| SDCO Fall Professional Newsletter |
No.
1, October, 2006
|
We’re All “Instructional Coaches” ...Sherri Houghton, SDCO President
 |
Autumn greetings from
the Staff Development Council of Ohio! I hope that you are taking some time to enjoy our beautiful
fall season as I know how busy it is for many of you. I am very fortunate to be able to welcome you
to the 2006 fall edition of the SDCO Newsletter and offer a preview
of SDCO’s efforts to honor, assist and strengthen Instructional Coaching
in
Read on for Sherri’s preview of SDCO’s 2006/07 work.
 |
An
Joellen Killion is the
National Staff Development Council’s Director of Special Projects. Killion’s
work ranges from the identification of result-based staff development
programs across the country to the implementation of the NSDC professional
development standards in e-learning environments. You are invited to
join her on Wednesday, January 31 in
Watch
for a copy of the conference brochure (pictured) in your building, or
click HERE for your
own personal copy.
Read
on for more information about the event.
Killion
Conference…bonusSSSSS to all attendees!
Along with the opportunity
to meet and work with Joellen Killion for a day, plus the rich discussion
you’ll have with “Instructional Coaches” from all over
·
receive a FREE copy of Joellen’s book
“Taking the Lead: New Roles for
Teachers and School-Based Coaches”
·
have an opportunity to participate in
two more FREE regional (you won’t have to drive as far or stay
over night) meetings/discussion (March and June) to extend and enrich
your learning
·
receive a FREE 3-month subscription to
the teacher daily on-line newsletter and support site Teacher Time
·
be offered optional graduate credit for
full participation in all conference and regional meetings
·
…and if 3 teachers attend, you can bring
your building principal along for FREE!
See the brochure
for more details.
How
To Develop A Coaching Eye …NSDC feature article
 |
This article is provided with permission of the
National Staff Development Council, www.nsdc.org,
2006. All rights reserved.
Read on for more http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/feger252.cfm
Secretary's Update/SDCO Board Kicks Off a New Year …Rita Glavan, Secretary
SDCO’s Executive Board met on July 24, 2006 for its annual retreat with the
focus of the day a discussion of the organization’s goals and direction
for the 2006-07 school year. The Board welcomed new member Kellie Hayden. Kellie brings the perspective of the classroom
teacher and will be a wonderful asset to the Board. President Sherri
Houghton, shared information from the NSDC Affiliate Conference. The
Board discussed its mission, goals, and past initiatives in order to
determine how to move forward and continue to support quality professional
development across the state. By the end of the day, the Board developed
its 2006/07 action plan.
Read on for more about SDCO 2006/07 planning and the summer
Affiliate Conference.
Try This for Your Next Professional Development Session…Larry Pfrogner, Newsletter Editor
 |
Take a look at the following statement and count the number of times the letter “F” appears.
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS
OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCES OF MANY YEARS.
Read on to see what your answer tells YOU about YOU.
The Ohio Department of Education’s Center for the Teaching
Profession (CTP) sponsored a meeting following the August 14th
Professional Development Conference, which convened a core group of
individuals to meet with Stephanie Hirsh, Deputy Executive Director
for the National Staff Development Council. The evening of August 14th
and all day August 15th were spent beginning the daunting
task of unpacking
Read on for more about the OPDT.
Teachers Loft
Offers New Teachers Support
“Half the meeting time is devoted to sharing attendees'
most pressing struggles and successes, while the other half is spent
exploring a particular issue in the field of education.”
 |
As
a new teacher, you ask yourself, “Do I go and tell someone that I don't
know what I'm doing today?” explains Paige Bray, one of the group's
leaders and executive director of the Teachers' Loft. “There's a real
need for teachers to come together to continue to learn and to do that
in a place that isn't evaluative or based on supervision. Just to say
what happened that day.”
Read on for more about “Teachers Loft.”
Book
Review on Charlotte Danielson’s Newest…Mickie Sebenoler, Columbus Public Schools
 |
Traditionally, in order
to advance in the teaching profession, educators leave their students
and their classrooms to become administrators.
However, as Charlotte Danielson shares in Teacher Leadership that Strengthens Professional Practice (2006),
this path has been changing as “educators recognize that the work of
administrators is fundamentally different from that of teachers, and
while they want to extend their reach beyond the students they teach
every day, they want their responsibilities to be essentially those
of teachers.” These educators execute their leadership in a myriad of
ways that have been previously unrecognized in professional literature.
