On July 8, 2016, the JE Moss Elementary leadership team convened to begin the 2016-2017 SIP process. The 3 ½ hour planning session was planned by Anthony Febles, executive principal, Ms. Abigail Reynolds, JE Moss’ SIP facilitator, and Margie Johnson, business intelligence coordinator. The session was facilitated by Margie Johnson using the collaborative inquiry process from Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman. Activating and Engaging The session began with the leadership team engaging in Looking Back and Looking Ahead. Individually, they completed the chart about how teachers worked together when they were in school, how teachers work together now, and how they envision teachers working together. After sharing in small groups, a whole group discussion compiled their multiple perspectives and great ideas. Exploring and Discovering Before establishing an SIP goal 5, the JE Moss leadership team made observations of multiple sources of data, including TELL survey, Teacher Attendance, and Teacher Retention data. This phase of the process is all about going slow to go fast. During this phase of the process, small groups collaborated to take a deep dive into making observations only about the data. They were to avoid making inferences and conclusions. The pictures represent their observations from the multiple data sets. Another exploring and discovering session we did was to take a look at core values. We began by engaging in a Mountain and Valleys activity to identify personal values. These values where then shared with the whole group. A team values questionnaire was used to identify a rough draft of JE Moss’ core values. The team decided to revisit and finalize the core values in the next leadership meeting. Organizing and Integrating Using the current vision and mission statements, the session ended with the JE Moss leadership team using the above data to inform the creation of revised Vision and Mission statements. The below pictures represent each groups’ vision and mission statement. Again, the team decided to come back at a later date to finalize the statements. Needless to say, JE Moss is well on their way to staring the 2016-2017 school year off with vision, mission, and core values, which will inform their SIP process. I can’t wait to work with JE Moss again on July 25th to finalize this work and develop SIP goals for supporting student success.
If you would like to access the materials used for the meeting, please go to http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/je-moss-elementary-leadership-team-meeting.html If you are interested in collaboration support, please feel free to contact Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.
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Leaders from three Collaborative Inquiry Community of Practice (CoP) schools (Haynes, Margaret Allen, and Neely's Bend) met together at Margaret Allen Middle on June 29, 2016. The purpose of the workshop was to define and model the collaborative inquiry process and plan for implementing it during the 2016-2017 school year. One of the lessons learned from the spring CoP was the need for a clear definition of collaborative inquiry. Therefore, during this meeting, the definition created by the CoP was articulated explicitly (see image). As a result we have the Collaborative Learning Cycle and MNPS IC Map for Collaborative Inquiry providing a clearer picture of the collaborative inquiry process. The other big lesson learned this spring is the idea of The Learning and Unlearning Journey. In Day 1 of the Leading Collaborative Teams workshop, Dr. Laura Lipton (2016) discussed that sometimes to learn new practices, we have to unlearn existing habits. Therefore, to foster a culture of collaboration, we need to work together to unlearn a culture of compliance. There's no checklist for establishing a collaborative culture. Just like when I was in the classroom as a teacher, as soon as I thought I had the art of teaching mastered, I would get new students, parents, and team member. Working together in our CoP, I am confident we will continue to improve. Speaking of improving, I have had several requests for videos that model the collaborative inquiry process. I have a video of the central office meeting I facilitated and hope to get assistance in getting the video ready to share. If anyone in our CoP is a video guru, please contact me at margie.johnson@mnps.org as I would appreciate your assistance. For access to the resources used for the CoP Workshop, please use this LINK. Finally, our CoP has a Workshop Warehouse that has information about all the workshops provided to build our capacity to foster a culture of collaboration. There are also several CI workshops scheduled, so if you are interested in attending any of them, please feel free to let me know. You can get the list of Upcoming Workshops at this LINK. Hope you are having a great summer!! Reference: Lipton, L. & Wellman, B. (2011). Leading groups: Effective strategies for building professional community. Sherman, CT: MiraVia, Inc. On June 16, 2016, MNPS administrators participated in a data exploration where the collaborative inquiry process was modeled. The purpose of the session was to model collaborative inquiry for facilitating a group data exploration about cultural issues throughout MNPS with the guiding question of "How can we unleash the power of data to foster a positive and purposeful learning culture throughout MNPS?" Collaborative inquiry as defined by the MNPS Community of Practice is a data-based team process that consciously uses the collaborative learning cycle (activating and engaging, exploring and discovering, and organizing and integrating) and the qualities of effective groups (fostering a culture of trust, maintaining a clear focus, taking collective responsibility and data-informed decision-making). To access the workshop materials and to see their observations and initial theories, go to http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/group-data-exploration-pli-2016.html. I