A meeting to establish a teacher’s professional growth plan goal can either be a perfunctory activity to be checked of the “to do list” or the start of a year-long do — reflect — apply cycle that generates professional learning. Ask these questions at the end of the planning meeting: Does the teacher own the […]

Throughout my career, I’ve often been frustrated by school, district, or state requirements that were intended to support improvement but ended up as little more than a paper chase. Professional Growth Plans (PGPs) frequently fall into this trap. In some systems, teachers—concerned they might be evaluated against their PGP outcomes—choose minimal, “safe” goals. Too often, […]

Listen in on a conversation as a school leader shares his experiences working with colleagues to continually increase teacher learning for student learning though professional growth plans. The process continually developed from year to year as insights were gained, and hypotheses were formed and implemented. Follow up with James Penstone on LinkedIn here. Subscribe to […]

Adam Grant’s book Think Again (The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know) provided me with lots of elements to ponder. A starting point was identifying when I am thinking like a preacher, prosecutor, politician, or scientist. Preacher: In preacher mode, we’re convinced we’re right. In this style, we’re trying to persuade others to our […]

I have written blogs and posted podcasts on building teachers’ professional growth plans and professional learning community goals around hypotheses and evidence collection. I was initially pointed in that direction from an article by Jean Ross, in the Sloan Management review from MIT, “Why Hypotheses Beat Goals.” She suggests that instead of asking “What is […]

After presenting critical elements of effective Professional Growth Plans, Steve often provides leadership teams with a series of questions to facilitate their decision-making around a process for their school. This podcast focuses on those follow up questions and Steve’s thinking around one team’s responses. You can find more about critical elements of PGPs including the […]