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Teacher Teams That Get Results
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Teacher Teams That Get Results
61 Strategies for Sustaining and Renewing Professional Learning Communities



January 2007 | 280 pages | Corwin

"Ready-to-use templates and clear instructions make this material user-friendly and clear. Especially helpful is the cross-reference matrix showing how a strategy can be used in more than one area."
—William Osman, President
New Jersey Staff Development Council

"An excellent introduction integrates the five 'theaters of the mind' in a brief and coherent way."
—Christelle Estrada, Director of Professional Development Services
Salt Lake City School District, UT

A comprehensive set of tools for achieving lasting results and sustaining a professional learning community!

Sustaining results-oriented team efforts is hard work, and achieving diversified solutions to complex issues over time requires commitment and creativity. To support the momentum of learning communities, Teacher Teams That Get Results: 61 Strategies for Sustaining and Renewing Professional Learning Communities provides an illustrated collection of ready-to-use tools and examples of plans in action for results-oriented faculty and staff.

Focusing on the where, what, why, how, and when to use each of the 61 strategies, best-selling authors Gayle H. Gregory and Lin Kuzmich offer the tools your team needs to succeed. You will learn to:

  • Create and sustain a growth-oriented climate that encourages feedback and builds trust
  • Share knowledge and skills to expand and optimize results
  • Build resilience, develop creative solutions, and manage change
  • Determine priorities and create excellence when goal setting, tying data to practice, and analyzing results

An indispensable guide for teachers, teacher leaders, and school administrators, this handbook is ideal for school and district staff serving as meeting and workshop leaders and facilitators.


 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
Introduction: Tools That Get Results
Purpose for This Book

 
What We Know About Adult Learning

 
Brain Bits

 
Adult Learning Principles

 
Learning Styles

 
What Different Learners Need

 
Initial Group Development

 
Phases of Group Development and Behaviors

 
Benefit of Professional Learning Communities

 
Getting the Intended Results

 
Learning Teams That Get Results

 
Tools to Succeed as Teams

 
In This Book

 
 
1. Creating a Growth Oriented Culture
Strategy 1. ABC Conversations

 
Strategy 2: Birthday Month

 
Strategy 3: Community Circle

 
Strategy 4: Concept Formation

 
Strategy 5: Consultation Line

 
Strategy 6: Find Someone Who

 
Strategy 7: Four Corners

 
Strategy 8: Give and Go

 
Strategy 9: Mapping the Journey

 
Strategy 10: 3-2-1

 
Strategy 11: Nominal Group Process

 
Strategy 12: Personal, Interpersonal, Task Model (P.I.T.)

 
Strategy 13: Processing Pause

 
Strategy 14: Random Partners

 
Strategy 15:Synectics

 
Strategy 16:T Chart and Y Chart

 
 
2. Sharing Knowledge and Skills
Strategy 17: DIP Party

 
Strategy 18: Four Corner Cards

 
Strategy 19: Inside Outside Circle

 
Strategy 20: Jigsaw

 
Strategy 21: Know, Want to Know, Learned (KWL)

 
Strategy 22: Perspective Lens

 
Strategy 23: Pluses and Wishes

 
Strategy 24: Plus, Minus, Interesting

 
Strategy 25: Promissory Note

 
Strategy 26: Right Angle

 
Strategy 27: Round Robin, Round Table

 
Strategy 28: Round the Room Brainstorming

 
Strategy 29: Star Gazing

 
Strategy 30: Think, Pair, Share

 
Strategy 31: Wallpaper Poster

 
 
3. Building Resilience and Creating Solutions
Strategy 32: Checking the Oil

 
Strategy 33: Communication Matters

 
Strategy 34: Doubling Up

 
Strategy 35: Environmental Scanning

 
Strategy 36: Field Force

 
Strategy 37: FLOW

 
Strategy 38: Gallery Walk

 
Strategy 39: Graffiti

 
Strategy 40: Hot Buttons

 
Strategy 41: Journey Mapping (Also Known as Histo-Mapping)

 
Strategy 42: Musical Chairs

 
Strategy 43: Parking Lot

 
Strategy 44: Roadblock Removal

 
Strategy 45: The Question Matters: Reviewing Student Work

 
Strategy 46: Two Sides of the Story

 
 
4. Determining Priorities and Creating Excellence
Strategy 47: Building on Success

 
Strategy 48: Cause and Effect Planning

 
Strategy 49: Celebrations and Next Steps

 
Strategy 50: Current Snapshot

 
Strategy 51: Four Squares for Creativity

 
Strategy 52: Lesson and Unit Studies

 
Strategy 53: Prioritizing the Impact of Solutions

 
Strategy 54: Prioritizing Work and Learning

 
Strategy 55: Probable and Preferred Future

 
Strategy 56: Pros and Cons

 
Strategy 57: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

 
Strategy 58: The Interview

 
Strategy 59: The People Ladder

 
Strategy 60: Think Abouts…

 
Strategy 61: Data Chats

 
 
5. Putting It All Together
Part One: Initial Group Development

 
Part Two: Sustaining Groups Over Time and Through New Initiatives

 
Putting It All Together: Examples for Implementation

 
Keeping Notes, Logging, and Our Methods

 
Keeping Your School, Team Culture, and Climate Healthy

 
Summary

 
 
References
 
Index

"I enjoyed reading Teacher Teams That Get Results and anticipate using some of the activities with groups that I facilitate."

Terry Crawley, Coordinator for School Planning and Professional Development
Archdiocese of Louisville, KY

"Excellent introduction integrates the 5 'theaters of the mind' in a brief and coherent way. I have not seen this done as well in other educational books."

Christelle Estrada, Director of Professional Development Services
Salt Lake City School District, UT

"Ready-to-use templates and clear instructions make this material user-friendly. Provides respected sources and a range of examples and applications. Especially helpful is the cross-reference matrix showing how a strategy can be used in more than one area."

William Osman, President
New Jersey Staff Development Council

"Provides flexible and relevant strategies that educational leaders can use to create a structure for meaningful conversations and moving forward in the sometimes messy business of learning communities. This book provides the nuts and bolts of getting to the big picture—something that's been needed for a while. My colleagues and I will find this guide useful in our quest to improve student learning."

Kim Bailey, Director of Staff Development
Capistrano Unified School District, CA

"This fits so well with work we are presently doing, and I am so pleased to see the brain research and practical strategies reflected everywhere! The authors' approach to teacher teams has been at the heart of the work I’ve been doing for the past 8 years with schools and leadership teams."

Kerry Bailey, Literacy Consultant
Maine Department of Education

"A remarkable volume by two authors who understand what a collaborative school is and how to make it work. This is a must-purchase. It is a book to use and use and use, and it is a solution to administrators who dream of a collaborative culture replacing a political, warring, and insular climate."

Teacher Librarian, June 2007
Key features
  • 61 ready-to-implement strategies for results-oriented faculty and staff meetings
  • Each strategy covers the where, what, why, how, and when of implementation
  • Each strategy provides all necessary graphic organizers and examples of the strategy in action
  • A "one-stop shopping guide" for facilitation tools for principals, staff developers, teacher leaders, and school/district administrators

Sample Materials & Chapters

Introduction

Chapter 1


For instructors

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ISBN: 9781452208237

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