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Instructional Rounds

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Feedback from Instructional Rounds: New Network. A team of 4 Middle School Teachers and 4 Administrators piloted the second instructional rounds group in Mount Vernon’s Middle School starting in January 2014.

Feedback from Instructional Rounds: New Network

After one pre-brief (to establish norms and goals), four observations and four group debriefs, we concluded our rounds with one final post-brief session. Here is the feedback… What was good about this IR experience? Greatest learning came from hearing about others’ feedback Our group allowed the conversation to be organic I benefited from an inside view of the all the classrooms This increases the respect for our profession It allowed me to form relationships with teammates on other grades and on the other campus Made me more willing to take risks Feedback is less scary if you feel supported and cared for.

As a new teacher, I felt like part of the community What could improve the instructional rounds experience? What could we improve about Proto 3 (the instrument we use to gather the observation data)? Observation + Reflection: Making Instructional Rounds Meaningful. Disclaimer: This post is long.

Observation + Reflection: Making Instructional Rounds Meaningful

I got excited! Instructional Rounds: An Experiment in Coaching and Feedback For Educators. One of the most fun parts about my job is the opportunity to coach and give feedback to teachers who want to be the best in their field.

Instructional Rounds: An Experiment in Coaching and Feedback For Educators

We are currently piloting a new program in our school under the guidance of Bo Adams and with the dedication and willingness of some first class teachers and administrators. I am planning many more posts on this topic, so this is merely an introduction. When asked what would make the biggest difference in accomplishing our wildly important goal of aligning with the School’s mission, our four exemplar educators (also known as our Heads of Grade) identified “coaching and feedback.” After much brainstorming, we determined three components that would be most beneficial to achieving this goal. 1. Simultaneously, the feedback would not only be useful for informing the individual teacher’s practice, but also for mapping a macro level cartography of the School’s practices. 2. Being a student of your own school. #Learning Walks #InstructionalRounds #Pedagography. We are a School of inquiry, innovation, and impact.

Being a student of your own school. #Learning Walks #InstructionalRounds #Pedagography

Grounded in Christian values, we prepare all students to be college ready, globally competitive, and engaged citizen leaders.- Mount Vernon Presbyterian School Mission How are you studying your own school? In what ways are you being a student of your own school? Certainly you send folks to conferences like bees sent to collect pollen. It’s likely that you send faculty to other schools to learn from their practices, too. Julie Wilson, Institute for the Future of Learning, “Hitting the Road” School Visits & Site Visit Observation Field GuideParkDay Tom Progressive Schools TourGrant Lichtman’s #EdJourney – category of posts archiving his 2012-13 visit to more than 80 schools. Supporting Teacher Growth with Instructional Rounds. Post written by Robert J.

Supporting Teacher Growth with Instructional Rounds

Marzano and Michael D. Toth In Teacher Evaluation That Makes a Difference, our recommendations for best practices are based on the assumption that teacher evaluation should have two purposes—development and measurement—but that development should be the more important of the two. If districts and schools share this perspective, then they must provide teachers with direct support in their efforts to improve. Our recommendations are derived from three primary sources: Effective Supervision, Becoming a Reflective Teacher, and Coaching Classroom Instruction. Begin with a teacher self-audit. Harvard Education Letter. Principal Randall Lewis stood at the front of the school library, where members of his district’s instructional rounds network had gathered for coffee, muffins, and conversation before the official start of the day’s visit.

Harvard Education Letter

Teachers Observing Teachers: Instructional Rounds. Teachers and administrators all over are trying to figure out how to support English Learners (ELs).

Teachers Observing Teachers: Instructional Rounds

One of the schools that I work with, United for Success Academy (UFSA), in Oakland, CA, has launched a concerted effort in the last year to address the needs of their ELs who comprise some 90 percent of the student body. Teachers at this middle school have engaged in professional development on a range of instructional approaches including explicit academic vocabulary instruction, the use of sentence stems, and various structures for small group discussion. Moratorium on High Stakes Tests Is the Right Response to Common Core Implementation. May 28, 2013 Dear Council Members, Ever since NCTE provided a series of thoughtful critiques of the draft ELA Common Core Standards documents starting in 2009, the Council has been consistent in opposing implementation measures that would reduce teachers' flexibility in designing instruction, choosing materials, or using appropriate assessments to engage learners and improve equity across all classrooms.

Moratorium on High Stakes Tests Is the Right Response to Common Core Implementation

It is clear that rushing into the next generation of high stakes assessments, long before implementation of significant improvements in the organizational conditions needed to advance learning, is a recipe for disaster. Coaching: The New Leadership Skill:Learning from Instructional Rounds. October 2011 | Volume 69 | Number 2 Coaching: The New Leadership Skill Pages 36-41 Elizabeth A.

Coaching: The New Leadership Skill:Learning from Instructional Rounds

City. Why Aren't School Leaders More Like Doctors? Daily rounds and internships can make better administrators.

Why Aren't School Leaders More Like Doctors?

Years after accountability and data-driven decision making swept through schools, many educators may believe there is not one part of their profession that hasn't been thoroughly dissected, quantified, or ranked. But for many districts a black hole lies in the space between what they expect to accomplish and what actually occurs in their classrooms every day. Is summer professional development really helping teachers integrate technology?

Is the new language arts curriculum creating more engaged learners? Are the new math textbooks doing a better job showing students how the problems relate to real life? About 10 years ago, Harvard professor of educational leadership Richard Elmore worked with a group of Connecticut superintendents to create a program to bridge this gap. Treating the “Instructional Core”: Education Rounds. By Michael Blanding 05/12/2009 2:01 PM EST | Add a Comment In the beginning pages of Instructional Rounds in Education–a new book by HGSE faculty members Richard Elmore, Elizabeth City, and Lee Teitel, along with doctoral student and Cambridge school principal Sarah Fiarman–the authors remind their readers that “Teaching causes learning.” While this might seem obvious, teaching is often the last focus of education–shifted to the side by standardized testing, changing curricula, faculty room politics, overbearing or aloof administrators, and shrinking school budgets.

And yet, argue the book’s authors, the “instructional core”–the essential interaction between teacher, student, and content that creates the basis of learning– is the first place that schools should look to improve student learning. Now a time-honored tradition borrowed from medical practice is helping school leaders gain new insights into teachers’ work. If you want to improve learning, you have to improve teaching. Harvard Education Letter. Instructional Rounds Project. South Lane’s Communities of Practice Conduct Instructional Rounds South Lane School District’s Leadership Team (also known as “Communities of Practice” team) has taken their intense focus on improving instruction to a new level this year.

Building on their past experience with “Learning Walks” and “Studio Classrooms” the team has studied, and now are implementing, “Instructional Rounds” based on the work of Elizabeth City, Richard Elmore, Sarah Fiarman, and Lee Teitel.