You may not have heard this song before. It was written by Pete Seeger in the 1965. He was a folk singer and activist. I bet you've heard of a few of his other songs like "If I had a Hammer" and "This Land is You Land". In any event, I choose this song to get your brains moving in the direction of change and how you are impacting it daily as a team. There is a time for everything. "A time to gain". That is where we find ourselves gaining in achievement and confidence. The key to getting the momentum going and keeping it moving is your team.
To build a culture of efficacy (the belief in yourself to accomplish goals) You n eed to intentionally and mindfully put a plan together that provides for ongoing opportunity for your team to experience the four forms of efficacy (Bloomberg and Pitchford: High Impact Teams 2017)
- (WHAT)Mastery Moments: You need to experience success. This comes from direct experience that you agree was successful. These conversations increase confidence and build your resiliency. Taking on challenging goals and working together to overcome obstacles so you are successful will result in a mastery moment. This builds efficacy. (HOW) Look at your data and celebrate the achievement. Take the time to compare MAP data with you DFA/CFA. Is it making a difference? How do you know? (WHY) WE need to realize together that you can accomplish our goals. Our students are worth the effort.
- (WHAT)Models of Success: Learning from one another's successes is another way to build efficacy. Think of this as modeling effective practice. Taking the time to watch one another shows/proves that it can be done. (HOW) There are many ways to view one another. Working with Julie and Bri, video taping one another, watching a video are all ways to use this in your PLC. Taking the time to discuss and share works to develop the team. (WHY) You are your best asset. Using the team to strengthen the team is a great way to realize how effective you are. Our students are worth the effort.
- (WHAT) Feedback: Yes, feedback doubles the rate of learning for students and teachers. We all learn best when we get specific relevant feedback in a timely manner. Teams who collectively focus on getting better, commit to doing the research, taking the risks and sharing knowledge and skills use feedback as a tool for learning from on another." Not all feedback is equal or received. Effective teams have productive/constructive discussions using feedback. It moves your group forward. Stay positive, specific and appreciative for the risks you take. (HOW) Protocols are great ways to get your group moving and provide a structure for efficiency. Consider a tuning or triad protocol when looking at student work. The tuning protocol provides for warm and cool feedback allowing the person receiving an opportunity to gain knowledge. (WHY) You've got to break eggs to make a cake. Feedback and process help to advance practice and move forward. If you can give effective feedback it also advances you knowledge also. YES, Our kids are worth the effort.
- (WHAT) Safety: Trust is key to building effective teams. Relational trust translates into members who truly listen to one another. They respect varied opinions and are willing to try new things when suggested. You feel accepted, respected and empowered by each member. (HOW) Creating norms and sticking with them is the first step. Understanding the mission and the direction you are going is also foundational. Yes, it also doesn't hurt to buy coffee sometimes too. In the end you need to feel safe and confident so you can share and take a risk. (WHY) Collaboration is the way to solve big problems and it's so much easier when you are linked arm and arm. Our kids are worth it.
When you have developed efficacy you are:
OPTIMISTIC
CONFIDENT
COLLABORATIVE
LEARNING
YOU PERSEVERE
Let's get our teams going and maximize our time together to meet our goals. I believe in you!
First Grade:
ReplyDeleteOur team displays examples of efficacy often. When it comes to mastery moments, we spend time each week, tweaking and firming up LI/SC and agreeing on DFA's for the week. This allows us to be on the same page and be able to compare student work. We often discuss what worked or didn't work with each other and look at each other's student work. This allows us to find models of success throughout our lessons. Feedback is important throughout our team, too. We discuss our teaching strategies and give feedback and ideas to each other based on the experiences we have had in our individual classrooms. Trust is critical for our team. We trust each other to support one another in all aspects of our day, including coffee trips, celebrations, hard trying days, and even just to bounce ideas off one another. Our team is strong because we have a goal to raise achievement and support one another along the way.
Fifth Grade: Models of success-
ReplyDeletePaige and Abby have both been working with Mary Biggs on math this year. She has been in both of our rooms observing, co-teaching, and giving feedback. This has allowed for honest communication in our PLC and reinforced best teaching practices, allowing for student growth. An example of growth is one room went from 0% proficient on the unit 1 pre-assessment to 42% proficient on the post-assessment.
Kindergarten - We are going to try this new way of assessing. We are going to keep giving them chances to practice three foundational skills in math and literacy until we have at least 80% of our students show mastery. Then we will choose a new skill/concept to replace the mastered one. Students will have opportunities to show success as a model to other students. We discuss as a team what we are specifically looking for so students can show mastery and so that we can give specific feedback.
ReplyDeleteWe saw September Number Corner as a Mastery Moment in adding to student success on our Unit 2 Pre Assessment. In our number corner students got to see and practice using a variety of models for multiplication however there were other components that didn't lead to this. We want to be purposeful in providing opportunities for students who did not meet proficiency. We will look at number corner games that kids can use to fill in gaps and utilize enrichment materials for kids who are proficient.
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