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Stop, Collaborate, and Listen…One District’s Initiative
Best Practices in Resource Leadership (December 2008)
Paul Anderson, principal
Sand Creek Elementary, Coon Rapids
“...to develop a professional learning community, we must focus on learning rather than teaching, work collaboratively, and hold ourselves accountable for results.”
1980s rapper Vanilla Ice first coined the words "stop, collaborate, and listen," but currently they help describe what principals in Anoka-Hennepin are working hard to implement. Daily “collaboration” time was a recommendation that was developed by an Elementary Workload Taskforce, a committee of teachers, principals, district administrators, and school board members, charged with finding ways to address teacher workload issues. Once the school board approved the funding, the principals scrambled in August to hire 80+ recess para-professionals district-wide, while modifying building schedules to accommodate the change. Although this initiative has turned out to be quite challenging in many ways, the benefits have been quite noticeable in terms of creating a school culture that is focused on student learning, and providing a framework for professional learning communities.
Prior to this change, teachers were typically responsible for providing supervision of students at recess. With the addition of recess paras, teachers in my building now have a 50-minute midday block, consisting of a 25-minute duty-free lunch, and 25 minutes of collaboration. This is not extra prep time, but rather a daily opportunity for teachers to dialogue with grade-level colleagues about assessment data, student work, the implementation of a new math curriculum, and instructional best practices.
There is a wealth of research regarding PLCs as it remains a buzzword in education. DuFour (2004) recommends that in order to develop a professional learning community, we must focus on learning rather than teaching, work collaboratively, and hold ourselves accountable for results. Our district’s “collaboration” initiative has certainly provided our teachers with the context in which to begin moving toward PLCs. The next step, according to DuFour, is to make sure that the structure of these meetings remains student-focused. He offers three questions that can help guide the conversations:
- What do we want each student to learn?
- How will we know when each student has learned it?
- How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?
It is the tangible things we do to answer the third question that will distinguish between an effective school and an ineffective school.
It is clear that the additional two-plus hours of collaboration time each week has already had a tremendous impact on our school culture. Teachers appreciate the chance to connect with their teammates on a daily basis, they are participating in meaningful conversations about teaching and learning, and they are expressing interest in more time for deeper dialogue concerning how to move more non-proficient students toward proficiency. This excitement is beginning to create a school culture in which student learning is the primary focus, and that, after all, is why we are in this business.
References
DuFour, R. (2004). What is a “Professional Learning Community?” Educational Leadership, 61(8), 6-11.
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