My futurist scenario is providing math teachers with effective collaboration within our PLCs. We have been working to create some kind of structure and planned activities for teachers during our PLCs, but we have been struggling to implement sustained intentional activities with specific focus and accountability for math teachers in all grades. Absence of sufficient time has been the main problem.
- If you were to implement this practice, strategy, idea today, what specialized skills, resources, and dispositions would you need to obtain for yourself, your colleagues and staff?
Time is the first resource we need for this plan to work. If we were able to provide teachers with sufficient time such as 2 hours per week then teachers could have enough time to participate in activities that are intentionally planned and ongoing. The planned activities need to have focus every week, so teachers can have a direction. Teachers would need to take an inquiry stance, collectively identify what practices they need to enhance, develop lessons and observe each other while they are implementing the lessons. They would need to get together every week and decide on a topic such as critical thinking for students, do their own research, plan lessons, observe each other and provide feedback to each other. Teachers would need structured time built into their workday to get all these activities done.
Pertaining to strategy, in our first meeting, we would ask teachers to choose a partner to work with. Then collectively, we would need to research different topics in teaching such as problem solving, levels of questioning, student motivation and engagement, critical thinking and different teaching modalities. We would vote for one of the topics to be our focus for the next two weeks. Then, with our partner we would plan a lesson, implement the lesson, observe each other and have post observation meeting to provide feedback.
To implement this plan and experience success, we would need teachers who are motivated, skilled, self-learners, and are willing to provide and receive constructive feedback to improve their teaching. Lastly, and most importantly we would need trust because without trust this plan will not even start. In order for teachers to make themselves vulnerable and open their classrooms to their peers, they need to know they are safe. Trust will help teachers to manage the uncertainty and risk associated with opening up to their peers and know that their well-being will not be threatened by their peers.
2. What skills will your colleagues and those you supervise need in order to be successful in this scenario? Of those skills, which ones are currently being supported through resources such as professional development in your setting? Which ones are missing or minimal? What is currently being supported in your setting that would likely be obsolete in 2020?
We need time to meet. We don't have sufficient time yet we have only 45 minutes per week for our PLCs. Right now, teachers use some of their own time during lunch to meet. This plan will also need competent teachers who have high sense of self-efficacy. Currently we have a number of teachers who have these traits, we just need to utilize their skills in the most efficient way.
3. In what ways are we unprepared, lacking in resources and staffing, or to what degree are our strategies and underlying values unable to respond effectively to the conditions this scenario represents?
I think we have teachers who are motivated and willing to participate in this plan, and as far as time, it is a matter of building more time into master schedule and/or giving the same prep time to teachers. I think most teachers at my site trust each other. The fact that they could have freedom to chose their partner will make it easier for them to trust their peers.
4. What could we be doing now to leverage this trend to our advantage?
We could explain the plan and its goals to teachers and ask volunteers to participate. It would be important to explain to teachers that although they could have some extra time to meet, they might have to use some of their own time. In addition, we could ask teachers to do their own research and come up with topics that they are mostly interested in.
5. What would need to happen internally and in the external environment for preparing yourself and those you lead to navigate in this strategic vision? What changes should your organization begin to make? What should it start doing? What should it stop doing?
Internally, I think the first step is to develop more trust and collective efficacy in schools. In doing so, it is necessary to create a risk-free environment in which teachers feel safe to become vulnerable and make mistakes, model behaviors that reflect integrity and show competence. Also, it is important to increase collective efficacy by highlighting school’s pass successes. I think it is important to stop focusing on school’s weaknesses and instead utilize a more strengths- based approach and appreciate school’s best quality in the hope to discover more about what we do best .
