Providing additional training. We found our teachers struggling with the new math curriculum program. We asked a rep to come out and do some observations. He provided feedback for our teachers and he will be coming back in a couple of months to do demo lessons. The teachers really appreciated his feedback and said it helped them understand the program better. 

The decisional information that I was able to gather through my walkthrough was the need to differentiate support by teachers. We have a few new teachers this school year, and it's clear that they need support that other veteran teachers do not need. So starting a PLC for newer teachers was a decision based on the walkthrough.

I feel that the Providing of additional training in needed in the area of differentiation and also classroom management. 

My classroom visits have informed all of those areas. My director is very busy and always has a new "thing" he wants to do. Which is great but he forgets that in order for an initiative to work we really need to implement it fully. As I visit the classrooms, there is a variety of levels of competence for these initiatives - sometimes we need more training, sometimes less, sometimes break up the training so teachers can practice the new skill in their classrooms and at times finish one thing before we start another. I always provide him feedback and we come to an agreement on how to move forward for the biggest impact. 

The decisions have helped me in ways that I can improve training for further training. For example, improving morning meeting. The length of morning meeting. What I noticed my walk through is that morning meeting sometimes in some classrooms for 30-35 minutes not an appropriate time amount of time for younger children to set and expectations were different was just really guiding that morning meeting to be less than 15 minutes and that was really area that needed to be changed and adjusted as needed. But that was to get through all the observations and making sure that when going into observing the teachers, I was keeping a mental note of how long a meeting through. So it's also important just as a way to communicate why the reasons are important and just to have a PLC so teachers have a better understanding. Just standing it's.

Walkthroughs are so informationsal on what teachers are actually struggling with and excelling at. It gives a snapshot in real time as to what is or is not working. 

Class visits have informed me where PD is needed not only for our teachers but also for our instructional aides. For teachers - individual areas of needs for growth, class management. For instructional aides - strategies for reviewing skills, how to support students in class. 

I think walkthroughs have informed me in all of those ways. I can have a clear picture on which teachers need which types of support. Some may need PD while others need coaching or modeling and still others may be able to mentor those who are struggling. 

Identifying necessary PD for teachers. 

We decided to switch a digital math program we are currently using to a new one. So far we are piloting this program with just one subject area so we can evaluate it's effectiveness on a subset of the department. Teachers have been provided initial training on how to use the program. We then had a short discussion about pros/cons of features versus our old program. We are now in the implementation phase of the program. We will discuss implementation as a group and decide where to focus our efforts. 

All of these areas are either affected or must be considered based on classroom observations. Teacher support is not a one-size-fits-all process. If there was a particular area that should be considered is adjusting the pace of implementation. If change is needed, then it is important that all are onboard with the new vision and that proper training is in place prior to implementation. 

The last two years as we have come back from Covid, we have delayed starting some things as our staff was trying to get their heads around teaching in masks, online learning, and everything we had to do to return to in person learning. I guess this could have been a new initiative in itself. We took a slower approach to our professional learning focusing on one area at a time.