cannot wait to see how schools engage in collaborative inquiry during the 2016-2017 school year to support teacher and student success. If there is anything I can do to assist and support you, please feel free to contact me at margie.johnson@mnps.org. Happy Summer! If you have been part of this journey since Summer 2014, one of the barriers identified for implementing collaborative inquiry was the lack of leadership modeling. I refer to this barrier as “walking the walk.” People raised concerned about leadership, particularly from central office supporting the implementation of collaborative inquiry practices. Since we have the collaborative inquiry community of practice among 5 middle schools and asked them to develop an implementation plan for implementing collaborative inquiry, the need to have this discuss at central office arose. The meeting to discuss central office’s role in supporting collaborative inquiry was held on Thursday, May 19th from 11 AM to 2 PM. Overall, it was a very productive meeting where we used collaborative inquiry practices by using the Teacher Data Use Survey data from the community of practice schools as a springboard for how to best support schools. We had a lively conversation and some great ideas were generated. To learn more about the meeting, including the agenda, PowerPoint, minutes, and pictures of charts, please go to http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/collaborative-inquiry-working-group.html. I also videotaped the session because several schools requested to see videos with collaborative inquiry being modeled. Once I have the videos ready, I will post them to our toolkit and notify you via a blog post. Please note that I am always here as a support for this work and several central office staff have received training as well. I’m happy to meet with you and your team to discuss the best way your school and/or department can foster a culture of collaborative inquiry. Ultimately, my vision is for the expertise throughout MNPS and school community be leveraged for supporting student success. Contact me, Margie Johnson, at margie.johnson@mnps.org. Hope you all have a wonderful summer. In the last post, I mentioned spotlighting Haynes’ Tuesday Talks. Their Tuesday Talks are the grade level team meetings set aside to have meaningful conversation about issues. I want to share about their use of collaborative inquiry for the last three Tuesday Talks. Remember, we have adopted Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman’s Collaborative Learning Cycle as our collaborative inquiry process (see image). When looking at using data, one of the hardest things I have found is to take the additional time to go through the Activating and Engaging, Exploring and Observing phases before the last phase of Organizing and Integrating, which means creating theories of causation. On the Tuesday Talk for April 12, the instructional specialist for Haynes, Kisha Spencer, facilitated the meeting. This meeting’s focus was on helping teachers begin to identify a worthy problem of practice. No data was used during this phase. Instead, teachers participated in brainstorming issues they are facing. Two strategies used during this session to facilitate the process were Banned Words, Sort Cards, and Spend-A-Buck. Sort Cards is a great strategy for brainstorming information, and Spend-A-Buck helps the group reach consensus. Using these strategies, Haynes Middle grade level teams reached a consensus to investigate the issue of student behavior and discipline further. On the April 26th Tuesday Talk, Margie Johnson facilitated the Exploring and Discovering phase of the collaborative inquiry cycle as teachers looked at behavior data. The Behavior Dashboard reports from the MNPS Data Warehouse were used during this session while teachers generated observations they were making about the data using Think & Write/Pair & Share and Theories of Causation strategies. The top theory of causation was that students needed social emotional learning support, particularly around self-regulatory skills. A deeper dive into this theory of causation was facilitated by Kisha Spencer on May 5th to answer the essential question, “How do you support students’ social emotional learning, particularly self-regulatory skills, in your classroom?” The strategies used during the meeting were Looking Back/Looking Ahead and Idea, Category, Web. The plan is to then continue the conversations this summer with a Behavior Advisory Committee with diverse stakeholder members. Needless to say, exciting things are happening at Haynes Middle, and I look forward to seeing the expertise from Haynes applied to this meaningful student issue. You can access ALL their meeting agendas, PowerPoints, and handouts at this link: . Do you and/or your team have a spotlight story to share? If so, please email Margie Johnson at Margie.johnson@mnps.org. I look forward to hearing about the AWESOME work being done by you and your school. First, I want to wish everyone a Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!! Thanks for all you do! For the past two weeks, I have come across this term “collective efficacy.” Since this term is new to me, I wonder, what does that mean? I like the definition Stephanie Hirsh shared in her blog post about Michael Fullan’s announcement of the power of collective efficacy. “Collective efficacy is educators’ beliefs that in working together, they have the capability to improve significant challenges in school” (Hirsh, 2016, April 7, para. 2). All in all, it is very similar to collaborative inquiry, which is “stakeholders working together to uncover and understand problems and to test out solutions together through rigorous data use and reflective dialogue” (N. Love, K.E. Stiles, S. Mundry, and K. DiRanna, 2009). Given these two definitions, what do you think are the similarities and differences? With that in mind, I have to share how excited I am to have all of you part of our community of practice. I truly believe that working