Teacher to teacher conversations are powerful when they expose us to perspectives we would not generate on our own. Left to ourselves, we tend to revisit familiar assumptions, interpretations, and solutions. We think within the boundaries of our current mental models. Dialogue creates the opportunity for those mental models to be challenged, refined, or expanded. […]

Collaborative work in schools is often measured by structures: scheduled PLC meetings, common planning time, walkthroughs, data reviews, and team agendas. But simply placing educators in these “meetings” does not automatically produce collaboration. Teams can meet regularly and still leave with very different understandings of what they are trying to accomplish. Recently, I encountered Rod […]