Personal Learning through Professional Collaboration
by Kathy Gross, Director of Professional Learning

Standard 1: Professional Collaboration
Quality Indicator 1: Roles, Responsibilities, and Collegial Activities

Professional learning is more than reading books, blogs, tweets, or going to workshops.  These actions might begin the journey of professional learning, but taking time to digest and apply the new information gained is a necessary next step! Engaging in dialogue around that information supports knowledge, understanding, and application for the individuals involved in the dialogue. Finally, doing something with your knowledge is a crucial step of professional learning.

Knowing and doing are very different categories. Isn't it frustrating when we see our students fail to demonstrate that they know information? Why then are we content with ourselves when we know information that we fail to demonstrate? Anything I consider having ever learned I can do: riding a bicycle, driving a car, speaking Spanish, being a teacher, using Cooperative Learning as an engagement strategy, serving as a school principal, becoming a Cognitive Coach, etc.

In every example, there was some prerequisite knowledge needed before I was able to practice and apply the skills. In every example, the less I use the skill, the worse I become at it, and the more I use the skill, the better I become at it. In fact, the more I know about all these things, the more I realize there is to know. I know that we can all see the connections to our profession—the more we practice it, the more we realize there is to know and find out about our students, our content, and our pedagogy.

In each example above, I only mastered the skills because I took the time to collaborate with others on a similar learning journey, some within SPS and others beyond SPS. It is important that we take the opportunity to network with people in our own sites, around the district, throughout the state, nation, and world. Only a few years ago, that last sentence would have seemed too tall an order, impractical.  But today, technology makes every part of that sentence possible.

The Department of Professional Learning has been intentional in providing a framework for professional learning at your site to be systemic. SPLS stands for Site Professional Learning Systems, communicating the need for learning at the site level to be part of a system rather than random acts of improvement. District Expectations and Critical Components have existed on the SPLS webpage since 2011, when SPLS began. This spring they will be communicated for the fifth time to attending site teams. To what extent do these district expectations portray your personal experience at your site?

1. Teachers use contractual time to actively engage in collaboration/learning.
2. Data drives each team’s work and classroom instruction.
3. Plan and work must align with SIP and exhibit cycles of improvement.
4. Teams document work and monitor outcomes.
5. Leader provides written and verbal feedback to collaborative teams and opportunities to make the work public.

What question do you have about your students that you can study with your colleagues? Let’s move away from separating the work we need to do from the learning. The learning IS our work. We are, in fact, each leaders in a learning organization, and we are surrounded by exceptional resources—our colleagues!

Best wishes with your professional collaboration.

Stop, Collaborate, and Listen
by Sarah Logan, SPS Professional Learning Specialist

Standard 9: Utilizing Effective Communication
Quality Indicator #3: Cooperative partnerships in support of student learning

We’ve all heard the expression that “Many hands make light work,” but in reality, our experience is more likely to have been “Many hands made more work.” Even when people have the best of intentions for working together toward a common goal, what’s intended to be a collaborative effort may morph into a collaborative gathering. So much conversation happens that no significant action comes as a result.

So how can this be avoided? Once you’ve determined that there’s a need to work together, don’t overlook the importance of determining HOW your group will work together. Having an agreed upon set of norms sets the stage for meaningful and productive teamwork.

The Seven Norms of Collaboration are not a brand new invention. They were developed by Adaptive Schools and are widely known and used by educators who aspire to support student learning through their work together. As you join with colleagues for this purpose, consider how they could positively impact your efforts.

• Promoting a spirit of inquiry: Hold yourself accountable for being curious about the thinking and ideas of others before you advocate your own.
• Pausing: Give yourself time to think before speaking and to allow others to respond.
• Paraphrasing: Demonstrate that you want to understand what others are saying and that you are genuinely listening.
• Probing for specificity: Generate and ask questions that will help provide clarity about topics being discussed.
• Putting ideas on the table: Contribute ideas for the group to consider.
• Paying attention to self and others: Be aware of your own and others’ non-verbal cues to how people are feeling.
• Presuming positive intentions: Choose to believe that people are operating from honorable motivations.

To learn more about the Seven Norms of Collaboration and how they may guide your collaborative work, visit http://www.thinkingcollaborative.com/norms-collaboration-toolkit/.