Create a Learning Community

    

     I heard a principal say to a group of instructional leaders that “we must allow for teachers to dialog with us about what they think so we can guide them in their understanding”.  This is a powerful statement from an instructional leader’s perspective.  Many studies show that teacher collaboration has the biggest effects size when it comes to teacher growth.  Interestingly enough isn’t this what we ask teachers to do with our students – check for understanding?  

     When we begin to treat schools as learning organizations for teachers – student achievement will take care of itself.  Campus principals must model effective collaboration and disallow teaches to isolate themselves in their practice.  Teaches are the most influential professional in a student’s educational career, we must ensure that we are providing the venues for them to learn.  Research states that PLC’s do impact achievement in students and teachers (Dufour,Mattos, 2013).

     As an instructional leader you must focus on planning for your school community to focus on learning and not on teaching.  In my district we have elected to implement Instructional Rounds– We want to collectively work on the practice of teaching and create a culture of classroom observations that focus on learning for both the teacher and the student.  I am proud to say that our dialog has changed as we have prepared to implement this initiative.  What a great day it will be when teachers share a vision of shared learning and student achievement. This happens because campus leaders have created the time and set the expectation that their campus will learn together.   

     Educators are naturally lifelong learners, let’s allow for time each day for them to pursue professional growth – after all Webster’s definition of EDUCATION is the action or process of educating or of being educated.  Let’s commit to learning communities within the halls of our schools.

Until next time –Dr. Mc

How Do Principals Really Improve Schools? http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/apr13/vol70/num07/How-Do-Principals-Really-Improve-Schools%C2%A2.aspx

Rick DuFour and Mike Mattos

Professional Learning Communities http://www.centerforcsri.org/plc/literature.html

The Habits of Connected Leadership

Schools are communities in their own right.  One of the most important jobs of a principal is to guide the culture of this community.  This means that you must be forward, creative and logical in your thinking.  Students today require us to be innovative in how we teach them, which in turn means as leaders we must create a culture where innovation is embedded.  How is this done?  You must provide resources to help teacher understand what innovation is, what it can offer, and how it impacts student learning outcomes.

As a former high school principal I had to ask myself if my daily habits aligned with my instructional expectations.  To increase a culture of innovative teachers there are several habits campus leaders can focus on to get results.  First, you must plan for collaboration with your staff.  Create a culture of sharing and teaching with each other.  Second, you must make action a habit.  Teachers want to see their leader model what is being asked of them.  So, take action and use innovative ideas when you meet to collaborate with your staff. The third habit innovative leaders must possess is they must have a habit of being connected through social networking and their PLN’s.  It is important that you as the leader show your commitment to learn what other innovative schools are doing to stay connected with students.

Your school community is watching you and learning from your habits – I encourage you to give positive rewards to your teachers for trying to connect differently with students today.  Here are a few great articles to read on what other leaders are doing with their campuses:

http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/06/07/7-habits-of-highly-effective-tech-leading-principals.aspx

http://connectedprincipals.com/contributors/lyn-hilt