Powerful Conversations About Staff Development Quarterly Meeting
March 3, 2005

Ideas were bouncing around the room as teams from schools all over the state met for the Powerful Conversations About Staff Development Quarterly Meeting at the Shelby County Instructional Services Center in Alabaster on March 3, 2005. Teachers and administrators alike spent the day reviewing the rubric they used during the initial self-assessment. They were asked to compare where they were now against the original self-assessment. As they reviewed the self-assessment instrument, participants were asked to document what has changed in their schools since their self-assessment.

School teams were encouraged to use this process with their entire faculty (participants were given a PowerPoint presentation for their use). They were reminded that the self-assessment should be revisited at least annually and should be used as a key data point for their professional development and school improvement planning.

During the course of the day, participants were given the opportunity to share what they have learned from the process with the large group. They were also given four professional development modules developed by the Best Practices Center to be used with the Working Toward Excellence Journal and asked to use at least one of the modules with their faculty between now and the next regional meeting. Each school was also given a copy of the Facilitator's Guide to Professional Learning Teams, written by former Alabama State Teacher of the Year Anne Jolly, who now works for SERVE.

Mike Lenhart, Principal – E.D. Nixon Elementary School, Montgomery Public Schools
Mike Lenhart attributed E.D. Nixon’s participation in the Powerful Conversation self-assessment to be the beginning of a realization that all during his career, he had focused on only a part of staff development—that which addressed knowledge and skills. He believed that if you taught teachers how to do something, it would impact student learning in a positive way. He claims that during that time he forgot about the inherent belief system that lies underneath good practice and how it influences adult learning. According to Lenhart, understanding the importance of changing the culture in a school was brought to center stage for him in two ways: First through his partnership with Central Park Elementary Principal Bettie Griggs and secondly through a school book study. Saying he aspired to be “just like Bettie,” Lenhart spoke of the value of the Powerful Conversations Network and the contacts he continues to make through his school’s involvement. He briefly mentioned the value of the partnership forged between E.D. Nixon and Central Park as a result of both schools involvement in the Powerful Conversations Project.

The book Working on the Work by Phil Schlechty, also helped Mike realized that in order to make any lasting change in a school, the learning culture must be changed. Over the past two years, he has worked with his school and district colleagues to create a school that is infused with high expectations for both the adults and students. He noted this work is making a difference in the way teachers teach and students learn.

According to Lenhart, one of the more powerful staff development activities in his school has been the grade-level meetings during which the teachers analyze their successes and failures. He has been able to “buy time” for day-long meetings by hiring substitutes to cover participating teachers’ classes. Because of the number of new teachers on the faculty, Lenhart would like to conduct the Powerful Conversation self-assessment again. He believes his would help focus their staff development planning and efforts for the coming school year.

Randy Fuller, Principal – Oak Mountain High School, Shelby County Schools
Randy Fuller told participants that he has learned a great deal during the five years since his school went through the Powerful Conversation. He added, “We’d never dare miss a quarterly meeting, because this is where we learn the most.” Fuller stated that when reviewing his school’s completed self-assessment, he recognized the need to go back to explore the concept of Learning Communities in greater detail. In spite of their focus on building a strong learning community at Oak Mountain, Fuller recognized that the faculty could do more. He thinks that a greater variety in size, structure and purpose in Learning Communities would more greatly benefit both teachers and students. By focusing on getting more content area speakers for his teachers, Fuller has also come to realize that his best experts are those in his own school.

Fuller would also like to see more collaborative work at Oak Mountain High. He pointed to a the standards-based curriculum-pacing guide that a group of faculty were currently developing and added that he viewed that activity as both professional development and curriculum enhancement. He added that the more a school truly embraces collaboration, the greater the chance for changing the culture of the school as it eliminates the “renegade teacher” syndrome since all of the teachers are working together to own the project.

Fuller’s goals for the future are: to develop an Action Research Process guide, to develop a Teacher Mentoring Guide with the idea of expanding it to be a system-wide instrument and to collect more data in all areas with the idea of using it more effectively for decision-making.

Fuller ended his remarks with the comment that it disappoints him that more schools are not involved in the Powerful Conversation process as well as the follow-up meetings and activities and urged other participants to encourage principals in other schools in their district to get involved.

Tracy Wilson & Matt Dean, Faculty Members – Buckhorn High School, Madison County Schools
According to Tracy Wilson and Matt Dean, Buckhorn High School was transformed by its participation in the Powerful Conversation self-assessment. In addition to regularly revisiting the self-assessment instrument, Wilson said that they were constantly working to improve teaching and learning through school-based professional development. As an example, Wilson pointed to an initiative developed after participating in one of the regional meetings at which the Family Involvement standard was highlighted. Buckhorn Principal Tommy Ledbetter and the school team that attended the meeting came up with an important idea on the drive back to school. Because most faculty members don’t live in the city in which Buckhorn is located (New Market, Alabama), the team realized that they really knew very little about the community where their students live. They decided to change that and began their efforts on one of their system Professional Development Days.

All of the teachers boarded a big yellow school bus and toured the entire community with emphasis on the areas where their students live. According to Wilson, it was an eye-opening experience for the entire faculty. It also became a powerful tool to develop ways to involve the parents and bring them into the school community through shared experiences. Parents and teachers have also begun more collaborative projects such as a book study focusing on gender issues.

Matt Dean outlined a project at Buckhorn that using disaggregated data to develop rubrics aligned with the content standards. According to Dean, these rubrics will be helpful in developing action plans for those students not doing well in order to improve their weaknesses. The teachers also shared other innovative programs such as the ninth grade Reading and Social Studies Program and the Reading Adventures class.