Field Experience

Exit Interview

Problem
Complaints about too much time at faculty
meetings on non-essential items
Frustration over lack of deeper, more meaningful
conversation about curriculum and instruction
Newness of Common Core State Standards

Inspiration
Roland S. Barth Learning by Heart
Teachers have a wealth of knowledge from their
experiences and learnings
Teachers can learn from other teachers
Acknowledging, celebrating & sharing craft
knowledge improves school culture and student
learning

Douglas B. Reeves The Learning Leader

Leaders need to expand the finite amount of
time available
Eliminating oral announcements at faculty
meetings saves hours each year
Keep meeting focus on central purpose of
student learning

EdCamp Sonoma 2013

Educators create a participant-driven
professional development.
Connect with like-minded individuals, collaborate
on ideas, brainstorm solutions to common
education problems, have group discussions,
and receive information that can immediately be
applied in the classroom.

Project Description
Provide a forum for sharing craft knowledge
and engaging in rich discussions to solve
problems, improve teaching practices, and work
more efficiently.

Pilot a model of teacher-driven professional

development within monthly staff meetings.
Create a vision for a culture of regularly sharing
craft knowledge.

Project Plan
Get agreement from principal to reserve a
portion of time at each meeting for sharing of
craft knowledge.
Surveys teachers to identify topics of interest
and priorities.
Enlist teachers to share at each staff meeting.
Evaluate effectiveness.

Activities
Interest survey
Priority survey
Presented priorities & solicited feedback
Ensured time was reserved at each meeting
Coordinated with other presenters
Conducted optional mini-sessions
Shared staff meeting feedback with principal
Facilitated discussion to evaluate pilot

Results
Interests identified & prioritized

At least one topic discussed/presented monthly

Feedback for more effective meetings shared
with principal
Unanimous support for continuing effort

Overcoming Barriers
Two staff meetings were replaced by special
District meetings (December and March)
Full meeting agendas
School climate/morale

Few volunteers

Culminating Issue:
Gaining Support/Buy-in
From Administration
From Teachers

Key Learnings
Changing a culture takes time; need to
keep vision for the change alive
Creating alliances and finding a few
supporters can bring about change more
readily

Need to balance long term goals with

immediate needs

When professional development is timely,

relevant, and immediately useful, it is
better received

Leaders need to be out and about, to see

and be seen
A leader needs to clearly define priorities,
availability, and expectations to staff

Creating safety for staff will encourage

them to take risks
A leader should set the example of
professional development by making
his/her learning visible

Project CPSEL Connection

1. Developing a Shared Vision
2. Student Learning & Professional Growth
3. Organization Management
5. Values & Ethics
6. Political, Economic, Legal, Social &
Cultural Context

Other CSPEL Activities

LCAP Stakeholders meetings
Standard 4 Community Collaboration
Standard 3 Organization Management
Teacher Evaluation Committee
Standard 1 Shared Vision
Standard 2 Staff professional growth
Standard 3 Organization Management
Standard 6 Political & Legal Contexts

BEST Committee Co-Chair

Standard 1 Shared Vision
Standard 2 School Culture
Standard 3 Organization Management

Evidence

Surveys for Project

Staff meeting agendas & minutes

(page 1 only)

Handout materials also saved on

school server for later reference

Surveyed needs
prioritized and
results discussed at
January staff
meeting

Feedback from teachers

regarding staff meetings
was shared with the
principal; proposed
different structure to
meetings (verbal)

I created this visual display of data

collected by Survey Monkey for LCAP.
Chart was used to present priorities to the
School Board.

Two of the charts from the LCAP

Town Hall Meeting 4/9/2014.

Text of an email sent to Evaluation Committee Members:

Greetings!
I am looking forward to wrapping up our work Monday. Attached are the changes to Part A of the rubric. I have
sent them before, but they were not added in. Not sure who is responsible for doing this.
Other things we should address:
On the summary sheet, a place needs to be added to note progress toward goals (easy).
The timeline we created indicates teachers and principal meet by mid-March to review progress made and revisit
the rubric. April 15 is the date teacher input is due for the other evaluation methods. Most people think it should be
consistent for all methods.. This would also give one more month for observations.
After completing our first day of bargaining and rewriting portions of the article on evaluation, I think we need to
change the wording in some parts or add language to the "Pilot Teacher Evaluation Process" document:
- The "option to review progress" should not be optional. We need some assurance that a teacher will be advised
early on if he/she is not making sufficient progress, so he/she can correct
- If progress is not being made, at the January check in, then what? Continue on with the hope of making
progress? Revert to a traditional evaluation process?
- What if, at the end, a teacher's evaluation using the pilot is unsatisfactory? Since this is a pilot, will the teacher
change methods mid-year, be re-evaluated the following year, or go on an improvement plan?
- In a prior email, I mentioned that the Rincon Valley rubric's categories were slightly different from the ones in
Marshall's book. In some cases, we may prefer the original category name. For instance, Rubric F: Professional
Responsibilities item f. on ours (based on Rincon Valley's) is Above-and-Beyond. Marshall calls that item
Teamwork which makes more sense to me. We may want to look over this. It could be tweaking that is done next
year. Same with discussing how we see the rubric and CSTPs fitting together. Our contract currently states that
the CSTPs will be used in evaluating teachers.
Donna

I wrote the school-wide behavior circuit training plan