TALL Change: A Team Approach to Learning and Leading (Instructional) Change
Facilitator: Tom Malarkey, National Equity Project
This program is designed to support teams from schools as they develop and plan an instructional change effort at their school. Participants will be coached as they move their projects forward and will develop leadership and change-management skills to increase their success.
Why TALL Change?
As schools design and implement instructional change efforts, internal adaptation and innovation are essential. Teachers are of course critical in the process of initiating, designing, and leading change, and collaborative or team approaches to change have been shown to generate the most effective results. This program is designed to provide the scaffolding for groups to work together in a professional setting to achieve their goals.
What happens in TALL Change?
TALL Change focuses on supporting a particular team-led instructional change effort at a school, while building the capacity of team members (teachers, administrators) to help lead further change efforts.
The program is designed with a careful balance of: • Learning about the change process and developing leadership skills, and • Substantive team work time – supported by guiding questions, coaching and feedback.
Teams will learn to address three key dimensions of change:
- Visionary: Developing powerful ideas and rationales for why these would benefit the school.
- Relational and political: The centrality of building relationships and buy-in around a change effort and navigating the inevitable organizational politics of change.
- Pragmatic: Working through the particulars of communication, implementation, timelines, and supports that can often torpedo the best efforts.
Who should participate?
The program is ideal for schools conceptualizing and/or planning to implement an instructional change effort – e.g. differentiated instruction, a cross-disciplinary approach to writing, cross-grade articulation within a subject area, the creation of a new course, or designing a service-learning initiative. Teams can be an existing group (e.g. a department, curriculum committee) or a new team formed to lead an effort – and can be comprised of teachers and/or administrators, and anyone else (e.g. board member) key to the effort.
Support will be tailored to meet the particular needs of teams and participants.
Click here to register online.
Collaborative Curriculum Study
Facilitator: Jennifer Stuart, San Francisco Friends School
Would you like to re-think a unit or series of lesson plans to make them more effective? Are you wondering how to make your teaching more global? Interested in trying out Lesson Study? Are you working to improve the assessment of student learning? This program is designed to provide support and resources for teachers who would like to identify one or two projects they would like to take on and then research and develop methods, materials, and assessments that fit their needs.
With the support of curriculum expert and group facilitator Jennifer Stuart, the group will work both individually and collectively in a professional setting to investigate new ways of improving teaching and learning. Using current research and proven insights to examine or refine existing curricular plans and practice, or to develop ideas that are only in the initial stages. Participants will identify what each of them would like to learn and improve, then find support in using resources and engaging in deep conversation with others about their investigations and implementation. Using our collective wisdom and experience, as well as our multiple perspectives, we will refine our thinking, challenge one another, and learn together.
This program is appropriate for teachers at all grade levels and in all disciplines. It is a great opportunity for small groups of teachers from a school to find the support and time they need to develop curriculum and learn together.
Click here to register online.
Leadership 101: Strengthening Your Skills in the First Five Years
Facilitators: Luzanne Engh, BATDC; Virginia Paik, Head of Live Oak School
The Leadership 101 program will develop key process skills of an effective school leader in the context of understanding school culture, building and working with a team, effective communication, and coaching. The group will examine and discuss readings, case studies, relevant personal experience, and resources from experts. We will examine and reflect upon the challenges as well as the rewards of administrative and teacher/leader work building a network of support and adding competencies for success in the life of an administrator. Time will be given to practice new skills, problem solve timely issues, and develop support with others in the group.
This program is designed for school leaders in their first five years in positions with administrative, management, and/or supervisory responsibilities in their independent schools. Participants may be deans, curriculum coordinators, division heads, department chairs, assistant heads, or other program directors. Previous participants in Leadership 101 are encouraged to continue the conversations while developing new skills. New participants are encouraged to join.
Mentoring and consultation will be available from the facilitators.
Click here to register online.
Experienced Educators: Leadership, Innovation, and Change
Facilitators: Crystal Land, Assistant Head at Head-Royce School & Karen Bradley, Head-Royce history teacher and Global Online Academy Site Director
This year-long seminar will explore the opportunities and challenges that our schools and we as leaders face as we innovate and lead the way in times of change. We will explore some key questions and topics over the course of the year including:
- Assessing the Landscape of Innovation: What are the latest innovations and how do they align and integrate with our current programs? How do we keep up?
- Leading and Facilitating Change: What does it mean to take on truly different and innovative projects at our schools? How do we, as administrators and teachers, effectively lead this process? What are different models of communication and process we can utilize to do this?
- Experimentation and Failure: Can we as schools truly risk failure? What does it mean to take a risk and not succeed?
- Case studies: what is happening at each of our schools? Be prepared to develop a case study to discuss.