Drew Perkins provided this explanation of pushing or pulling for learning outcomes: “When pushing learning, teachers can feel like a ‘pushy’ salesperson desperate to convince students that what they’re selling is worth buying. Some of those techniques include dangling grades and using points as an incentive in learning, trying to convince students they’ll need this […]

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, […]

I have been using the term PWC….professional working community to define teachers collaborating to get work done, tasks completed. PWCs differ from PLCs where teacher learning is expected as an outcome. Working collaboratively is valuable in supporting teachers’ effective use of time and for aligning expectations. However, without educator- learning there is unlikely to be […]

What should teachers expect from school leadership in the support of teacher growth? What expectations should school leaders have of teachers in their investment in professional growth? Katherine Hamilton, vice president of programs for Ensemble Learning explores these questions with Steve.  Designing for teachers as professionals is key to generating educator learning that impact student […]

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 […]

Understanding the desired outcome of a meeting is key to teachers knowing the participatory behaviors that are most productive. Everything being called a PLC interferes with participants being able to focus on the educator learning in true PLCs that leads to increased student success. In professional learning communities, purposeful teacher learning around how to increase […]