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Bestseller!

Teacher Teams That Get Results

61 Strategies for Sustaining and Renewing Professional Learning Communities

By: Gayle H. Gregory, Lin Kuzmich

An illustrated collection of 61 strategies—and the where, what, why, how, and when to use each one—plus examples of plans in action for results-oriented teams.

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Product Details

Grade Level: K-12
ISBN: 9781412926133
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2007
Page Count: 280
Publication date: January 18, 2007

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Review Copies

Review copies may be requested by individuals planning to purchase 10 or more copies for a team or considering a book for adoption in a higher ed course. To request a review copy, contact sales@corwin.com.

Description

"Ready-to-use templates and clear instructions make this material user-friendly and clear. Especially helpful is the cross-reference matrix showing how a strategy can be used in more than one area."
—William Osman, President
New Jersey Staff Development Council

"An excellent introduction integrates the five 'theaters of the mind' in a brief and coherent way."
—Christelle Estrada, Director of Professional Development Services
Salt Lake City School District, UT

A comprehensive set of tools for achieving lasting results and sustaining a professional learning community!

Sustaining results-oriented team efforts is hard work, and achieving diversified solutions to complex issues over time requires commitment and creativity. To support the momentum of learning communities, Teacher Teams That Get Results: 61 Strategies for Sustaining and Renewing Professional Learning Communities provides an illustrated collection of ready-to-use tools and examples of plans in action for results-oriented faculty and staff.

Focusing on the where, what, why, how, and when to use each of the 61 strategies, best-selling authors Gayle H. Gregory and Lin Kuzmich offer the tools your team needs to succeed. You will learn to:

Create and sustain a growth-oriented climate that encourages feedback and builds trust
Share knowledge and skills to expand and optimize results
Build resilience, develop creative solutions, and manage change
Determine priorities and create excellence when goal setting, tying data to practice, and analyzing results

An indispensable guide for teachers, teacher leaders, and school administrators, this handbook is ideal for school and district staff serving as meeting and workshop leaders and facilitators.

Key features

61 ready-to-implement strategies for results-oriented faculty and staff meetings
Each strategy covers the where, what, why, how, and when of implementation
Each strategy provides all necessary graphic organizers and examples of the strategy in action
A "one-stop shopping guide" for facilitation tools for principals, staff developers, teacher leaders, and school/district administrators

Author(s)

Gayle H. Gregory

Gayle H. Gregory is first and foremost a teacher, having experienced teaching and learning in elementary, middle, and secondary schools, community colleges, and universities. She has had extensive district-wide experience as a curriculum consultant and staff development coordinator. Gayle was principal/course director at York University for the Faculty of Education, teaching in the teacher education program.
Her areas of expertise include brain-compatible learning, differentiated instructional and assessment strategies, block scheduling, emotional intelligence, student motivation, RTI Tier One, collaborative learning, common core, renewal of secondary schools, enhancing teacher quality, coaching and mentoring, managing change, and building professional learning communities. She also a trainer for Visible Learning Plus with Corwin.

She is an author of numerous books related to educational neuroscience and differentiated instruction, assessment, and curriculum, including the following titles:

• Data Driven Differentiation in the Standards-Based Classroom, Second Edition (2014, with Lin Kuzmich)
• Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size Doesn’t Fit All, Third Edition (2013, with Carolyn Chapman)
• Differentiated Instructional Strategies Professional Learning Guide: One Size Doesn’t Fit All, Third Edition (2013)
• Differentiated Literacy Strategies for English Language Learners, Grades K–6 and Differentiated Literacy Strategies for English Language Learners, Grades 7–12 (2011, with Amy Burkman)
• Differentiated Instructional Strategies for the Block Schedule (2010, with Lynne E. Herndon)
• Student Teams That Get Results: Teaching Tools for the Differentiated Classroom (2009, with Lin Kuzmich)
• Teacher Teams That Get Results: 61 Strategies for Sustaining and Renewing Professional Learning Communities (2009, with Lin Kuzmich)
• Differentiated Instructional Strategies for Science, Grades K–8 (2009, with Elizabeth Hammerman)
• Differentiating Instruction With Style: Aligning Teacher and Learner Intelligences for Maximum Achievement (2005)
• The Activities for Differentiated Classroom series (2007, with Carolyn Chapman)

She is affiliated with organizations such as ASCD and Learning Forward. Her ASCD publication is The Motivated Brain: Improving Student Attention engagement and Perseverance (2015, with Martha Kaufeldt).

Gayle consults internationally with teachers, administrators, and staff developers.

She and her family of two daughters and two granddaughters all reside in Burlington, Ontario.

Gayle is committed to lifelong learning and professional growth for herself and others. She may be contacted at gregorygayle@netscape.net, www.gaylehgregory.com, and @gaylegregory6.