In this book, Danielson illustrates teacher leadership in practice,
conceptualizes a framework to articulate the skills that effective teacher
leaders possess and identifies the conditions found in schools where
teacher leaders flourish.
Read on for the conclusion to Mickie’s review
“Wellness” is Professional Growth Too
 |
OK,
it was a lonnnnnnnnng
presentation on how to best arrange your classroom so that your 3rd
grade left handed under-achievers can better perform on the short answer
portion of the state preliminary proficiency examination’s post test.
The buffet table is screaming for your attention. “How can one more
bagel make that much of a difference…I’ll just use half a cream cheese
packet.” After all, you’re there to help kids!
If
you dare, click on the link to see exactly what a serving size of your
favorite treat looks like.
http://healthresources.caremark.com/topic/portionguide
SDCO Showcase Article
Professional Development…Instructional Coaching
Their work supports and encourages the use
of instructional coaching, a promising new professional development
practice in which teacher leaders serve as coaches to facilitate and
guide content-focused professional learning for a school’s teachers.
The Staff Development Council of Ohio is
honored to share with you, as our 2006/07 Showcase Article, The Annenberg
Institute for School reform publication
Instructional Coaching:
Professional Development Strategies That Improve Instruction
The entire publication is reproduced with
permission from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
and will be presented to you in four parts:
- October/November
Newsletter…School-Based, Job Embedded Professional Development
and Effective Coaching
- December/January
Newsletter…Lessons and Implications
from the Institute’s Work
- March/April
Newsletter…Strategies for
Supporting Effective Coaching
- May/June
Newsletter…Key Themes and
Framing Questions
Click HERE to read our first installment…School-Based, Job Embedded Professional Development
and Effective Coaching.
 |
-
Who are the board members? - How
can I get a membership brochure? - What
professional development opportunities are available? - How
can I get copies of previous professional newsletters? |
|
For
these and more, visit our website at www.sdcohio.org |
We’re All “Instructional Coaches” ...Sherri
Houghton, SDCO President
I am very excited to
be leading
Time is running short
to register for the NSDC
Conference in
Coaching is one intervention
schools adopt to improve teaching and learning. Yet, it can’t work if
the coaches and those they work with have limited understanding of what
coaching is and how it works. In this conference, participants will
examine how to structure coaching so it can have the greatest impact
on teaching and learning. Topics will include:
- what instructional coaching is;
- the nine roles of coaches;
- how coaches build productive, trusting relationships
with their colleagues;
- how principals and districts support coaches;
- and, how to know if coaching is effective.
Secretary’s Update/SDCO Board Kicks
Off a New Year
…Rita Glavan, Secretary
SDCO's Executive Board met on July 24, 2006 for
its annual retreat with its focus a discussion of the organization’s
goals and direction for the 2006-07 school year. The Board welcomed
new member Kellie Hayden. Kellie brings the perspective of the classroom
teacher and will be a wonderful asset to the Board. President Sherri
Houghton shared information from the NSDC Affiliate Conference. The
Board discussed its mission, goals, and past initiatives in order to
determine how to move forward and continue to support quality professional
development across the state. By the end of the day, the Board developed
its 2006/07 action plan based on the following goals.
- Follow-up with regional teams as they continue to
work on grading practices based on the work of Gusky.
- Sponsor Joellen Killion for a full day workshop
(with followup) on Instructional Coaching to Improve Teaching and
Learning.
- Provide regional follow-up and support for implementing
the Coaching and Collaboration model.
- Collaborate with the Ohio Department of Education
by serving on the Ohio Professional Development Team as they roll
out
The Board met again
on September 18th to formalize plans for both Joellen Killion’s
presentation and for supporting local schools who are implementing the
coaching model. The Board looked at numerous resources available and
will review them to determine which would be the best “reads” for schools
and districts interested in coaching to improve learning.
The Board also discussed
its collaborative role with ODE. As members of the Ohio Professional
Development Team, SDCO representatives will participate at the October
18th meeting.
It was reported that
the SDCO web site is being revised and improved.
Changes should be completed this fall.
Suggestions for both the web site and newsletter were shared.
