Resources

BONUS RESOURCES FOR 'POWERFUL CONVERSATIONS CAN TRANSFORM TEACHER LEARNING'

Japanese Lesson Study
Japanese Lesson Study is a favored form of professional development among teachers in Japan and is emerging in many parts of the United States. Using the process, teachers collaboratively plan, observe and discuss actual classroom "research lessons" On this webpage at the California Science Project, you'll find a selection of resources that can help you explore this model.
Teacher to Teacher: Lesson Study
Teacher To Teacher is a facilitator's guide and video that equips teacher leaders and professional developers to adapt Japanese Lesson Study for practical use in American schools. The package is available for $29.95 from NCREL. Follow this link for more information.
That Would Never Work Here
The Annenberg Channel professional development video collection includes the series, Assessment in Math & Science: What's the Point? This workshop offers two 90-minute videos, titled “That Would Never Work Here!: Seeing Assessment Reform in Action.” The videos follow the stories of Barbara, a math teacher in Whittier, California, and Scott, a science teacher in Louisville, Kentucky, as they share how they are incorporating assessment into their teaching. Emphasis is placed on the colleague support structure—teachers sharing ideas with and getting help from other teachers.
Videos about Professional Collaboration
This collection of first-rate videos produced by the Annenberg/CPB Channel is now available for free video-on-demand download (with broadband service) from their website. Many of the videos include conversations among teachers as they explore their professional work in elementary and high schools.
The Spirit and Will to Change
Peter Block, an expert on leading change, applies his theories and ideas to school reform in this Journal of Staff Development interview (Spring 2003). "People say they need more training, they need more skills, they need more tools. People believe there's something missing in them that needs to be added before they can make a difference. I'm trying to shift the focus from skills and methodology to issues of the spirit, of will, of courage. "
Staff Development Through Cross-Coaching
" Fresh View from the Back of the Room" describes how a group of middle school teachers began "cross-coaching" by teaching and observing in each other's classrooms. They "were able to see their students interact with different teachers and teaching styles. They observed lessons presented in new ways, and because of their familiarity with both the students and the curriculum, their observations let to a deeper understanding of how they could improve their own practices." (Journal of Staff Development, Spring 2003)
The Spirit of Teacher Learning
" Teachers can and should be learning all the time," says eighth grade teacher Joan Maute. "It's what we do and what we model. It's our spirit." In this article from Middle Ground (NMSA, February 2003), Maute shares ways teachers grow and learn every day, from having a conversation with a colleague in the hall to visiting an exemplary school to scheduling time for team learning.
Collaboration –The First Standard
In this article from NSDC’s Results (September 2001), Stephanie Hirsh describes the thinking behind the Council’s collaboration standard, which includes this rationale: "Because many of the recommendations contained in the standards advocate for increased teamwork among teachers and administrators in designing lessons, critiquing student work, and analyzing various types of data, among other tasks, it is imperative that professional learning be directed at improving the quality of collaborative work.”
Balancing Individualism and Professional Community
“ Many classroom teachers,” writes Virginia Richardson in this KAPPAN magazine article (March 2001), “would subscribe to the following view: ‘This is my space, and I am responsible for it. It is mine. It reflects me. I am the teacher here. This classroom is unique and is therefore unlike any other classroom because of my uniqueness and my particular group of students.’ How can schools find a balance between this strong tradition of individualism and the desire to create professional learning communities? Richardson believes the “inquiry approach” may be the answer.

WTE JOURNAL RESOURCES FOR 'POWERFUL CONVERSATIONS CAN TRANSFORM TEACHER LEARNING'

The Research Behind the Standards
What is the research base for the professional development standards developed by the National Staff Development Council and adapted by the Alabama State Board of Education? At this NSDC webpage, you’ll find an extensive bibliography for each of the 12 standards.
Exploring the National Standards
When the NSDC published its revised Standards for Staff Development (2001), the spiral-bound report included not only the standards, but a rationale, a case study, discussion questions, next steps, and references for each standard. This document can serve as a tool for school faculties and study groups interested in pursuing the standards in depth. You can download it free. (250k PDF file)
Moving Staff Development Standards into Practice
No Child Left Behind requires states and districts to demonstrate that more teachers are experiencing high-quality professional learning. The National Staff Development Council and the National Education Association are co-sponsoring On Track to High Quality Professional Development—two-day workshops that can help educators understand and implement NSDC's Standards for Staff Development. The workshops will be held in Washington, DC (October 15-16, 2003), and Phoenix, AZ (February 3-4, 2004). Download a PDF brochure for more details and a registration form.
Powerful Conversations Require Skillful Facilitators
Anyone who has participated in a workshop led by Robert Garmston has been in the presence of a true “facilitation guru.” Garmston is co-author of The Adaptive School, a must-have book for schools serious about job-embedded professional development. In this column from the Journal of Staff Development (Spring 2003), Garmston describes the skills needed to facilitate important conversations about teaching and learning.
SERVE’s Professional Learning Teams
In “Building Schools Where Everyone Learns,” SERVE program specialist Anne Jolly and Linda Perry of the Edenton-Chowan (NC) Public Schools describe how one school system is using the Professional Learning Team model (developed by the SERVE regional education laboratory), The PLT process is increasing collaboration and helping teachers overcome the challenge of “learning and changing their instructional practices while in the process of teaching.” Jolly was the 1995 Alabama Teacher of the year. (125k PDF file)
Honest Conversation Begins with Trust
The surest way to squelch powerful conversations about school improvement is for a principal to invite “honest opinions” from teachers and then react with hostility when the opinions do match his/her own point of view. In this article from Tools for Schools (Oct/Nov 2002), experts argue that a willingness to listen and withhold judgment builds trusting relationships that are “key to a staff's ability to work with each other and achieve the kind of sustained collaboration necessary to do the hard work of school improvement.” Includes three critical skills for trust-builders.
Download the BPC Self Assessment
You’ll find the Best Practices Center’s Professional Development Self Assessment instrument in the centerspread of this newsletter. You can use this instrument to guide a structured conversation about your school’s own staff development program. If you’d like an 8.5” by 11” copy of this document, you can download the instrument from our Best Practices Center website using this URL.
Designing Powerful Professional Development for Teachers and Principals
Dennis Sparks, executive director of the National Staff Development Council, has assembled his ideas for connecting the quality of teaching and leadership to the improvement of schools. In this 14-chapter book, Sparks makes his case for powerful professional learning and demonstrates how schools and school systems can provide that learning for their teachers and principals. Appropriate for book study by school leadership teams.
How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci
School-based book study groups in more than a dozen Alabama schools read this book by Michael J. Gelb during the 2002-03 school year. The book is a self-help tool—a revolutionary approach to learning and creativity that teaches you don’t have to be a genius to be able to think like one. If you’d like to try this book study in your school, download the “leader notes” at this BPC webpage. This 23-page document has everything you need!
The Critical Friends Process
By providing structures for effective feedback and strong support, Critical Friends Groups can help teachers improve instruction and student learning. In this article from Educational Leadership (March 2002), Deborah Bambino describes how the National School Reform Faculty's CFG model, which acknowledges the complexities of teaching, promotes deeper conversations among teacher colleagues who learn to “share a mission, offer strong support, and nurture a community of learners.”
What Does Professional Community Mean in a School?
In schools with professional communities, teachers and other staff members take “collective responsibility for achieving a shared educational purpose, and collaborating with one another to achieve that purpose,” says Fred Newmann in this research brief. He describes typical barriers to the development of such communities and describes three schools that have overcome those barriers. (260k PDF file)

Return to WTE page