When we visit schools, there are two questions we often get asked by principals and teachers. Those questions are:
- Principal: “What should we talk about at today’s staff meeting?”
- Teacher: “What will the meeting be about today?”
Many leaders say it’s important for teachers to post learning intentions and success criteria in the classroom so students can understand what they’re learning. However, many such leaders do not have a learning intention for staff meetings or instructional leadership team meetings. This is a missed opportunity. why? Unfortunately, many leaders don’t think of meetings as a place to learn together with their staff.They see meetings as a place for conversation. in their staff.
It’s important to view each meeting as an opportunity for staff and leaders to learn from each other. A staff meeting is an opportunity for leaders and teachers to work as a collective, as opposed to a real-life event where two different groups share the same space. It is equally important to make school or district priorities visible in the language of learning intentions and success criteria used by leaders during group sessions.
For example, we surveyed hundreds of school leadership teams across North America, and the majority of those teams identified student engagement as a key priority. When leaders co-construct learning intentions and success criteria with staff and ensure that the learning intentions and success criteria include specific language to increase student engagement during staff meetings, they can It creates consistency between classroom practices.
Some leaders say they don’t have time to go through this process at every meeting, but we believe that spending even a short amount of time at the beginning of a meeting to have this conversation helps retain content and transfer learning. From meetings to classrooms. We both use learning intentions and success criteria in our one-day workshops as well as our monthly hybrid learning approach.to help you further develop your learning from one professional learning session to the next.
In addition to learning intentions and success criteria, we’ve found the following five strategies to be effective ways to turn staff meetings into professional learning sessions. This helps create a deeper learning experience for teachers and leaders.
painting learning timeline
After each meeting, choose 3-4 images that represent your learning intent. This could be a photo of a book you read, a featured image of a slide from a presentation, and/or an actual photo from a meeting. Post long pieces of paper with a line down the middle in important areas of the school where staff walk. Label your timeline with the meeting date and attach 3-4 images. Continue this process for each meeting.
Created with Canva
Rationale:
Using images without words allows our brains to create stories and make meaning from them. Enhance learning and visually represent the learning flow across your staff.
anchor chart
There are important moments in meetings when decisions are made. Perhaps these important decisions were the result of a learning protocol in which leaders and their staff had deep conversations. Regardless of the protocol you use, these important decisions should be captured and posted somewhere your staff can refer to them again and again. Often, the important moments of a meeting only happen once. In reality, these important conversations should be revisited frequently.
Anchor charts are created using chart paper to provide a visual representation of decisions and group learning language for staff to easily reference at future gatherings. Anchor chart meeting dates are listed at the bottom of the paper. If your conference room is used only by staff, you can display anchor charts permanently. If your meeting space is more public, you can remove it after each meeting and set it up before the next meeting. Anchor charts don’t need to be created for every meeting, but only for important decisions or learning moments.
Rationale:
By making decision-making and important learning visible, you create a foundation for staff commitment and recognition that this is important input to your school’s learning culture.
Communication before and after staff meetings
A key strategy for maintaining a fluid flow of learning from one staff meeting to the next is to engage in pre- and post-communication with teachers. Pre-learning communications include links to success criteria and learning intentions, supplies and items needed for the meeting, and reading and research/polls to complete before the meeting. We have found it effective to send pre-learning communications 1-2 days before the meeting (click here for a sample)). Post-learning communications will follow up with her member of staff about learnings from the meeting and will be sent within 24 hours of the meeting. Post communications include next steps, task expectations, exit tickets, or surveys asking for feedback.
Rationale:
Sharing pre-meeting expectations and learning that occurred after the meeting supports purposeful leadership goals. Both principals and teachers have the information they need. This strategy saves valuable meeting minutes when everyone gets together.
interactive agenda
The interactive agenda is ‘one-stop shopping’. Provides complete information for all teachers, including success criteria, learning intentions, the flow of each meeting, and links to presentation slides, videos, articles, and more. It turns out there is one interactive topic for each grade level. , adding an agenda for each meeting (with the most recent meetings at the top) is the most effective way to use this tool.Click here for a sample.
Rationale:
Paper agendas are often placed in a “round file” as soon as the meeting ends. Electronic interactive agendas keep key meeting information in one place and provide easy access to past meeting materials.
Interactions during “Dash”
Professional learning often appears disjointed. Professional learning involves not only the actual dates when formal learning occurs, but also the intervening time during which conversations about learning continue. The time in between is called a “dash.” This includes pre- and post-learning communication from above. However, it also includes articles from leaders who support learning from conferences. Dash also includes classroom walk-throughs and learning walks, as well as focus group conversations with members of staff.
Rationale:
Dash supports the vision that adult learning happens in every interaction, not just during meetings. The desired outcome is to create a school culture that is a continuous process of improving student learning practices.
It is important that the school’s priorities are top of mind for staff. Consistent use of success criteria and learning intentions in meetings, and her five strategies above, will support your work to achieve desired results with these priorities.