The Board determined
that the President and President-elect will attend the NSDC annual convention
as the official delegates of SDCO.
The next meeting of
the SDCO Board will be on November 15, 2006.
NSDC Affiliate Summer Conference
NSDC affiliates from
around the country gathered in
·
Clarify and prioritize SDCO goals
·
Review SDCO’s organizational structure
·
Increase awareness, understanding and
involvement in advocating for Professional Development issues and initiatives
·
Move professional learning forward regarding
coaching and collaboration
·
Increase awareness of NSDC services,
especially the extensive resources available through the NSDC website
Try
This for Your Next Professional Development Session…Larry Pfrogner,
Newsletter Editor
No tricks or gimmicks involved here and this always works for large groups.
But, even with 10-15 you can expect similar tendencies.
After showing
this to your group, cover up the statement and ask how many found 3
or less? You can expect about 85% of the population to come up with
this…they tend to be the more “creative” and right brained people.
Then ask how
many found 4 or more? You can expect about 15% of your audience to
raise their hands…they tend to be the more “logical” and left brained
individuals.
The correct
answer is 6, but most of the
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS
OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCES OF MANY YEARS.
Some points that could be made to the audience:
·
· Creative people tend to be more cooperative and logical people tend to be more competitive. When you put a creative individual in a competitive situation, they will likely “clam up!”
· Critics say, if you make our schools cooperative, where will our leaders come from? An interesting response to this is, if we create a more cooperative educational system, we’ll likely still get the same leaders, but might benefit from “better” employees!
OPDT Established…Lorie Owens, ODE Professional Development
The Ohio Department of Education’s Center for the Teaching
Profession (CTP) sponsored a meeting following the August 14th
Professional Development Conference, which convened a core group of
individuals to meet with Stephanie Hirsh, Deputy Executive Director
for the National Staff Development Council. The evening of August 14th
and all day August 15th were spent beginning the daunting
task of unpacking
Stephanie Hirsh effectively
facilitated “Moving Standards into Action,” guiding the group through
planning protocols and tools, crafting an agenda for action and evaluating
present work according to the Innovation Configurations.
The group consisted
of the 24-member Regional Support Team to Ohio Local Professional Development
Councils, a cadre of SDCO board members and CTP personnel. The group,
now known as the Ohio Professional Development Team (OPDT), will reconvene
October 17 and 18 to begin to craft professional development tools and
resources to aid in the implementation of the professional development
standards. Pat
Watch your SDCO newsletter
for ongoing updates from Lorie on OPDT’s work.
“In an airy room at the
‘As a new teacher, you
ask yourself, 'Do I go and tell someone that I don't know what I'm doing
today?’ explains Paige Bray, one of the group's leaders and executive
director of the Teachers' Loft. ‘There's a real need for teachers to
come together to continue to learn and to do that in a place that isn't
evaluative or based on supervision. Just to say what happened that day.’
The Teachers' Loft began
running these groups for new teachers in 2003, and so far about 50 teachers
have participated. Half the meeting time is devoted to sharing attendees'
most pressing struggles and successes, while the other half is spent
exploring a particular issue in the field of education. Participants
also communicate electronically on a secure blog space and are engaged
in shared presentations. Confidentiality is respected. ‘When people
start teaching that first year, they come from all kinds of experience,’
says Bray, a former elementary school teacher. ‘They need help, and
that includes getting help with how to sustain themselves. We know that
that first one to three years in the field bring with them some very
particular professional development needs. Whether you're 45 years old
or 22 when you're going through that first year, there are still some
things you have to pass through and make sense of.’
The program was formed
as a response to some dismal figures. Bray says research shows that
in the first three years in the classroom, 30 percent of new teachers
leave. In the first five years, 50 percent leave the field. ‘So it's
not that we can't get people,’ she says. ‘The problem is that we can't
keep them. It's a revolving door.’ What's been learned over time is
that teachers are trained in college education programs, but have little
or no assistance once they begin transitioning into their roles. Unlike
in other fields where new hires work alongside more experienced employees
and may find formal or informal mentors, the classroom is generally
a one-person space. New teachers have few opportunities to observe how
a veteran educator might handle a situation that a newcomer might never
have been in before. Bray says there needs to be more ways to help new
teachers transition into their roles. Her group aims to help usher them
into the field by filling in needs that aren't being met on the job.
