Questions

Barbara McSwain
May 10, 2010

Every year the Superintendents, District Office, Principals and teachers talk about wanting the district/school to move forward. If we are serious about increasing student achievement, we may need to examine the answers to a few of these questions:

1. Why is it critical for my district/school to understand the importance of Balanced Achievement?

2. Why is it necessary for teachers to have collaborative planning time to increase achievement?

3. Is the schedule of my school reflective of adult needs or student needs?

4. Do we have common units/lessons? Does every lesson include the top five strategies that raise achievement?

5. How often do I use Collaborative Pairs for large group instruction/lecture? Do all the educators in the building understand that the use of Collaborative Pairs is indicative of the amount of time students are summarizing during large group/lecture activities?

6. Are administrators conducting Monitoring/Walk-Throughs? How often are teachers receiving feedback? How often are Reflection Meetings held? Do administrators spend more time conversing with teachers during their planning time or monitoring classroom instruction? What is the difference between the two?

7. Are we teaching the Lesson Essential Question or the Answer to the Lesson Essential Question?

8. Why is it important to connect concepts and vocabulary?

9. In order to move a school forward, why is it important to get beyond just posting a few Lesson Essential Questions and using a few Graphic Organizers?

10. Why is it just as important for leadership to receive support from LEARNING-FOCUSED via Leadership workshops/mentoring as it is for teachers to receive support from Conferencing? Why should Conferencing be attached to training?

You may want to add other questions to this list that are specific for your school/district. One of the questions we must pose as we begin to plan for the 2011 year is, "How is our professional development plan for teachers/administrators and our school improvement model connected to increase student achievement? Are all stakeholders involved? Are we communicating effectively? Who is willing to ask the really challenging questions so we are able to move forward, even if it means there will be times not everyone is comfortable? And of course, we must ask the really big question, "How will what I am doing benefit children?"

The answers to these and other questions can be found by attending a LEARNING-FOCUSED workshop either at the training center in Greensboro, N.C., purchasing LEARNING-FOCUSED Direct or by scheduling an onsite training. To schedule training, contact Client Services at 866-955-3276 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Please visit http://www.learningfocused.com to view and register for upcoming trainings at the National Training Center in Greensboro, NC or to review/purchase materials.