How well does your team collaborate...?

My new district is in year 2 of implementing Professional Learning Communities. Fortunately, my principal and I both come from districts where PLCs were further along in the implementation process, so we bring a little experience to the district. Each school in the district has a PLC leadership team made up of around 10 teachers and the building administrators.

http://goo.gl/x4vd2

Over the last two days our leadership team had the opportunity to meet with central office administrators and and other building PLC leadership teams. This was a great experience because we were able to further our PLC understanding, as well as develop relationships among the team members.

Lots of things were discussed, but one of the main factors that will determine how well PLCs operate in your building or district is the ability of your teams to collaborate efficiently and effectively. If your teams are unable to use data in a collaborative approach in an effort to enhance student achievement, then your teams won't have much success with PLCs.

As part of our training:

we had some difficult conversations that made people feel uncomfortable...

we discussed issues that most Educators avoid due to the potential of conflict...

we pushed each other to reflect upon our classroom practices and beliefs...

we were honest and we put ourselves in a state of vulnerability...

We also had the opportunity to watch these two videos exemplifying the stark contrast between good collaboration and bad collaboration. Please enjoy, and think about how you and your teams work collaboratively. The difference it makes is the difference between sustainable growth or simply wasting your time...

Bad collaboration

Good collaboration