‘It goes beyond orientation,’
says Bray. ‘It's more than just showing someone where the bathroom and
the coffeemaker are located.’ Instead of receiving much-needed guidance,
however, many new teachers are subjected to what Bray calls a ‘culture
of hazing’ - giving new teachers the students that no one else wants
to deal with, usually the ones with the greatest behavioral challenges.
That's often part of what she refers to as a ‘culture of sink or swim.’
‘There's this attitude that you'll either make it or you won't,’
she says. ‘And that's not something that we know to improve practice
in any field.’ In urban areas, these struggles are often exacerbated
by having to deal with a higher concentration of students with many
life stressors, coupled with having access to far fewer resources like
books, pencils and paper. Such schools are also more likely to have
fewer veteran educators and a fresh round of new teachers each year.
‘Sometimes the most experienced teacher on the floor has been there
2½ years,’ says Bray. ‘That leaves them with no one to go to except
administrators. And at urban schools those also tend to be some of the
more stressed administrators, with the least time to go into a new teacher's
classroom and say something supportive.”
For more go to http://snipurl.com/vpgz.
Book Review
on Charlotte Danielson’s Newest…Mickie Sebenoler, Columbus Public Schools
|
Traditionally, in order to advance in the teaching profession,
educators leave their students and their classrooms to become administrators.
However, as Charlotte Danielson shares in Teacher
Leadership that Strengthens Professional Practice (2006), this path
has been changing as “educators recognize that the work of administrators
is fundamentally different from that of teachers, and while they want
to extend their reach beyond the students they teach every day, they
want their responsibilities to be essentially those of teachers.” These
educators execute their leadership in a myriad of ways that have been
previously unrecognized in professional literature.
In this book, Danielson illustrates teacher leadership in practice,
conceptualizes a framework to articulate the skills that effective teacher
leaders possess and identifies the conditions found in schools where
teacher leaders flourish.
This idea of teacher
leadership is not profound; surely, every educator remembers a colleague
who patiently explained a procedure or generously shared effective techniques
or plans. Perhaps these sage instructors were the backbone of the school,
but their contributions were not formally recognized. Danielson discusses
that the wide ranging demands upon principals and the imperative to
improve standardized test results for all students requires a change
in the conventional structures of hierarchy found in schools. “The idea
of teacher leadership stems from a conceptualization of teaching as
a complex work requiring expertise, judgment, and a high degree of autonomy
(informed by a knowledge of the professional literature).” According
to Danielson, teacher leaders root their expertise of student learning
around the concepts of school wide policies and programs, communications
and community relations, and teaching and learning. They create and
influence effective school culture by reaching outside of their classrooms
to their own department or team and across their school, but also have
an impact beyond their schools. Essentially, teacher leaders possess
specific skills and dispositions stemming from their demonstrated commitment
to the teaching profession.
In our data driven climate,
identifying vague characteristics is not acceptable. “In understanding
the work of teacher leaders, it is important to get specific.” Understanding
the profession as she does, Danielson takes her framework and provides
concrete examples to stimulate discussion.
In this way, she articulates a snapshot of teacher leadership,
but enables the reader – a teacher, a principal, a district leader,
a school board member – to expand the concept into their own situation
or needs. Indeed an exhaustive list would not provide any more clarity
to those exploring this topic; only through continued discussion will
teacher practices and school and district philosophy be impacted. However,
by providing illustrative examples and concise tables for each of the
areas in the framework, Danielson provides clarity to a largely abstract
idea.
From the framework and
examples, Danielson shows that teacher leadership makes a positive contribution
to the strengthening of professional practices. However, “as educators
become more and more convinced of the benefits to be derived from a
school in which teacher leaders thrive, it is important to understand
how schools can encourage their development.” Understanding that a school
environment has supporting as well as inhibiting conditions and identifying
these in order to provide a setting where teacher leadership skills
can be fostered is key to utilizing the many and varied individual strengths
of educators. Danielson not only describes these factors, she provides
a tool to assist in a school audit to collect the necessary information.
As we consider the multitude
of barriers to providing the best education possible for every student
in every school, certainly it is necessary to seek innovative structures
that meet this demand. In her latest book, Danielson delivers a compelling
framework and substantiates the necessary components within the school
culture to prove that teacher leadership is a viable means to this end.