AP Insight - February 2013
The just released 29th Annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher focused on challenges for school leadership. I highly recommend reading the survey. It offers assistant principals a number of valuable insights into your daily practice. One of the key findings emphasized the critical role that collaboration and networking playing in professional development and job satisfaction:
“Higher job satisfaction is associated with principals feeling well prepared for their responsibilities and participating in a professional learning community (PLC) with other principals. Principals who are very satisfied with their job are more likely than less satisfied principals … to participate in a PLC with principals of other schools (93% vs. 79%). In addition, participating in a PLC is more common among principals who say they are not likely to leave the profession than among those who say they are likely to leave (89% vs. 82%).”
Furthermore, teachers gave higher ratings to principals when they provided time to collaborate with their peers and professional development opportunities. Unfortunately, the survey confirmed what many of us already know—tight budgets are restricting the ability of school leaders to create collaboration-friendly bell schedules and to offer frequent, high-quality professional development activities.
Many school leaders and teacher leaders around the country already network both digitally and face-to-face to improve their practice. Networking has proven to be a popular, low-cost, high-impact professional development strategy.
In AP Insight this month, we asked our expert assistant principals and educators this essential question: How do your teachers use Personal or Professional Learning Networks (PLN) to improve their practice? In addition, we asked for specific examples of teacher-to-teacher or AP-to-AP networking that improved professional practice.
Mel Riddile
NASSP Associate Director of High School Services
Follow me: Scoop.it!, Twitter, The Principal Difference Blog
Collaboration Out of Necessity
By Teresa Littrell McDaniel
Two decades ago, administrators fostered teacher autonomy—the ability to function independently in a classroom—by celebrating autonomous teachers and sometimes labeling teachers who needed help as “needy” and “burdensome.” However, the accountability trend, which exposed underperforming schools while drawing attention to high-achieving schools, has perpetuated a shift from teacher autonomy to a culture of collaboration as a factor in student success. (More)
Professional Development in Our Own Backyards
By Curtis Johnson
The best professional learning network for improving practice can be found right in one’s own backyard—yet so many of us look outside of our school for answers. In most cases, it only takes walking outside of our office or classroom and collaborating with our colleagues to find the most viable solution to improve student learning. (More)
The Key to Schoolwide Literacy
By Michael Waiksnis
For any schoolwide plan to be effective, school leaders must build a collaborative approach. It is easy to develop a plan in your office and send it out to teachers. However, this method often results in a plan that looks great but ends up on a bookshelf. When we started down the path of developing a schoolwide literacy plan at Sullivan Middle School several years ago, we knew we needed to take a collaborative approach. (More)
Building Networks Through Social Media
By Michael Doyle
I’ve been teaching science for about eight years now, and I believe the best professional development available arises organically from a cadre of collaborating teachers dedicated to perfecting this thing we call teaching, and strong administrators who let us take chances. As educators, we cannot overestimate how far an online presence will take us if we use social media as a tool, not as a toy. (More)
Teacher Evaluation and Collaboration
By Shawn DeRose
Implementing Virginia’s new teacher evaluation system increased collaboration between teachers and administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The development of SMARTR goals encouraged staff to establish common expectations and work toward the same result. (More)