Using protocols

 Why use protocols?  The best answer I've found so far is "It's not pixie dust, it's protocol" by Tom Many.  In his article, he says that "The regular use of protocols also helps teachers develop a shared language for assessing student work and a common understanding of what quality student work looks like."  I think that protocols allow schools to do more than just hold "more meetings" because more ineffective meeting time will not improve student learning.

What is a protocol?  It's not as scary or confusing as it sounds, in fact it's just a plan of attack when you come to a meeting.  the protocol defines the goal of the meetingand the steps your group will take to get to the goal.  Depending on the goal of your meeting, you can pick an appropriate protocol using this document.  More templates will be added over time.

There are many protocols already created, and you can create your own to meet the needs of your group.  As a staff this Fall, we practiced a few protocls to get people used to using them. We have tried the foundational protocol, professional learning protocol, and problem solving protocol.  More protocols are available in my google drive here.

Protocols are crucial to the success of a PLC.  The right protocolwill get your team to the crucial questions of a PLC:

• What do you want students to leaarn
• How will you know if they have learned it
• What will you do when they have learned it
• What will you do when they haven't learned it

Defining the Norms of Collaboration

What’s important to you? It matters…

Spending the time we did discussing what the Norms of Collaboration were (pausing, paraphrasing, posing questions, putting ideas on the table, providing data, paying attention to self and others and presuming positive intentions) as well as having the opportunity to put them into practice was for me a very valuable and worthwhile experience. It opened the doors for everyone to have an opportunity to share what was important for them in order to be collaborative and create a meaningful PLC.

The Spaghetti Marshmallow Towers challenge that we participated in was not only a fun activity; it was a great reminder of how our own willingness to contribute in the collaborative process in a mindful way can impact the success of an entire teams’ focus. What made this activity so valuable was the role that each individual was secretly assigned to take on; the roles were specifically designed to portray challenges typically experienced in the collaborative process. Examples of specific roles were the competitive individual who just wanted to build the tallest tower, the let’s just get started without thinking of the end role and the mole that was given the task of having a negative attitude and sabotaging the final outcome. There was also the role of using the skill of paraphrasing to make sure that everyone was heard and an observer who kept some notes of how they saw the group using the norms of collaboration throughout the task. In the end the value was in the reminder of the importance of being mindful to what is important to everyone involved in the collaborative group.

It was the next activity where we had the opportunity to practice using the Norms of Collaboration while working through a run through of the Foundation Protocol that I really appreciated. During this process the learning environment felt mindful, non-judgmental, safe and I felt that what I had to say was valued. I also had the opportunity to learn about what was important to others in the collaborative process and knowing this allows me to be mindful of their needs so that they too feel safe sharing their ideas in a positive learning environment. However the most valuable part of the process for me was gaining a greater understanding regarding making assumptions, more specifically making the assumption that we already know and follow the Norms of Collaboration. It’s important to remind ourselves about these norms and to make sure that we take the time to go through them when working with a new group of people so that we all have the opportunity to share and learn together.

By Karla