This Fall will be our Middle School team’s 3rd consecutive year utilizing instructional rounds as a key part of our reflective practice and professional learning cycle. With the exception of developing and leading professional learning, I believe observing teachers and providing feedback through follow up debriefs is my favorite part of being an educational leader.
Utilizing a data collection tool created by Bo Adams in Survey Monkey, we have provided detailed, written feedback to each individual educator observed, as well as mapped out a larger view of our collective pedagogical practices – a fancy phrase for “stuff that happens in classrooms.” We observe and measure data points such as ‘what role is the student asked to perform: consumer, producer, researcher, etc’ and ‘which MV Mindsets are being infused and to what degree.’
Since September 2013, Middle School has documented a total of 525 observations using Instructional Rounds.
To iterate, this year’s IR Networks will be organized by vertical teams. In another new twist, those being observed will switch roles and conduct an observation of their vertical team peers at least once during the 4 observation experience.
Our ‘problems of practice’ (a fancy term for what we will focus on during the observations), will include assessments, use of interactive technology, and elements of design thinking.
Instructional Rounds is a four-step process:
1) Identifying a focus/problem of practice
2) Observation
3) Debrief
4) Focusing on the next level of work
* (City, Elmore, Fiarman, Teitel)