together we can have so much more impact on our students’ success. However, developing this type of culture does NOT happen overnight. It takes time and support. Please remember that I am always an email away from providing any type of support you may need. Finally, I want to share a new resource added to the Collaborative Inquiry Toolkit about trust: http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/component-c-culture-of-trust.html (last link on the page). Next week's article is going to feature some collaborative meetings Haynes Middle Design Center have been having and how they are leveraging their collective efficacy to address a challenge. If you have a best practice, success story, or lessons learned to share, please contact Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org. Reference: Hirsh, S. (2016, April 7). Michael Fullan affirms the power of collective efficacy. Education Week Teacher's Learning Forward's PD Watch blog post. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning_forwards_pd_watch/2016/04/michael_fullan_affirms_the_power_of_collective_efficacy.html (If you can't access the article, please access a pdf version at this LINK. Love, N., Stiles, K. E., Mundry, S., and DiRanna, K. (2009). Using data to improve learning for all: A collaborative inquiry approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, Inc. In June 2015, Dr. John Hattie released two reports entitled, What Doesn’t Work in Education: The Politics of Distraction and What Works Best in Education: The Politics of Collaborative Expertise. Dr. Stephanie Hirsh, Executive Director of Learning Forward, has a great blog post about these two reports in EdWeek. In case that link doesn’t work for you, you can access a pdf version at this link: https://goo.gl/5Y6Ykb.
Some key points to highlight from the discussion about Hattie’s work include:
When the Learning Forward conference was here in Nashville in December 2014, I had the opportunity to be in a session with Dr. John Hattie. He challenged us all to “Know Thy Impact.” By using data and focusing on meaningful talk about addressing root causes and monitoring our progress, we can better answer that question. However, building a collaborative culture does not happen overnight. We must all work together to build our capacity to have meaningful collaborative conversations where data is at the center to ensure we are addressing root causes and not “surface level” issues. What strategies are working for you and your team in building your capacity for leveraging collaborative expertise? I’d love to learn more about it. Also, if any support is needed, please feel free to contact me at margie.johnson@mnps.org. Here’s to a great week! References: Hirsh, S. (2015, November 18). Leverage the power of collaborative expertise. EdWeek Blog. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning_forwards_pd_watch/2015/11/leverage_the_power_of_collaborative_expertise.html “A collaborative culture does not simply emerge in a school or district: leaders cultivate collaborative cultures when they develop the capacity of their staffs to work as members of high-performing teams” (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010, p. 153).
Last week, I got an email that talked about Google's quest for building the perfect team culture. It was great to know that we are not alone in the quest for improving how teams work together... "In 2012, the company embarked on an initiative — code-named Project Aristotle — to study hundreds of Google’s teams and figure out why some stumbled while others soared" (Duhigg, 2016, February 25). Of course, Google LOVES data and used lots of it throughout the study. Interestingly enough, the major finding from Project Aristotle, is the importance of a team having "psychological safety." Two characteristics of psychological safety that emerged from the study were:
Hum, I think we have heard that word, psychological safety, before from Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman. If you attended their workshop sessions on Got data? Now what? or Leading Groups, they talk about psychological safety. Here’s some tips from their books for fostering psychological safety in your teams:
Have you used any of these strategies? If so, I'd love to hear from you. Also, if you have any questions about these tools OR have other tips for developing psychological safety with your team, please feel free to contact Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org. References: DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work? (2nd ed). Bloomington, IN: Soution Tree Press. Duhigg, C. (2016, February 25). What Google learned from its quest to build the perfect team. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html?_r=0 Lipton, L. & Wellman, B. (2012). Got data? Now what?: Creating and leading cultures of inquiry. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press. Lipton, L. & Wellman, B. (2011). Leading groups: Effective strategies for building professional community. Sherman, CT: MiraVia, LLC. I hope everyone had a wonderful Spring Break. We are on the home stretch for this school year....
Today, Learning Forward shared an interesting study that finds link between school climate, teacher turnover, and student achievement in New York City Schools. You can access the study at this LINK. Four aspects of middle school organizations were identified:
Of course, I was interested in the collaboration aspect of the study. Here are a couple highlights from their study about collaboration.
After reading over the study, what are some insights you gained from it? There is a professional resources reading list available as part of the collaborative inquiry toolkit located at http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/reading-list.html. Are there other articles, research, and/or resources around collaboration that you can share? If so, please email them to Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org. |
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