Teachers need more than JUST time

In this episode, we learn how teachers don’t just need more time. It's equally important they have strong planning, observation, and feedback coaching systems in place. 

We’re back with the staff of Alliance College-Ready Middle Academy 4. After testing a few different prototypes, they now give all their teachers a full remote planning day, every single week. They learned, through trial and error, that their planning time needs to have more structure than it did in the first semester they were piloting the program. Since then, their design team has made adjustments, changed how morning meetings are run, and give specific times for in-person collaboration. The staff continues to learn and pivot as needed, leveraging and refining everything from their planning time, to intellectual prep and student work analysis, always with a special focus on their most vulnerable scholars.

They also learned, as Principal Flores-Koops tells us, that co-planning helps ensure teachers are clear on how they’re going to co-facilitate a lesson, and that supporting new teachers through mentorship has been a useful strategy. It’s allowing educators to lead with greater intentionality, and collaborate closer with one another, allowing teachers to, feel “less rushed by time constraints, and more focused in the classroom."

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