#1 - Instructional Walks

These daily, strengths-focused classroom visits give you a ground-level view of the teaching and learning taking place in classrooms. They are the “how” of an instructional leader’s practice. (We will define these more in Action #2.) There is no other way to assess whether your school is making progress toward your goals without direct experience in classrooms. This course will give you the resources and systems to engage in coaching conversations with faculty, using data captured during instruction walks to facilitate celebration, reflection, and growth. You will find instructional walks to be doable and something you look forward to conducting.

#2 - An Instructional Framework

If instructional walks are the vehicle that will take you to schoolwide excellence, then an instructional framework is the map that guides you to that destination. It articulates the most effective practices for engaging students in high-quality learning experiences. An instructional framework focuses on the “what” of teaching and learning. It gives you as the instructional leader a trusted resource to reference when talking with teachers during instructional walks.

#3 – Weekly Newsletter

The first two tools are simple enough that they can be adapted for any context. But without a way to bring them both together, they don’t change instructional practice at scale.

This is where a weekly newsletter published for staff and the school community becomes essential. A weekly newsletter is a leader’s opportunity to communicate what your school is all about and where you all want to go. It is the “why” of the work. 

Leaders can leverage the data from instructional walks along with the language from an instructional framework to advocate for schoolwide excellence. Images, quotes, anecdotes, and resources can capture a culture’s attention and focus on what matters. A newsletter keeps everyone’s eyes on the prize: student learning and continuous improvement.

Implementing these tools simultaneously, we create a foundation for success, which is twofold:

• Teachers begin to see their instruction more objectively in order to grow for today.
• A school builds its capacity for self-directedness and the ability to adapt to what tomorrow holds.

You will see this growth and potential using the strategies and structures developed in this course. Implemented well, you can achieve your school’s goal: ensuring all students are learning at high levels. This occurs when faculty is consistently teaching at high levels.

You are invited and encouraged to personalize them to meet your own school’s needs.