First things first, you probably noticed my last name changed! I got married last month and am now Kara Knight- Yay!!!! It has been another busy, yet beautiful season of life. My time outside of school has consisted on the wedding planning, finishing my second book, and my doctorate classes. But, now that my wedding festivities are over- I am pushing myself to a blog post, so here we go!
Last weekend I created a poll on the Twittersphere to see what you leaders wanted to read most about! The votes came in, and the winning post you wanted to read about is, “Creating Collab Meetings for Your Grade Level Teams.” So, let’s DO IT!
Making time for regular team meetings with your grade level teams/content teams is crucial in building community, rapport, and helping to boost your building’s school and PD goals. I believe as a leader we must create meaningful learning opportunities for staff, just as we ask our teachers to do for students. What we model as leaders is what we will begin to see from those we serve. It starts with us. Meeting with my teachers & supporting them is always my utmost priority.
What we model as leaders is what we will begin to see from those we serve. It starts with us.
Kara Knight
With that said, since I am an Elementary Principal, I have regular collab meetings with my grade level teams and also meet with our Special Education team regularly as well. If you are in the secondary world, you will meet with either your grade level teams, content teams, or a mix of both, based on how your school and district processes are. Either way, the goals of your collaborative meetings should be the same:
Top Goals of Meeting with Teams:
- To promote student learning and success by supporting teachers in researched practices
- To differentiate practices in the classrooms, while creating targeted interventions based on student needs (Data & Informal Teacher Observations, & Students Strengths/Areas of Growth)
- To learn what is working for teachers, while celebrating the incredible work they are partaking in
- To create goals and actionable steps for the future, while supporting your staff every step of the way
- To have fun! (Meetings should always have a dash of fun- Do not take yourself so seriously!)
With that said, one of our Building Goal’s this year is supporting reading small groups in the classroom. With my team, I aligned this goal in our SIP and Building PD goals as well. Alignment within everything is a must for success! We do not need to overcomplicate the process for ourselves or our teachers. Simplicity wins.
In each of of the collaborative meetings that I lead with our BRILLIANT Instructional Coach, Laura Cento, we have been working hard to differentiate each collaborative meeting. We gain input, hear what students need in each grade level, and create mini-PD for what each team needs. I always think of each meeting as a chance for PD. Within each of our collaborative meetings, we have focused on literacy strategies, while building up collective efficacy for differentiated small group creations. Our teachers have been working diligently on building small groups, while beginning a resource den where they can compile everything they need in one place for their team. Thank you Google Drive & Shared Google Drive Folders! 🙂 It sounds silly and simple, but as leaders it is important we emphasize the importance of building a database of resources we can go back to and tweak, again and again.
What I Have Tried & Loved: Adapt To Fit Your School’s Needs
I am all about meaningful learning- Yet, I also am obsessed with organization and efficiency. Again, simplicity is key! In this, COVID-19 world, we have also had to shift from leading PD in-person, to leading virtual meetings, to transitioning back to in-person. Therefore, we have tried many things! In creating meaningful collab meetings, which have focused on literacy, student growth, and small groups, we have tried many things to stay organized. We have:
- Created separate agendas for every grade level team: 1 Google Doc per team & then hyperlinked them together (This was a bit messy for my liking!)
- Used Google Slides to create learning opportunities for staff while sharing slides on Google Meet (There is a time & a place for this- I do not like doing this every meeting)
- Used the Heading/Table of Contents Feature to create Google Doc agendas that were all on 2 pages/streamlined for the entire staff
We have tried many other items such as Google Break-outs, guest speakers, and beyond. I believe there is a time and place for everything! Let’s model the risk-taking we ask our staff to do; We can then see what sticks & what does not.
In regards to agenda creating, I have loved utilizing the heading/table of contents feature- It looks classy, organized, and still gives us the ability to hyperlink resources within the agenda. Plus, it is the most streamlined option I have tried. See my example on Google Docs linked here or download option below:
Through Looking at the Sample Agenda, You will Notice:
- Building/PD Goals are streamlined for every grade level team, yet differentiated for each of their needs
- Resources are noted & hyperlinked to keep us all on track
- Next steps are always added at the end of the meeting. We then begin with these next steps at the start of our next meeting.
As other needs come up throughout the year, we also build mini-PD resources to help support our teachers and their practices. For example, in the Fall, we had a lot of teachers ask us how they could improve their practices on giving running records. Therefore, we immediately put a Running Record PD together and differentiated it for our grade levels. See example here:
We have also engaged in learning walks, data reflections, celebration share-outs, and more! It has been incredibly fun to support our teachers, while seeing their practices continually evolve in the classroom! We are more than proud of all of their hard work.
Building meaningful PD and meetings for teachers should be the paramount of what we do as leaders. Let’s keep committing to this work!
What else would you like to learn about/what else can I feature in a future blog post? Let me know!
Keep learning & evolving,