Lin Kuzmich

Lin Kuzmich, of KCS, Inc., is an educational consultant, professor, and author from Loveland, CO. She served the Thompson School District in several roles as the assistant superintendent, executive director of secondary and elementary instruction, director of professional development, and a building principal. Her school was named a 2000 winner of the John R. Irwin Award for Academic Excellence and Improvement. In addition, for the past decade she has been involved in staff development through several universities and the Tointon Institute for Educational Change. Kuzmich is an adjunct professor at both Colorado State University and University of Northern Colorado. She is a senior consultant for the International Center for Leadership in Education, has provided training and consulting to school districts around the country, and has presented at numerous national conferences.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Introduction: Tools That Get Results

Purpose for This Book

What We Know About Adult Learning

Brain Bits

Adult Learning Principles

Learning Styles

What Different Learners Need

Initial Group Development

Phases of Group Development and Behaviors

Benefit of Professional Learning Communities

Getting the Intended Results

Learning Teams That Get Results

Tools to Succeed as Teams

In This Book

1. Creating a Growth Oriented Culture

Strategy 1. ABC Conversations

Strategy 2: Birthday Month

Strategy 3: Community Circle

Strategy 4: Concept Formation

Strategy 5: Consultation Line

Strategy 6: Find Someone Who

Strategy 7: Four Corners

Strategy 8: Give and Go

Strategy 9: Mapping the Journey

Strategy 10: 3-2-1

Strategy 11: Nominal Group Process

Strategy 12: Personal, Interpersonal, Task Model (P.I.T.)

Strategy 13: Processing Pause

Strategy 14: Random Partners

Strategy 15:Synectics

Strategy 16:T Chart and Y Chart

2. Sharing Knowledge and Skills

Strategy 17: DIP Party

Strategy 18: Four Corner Cards

Strategy 19: Inside Outside Circle

Strategy 20: Jigsaw

Strategy 21: Know, Want to Know, Learned (KWL)

Strategy 22: Perspective Lens

Strategy 23: Pluses and Wishes

Strategy 24: Plus, Minus, Interesting

Strategy 25: Promissory Note

Strategy 26: Right Angle

Strategy 27: Round Robin, Round Table

Strategy 28: Round the Room Brainstorming

Strategy 29: Star Gazing

Strategy 30: Think, Pair, Share

Strategy 31: Wallpaper Poster

3. Building Resilience and Creating Solutions

Strategy 32: Checking the Oil

Strategy 33: Communication Matters

Strategy 34: Doubling Up

Strategy 35: Environmental Scanning

Strategy 36: Field Force

Strategy 37: FLOW

Strategy 38: Gallery Walk

Strategy 39: Graffiti

Strategy 40: Hot Buttons

Strategy 41: Journey Mapping (Also Known as Histo-Mapping)

Strategy 42: Musical Chairs

Strategy 43: Parking Lot

Strategy 44: Roadblock Removal

Strategy 45: The Question Matters: Reviewing Student Work

Strategy 46: Two Sides of the Story

4. Determining Priorities and Creating Excellence

Strategy 47: Building on Success

Strategy 48: Cause and Effect Planning

Strategy 49: Celebrations and Next Steps

Strategy 50: Current Snapshot

Strategy 51: Four Squares for Creativity

Strategy 52: Lesson and Unit Studies

Strategy 53: Prioritizing the Impact of Solutions

Strategy 54: Prioritizing Work and Learning

Strategy 55: Probable and Preferred Future

Strategy 56: Pros and Cons

Strategy 57: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

Strategy 58: The Interview

Strategy 59: The People Ladder

Strategy 60: Think Abouts…

Strategy 61: Data Chats

5. Putting It All Together

Part One: Initial Group Development

Part Two: Sustaining Groups Over Time and Through New Initiatives

Putting It All Together: Examples for Implementation

Keeping Notes, Logging, and Our Methods

Keeping Your School, Team Culture, and Climate Healthy

Summary

References

Index

Reviews

"I enjoyed reading Teacher Teams That Get Results and anticipate using some of the activities with groups that I facilitate."

Terry Crawley, Coordinator for School Planning and Professional Development
Archdiocese of Louisville, KY

"Excellent introduction integrates the 5 'theaters of the mind' in a brief and coherent way. I have not seen this done as well in other educational books."

Christelle Estrada, Director of Professional Development Services
Salt Lake City School District, UT

"Ready-to-use templates and clear instructions make this material user-friendly. Provides respected sources and a range of examples and applications. Especially helpful is the cross-reference matrix showing how a strategy can be used in more than one area."

William Osman, President
New Jersey Staff Development Council

"Provides flexible and relevant strategies that educational leaders can use to create a structure for meaningful conversations and moving forward in the sometimes messy business of learning communities. This book provides the nuts and bolts of getting to the big picture—something that's been needed for a while. My colleagues and I will find this guide useful in our quest to improve student learning."

Kim Bailey, Director of Staff Development
Capistrano Unified School District, CA

"This fits so well with work we are presently doing, and I am so pleased to see the brain research and practical strategies reflected everywhere! The authors' approach to teacher teams has been at the heart of the work I’ve been doing for the past 8 years with schools and leadership teams."

Kerry Bailey, Literacy Consultant
Maine Department of Education

"A remarkable volume by two authors who understand what a collaborative school is and how to make it work. This is a must-purchase. It is a book to use and use and use, and it is a solution to administrators who dream of a collaborative culture replacing a political, warring, and insular climate."

Teacher Librarian, June 2007

Other Titles in: Professional Learning Communities | Leadership | Collaboration & Team Building

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