Communications and Collaboration Resources

Communications Skills
Resources

Recently some Australian facilitators asked for additional resources that would help them develop stronger communications skills.   Here are some proven resources.

National School Reform Faculty Resources

Several of the protocols we use in Peer Coaching, like Chalk Talk, and the Communications Skills protocol, are used with permission of the National
School Reform Faculty.  This group has many other valuable communications skills resources and protocols.    A couple of the communications skills
resources that might be valuable are:

• The Constructivist Listening Dyad, which helps develop an understanding of active listening and offers an exercise to develop these skills.
• Feedback Nightmares; a brief exploration of negative feedback.
• Feedback Principles, tips on offering strong feedback.
• Pocket Guide to Probing Questions; a great resource to sharpen your skills in asking probing questions.
• If you are observing another teacher and reflecting afterwards the Student Observation Protocol: Court Reporter will be a valuable resource to make the reflection more successful.

You can find an index that brings you too these and other resources at:    http://www.nsrfharmony.org/protocol/a_z.html.

Communications and Norms of Collaboration Resources

The Communications Skills Cue Card and the Seven Norms of Collaboration we use in Peer Coaching are used with the permission of the publishers of Robert Garmston and Bruce Wellmans’ book, “The Adaptive School:  A Sourcebook for Developing Collaborative Groups.”

Chapter 3, Developing Collaborative Norms, and Chapter 4, Two Ways of Talking that Make a Difference for Student Learning, help educators explore and use a variety of communications skills.

The workbook for “The Adaptive School” also has several tools that help educators use Norms for Collaboration more effectively.  You can find these on pages 45-54.

Microsoft Education Competencies

Microsoft’s Education Competencies are also useful for developing more effective communications strategies.
You will find them at  http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/training/competencies/pages/default.aspx#Competencies

The links for “Integrity and Trust,” “Listening,” and “Interpersonal Skills” bring you to resources educators can use to improve communications
skills.

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When Opportunity Knocks (conclusion)

In an effort to build on what they were learning, and to avoid stressing the teachers, Melanie asked the teachers to observe a learning activity in literacy or math and then teach that same lesson in their classroom within a week.

The model has been a real success at Lakelands.  They have just started their third term of coaching and all but one teacher, who is new to the school, is involved.  Melanie regularly updates the principal every two weeks; sharing who is working with whom and what topics they are working on.  These briefings insure the principal understands how Peer Coaching supports the school’s goals.  Teachers are focused on improving student learning and making the kids more competent 21^st Century learners.   He has faith and trust in the program and has continued to use two thirds of the school’s professional development budget, which Melanie is quick to note, “…is really a lot of money for any school,” to support coaching.

Coaching has had a profound effect on school culture. Teachers are routinely collaborating, sharing programs and lesson content.   No one is surprised to see a grade four teacher in the kindergarten classroom.  Teachers are talking about their student’s improved learning and how they are achieving these goals in the classroom.  While the  coaching model at Lakelands may be different, it is working.

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When Opportunity Knocks: Part 3

But she still faced a second dilemma.  How do you involve every teacher in the school?  Her answer was to encourage her colleagues to brainstorm what they were interested in learning, who they might want to buddy up with, and how they might work together.  Based on this brainstorming teachers began to pair up.  Brainstorming made it clear that the staff wanted to collaborate by co-planning learning activities, by observing each other teach and discussing what they saw and learned after these observations.

Time obviously was an issue for this school.  A bit of creative scheduling helped address this challenge.  Every Monday students at Lakelands have a 30 minute long whole school assembly, and the teachers involved in peer coaching that week are released from the assembly and they use that time to talk about what lesson coming up that week and to do a bit of planning.   Once every three weeks students at the school have an hour long SRC assembly and the teachers involved in peer coaching that week are released from the assembly and they use this time for lesson planning and to arrange visits to observe each other in the following week.   The principal’s financial commitment made it possible for a casual / relief teacher to cover three teachers classroom each week.  Each of
these teachers had 60 minutes to observe a peer, and 30 minutes to reflect afterwards.

As they teachers started co-planning, Melanie worked to make sure the teachers built trust as they collaborated.  She spent time helping them understand and practice positive, constructive feedback, and the educators reviewed and work to apply their group norms.  Each of these skills got more important as they began observing each other and started to reflect on what they saw and ask peers why they did some things.

Tune in next week for the last installment of When Opportunity Knocks.

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