on the PDSA cycles to see where teachers may still need more support, and provide them with other professional development to supplement this.
Advice from teachers who participated in this study
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"I think there has to be a lot of pre-teaching that goes into it. Reading of books and articles and well as lots of time observing others who know and use SEL" |
"It's really challenging to make time to do collegial coaching well, but it's worth it. "It is helpful to have information/articles/books that conversations can be focused on. |
"Get to know your partner first. Remember that we are not there to judge...we are there to help and improve. Choosing partners is important because it allows you to feel really safe. Remember that neither of you is the expert...we all have something to learn from each other. For the organization using collegial coaching and video-ing: These should be used to help us reflect and grow instead of as job performance reviews. The model of growing and supporting will bring out the best in your teachers :)" |