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It’s amazing to witness the online activities of Teaching Channel Teams, and see how a blended model enables personalized learning that targets goals. Through both research and practical experience, we have boiled down four promising practices that can support our community in Getting Better Together:
1) BUILD TRUST
Listen to your audience, treat each other with respect, and assume good intentions. The Leadership section of the Playbook suggests a three part trust protocol to get you started. To learn about each other, take a free Myers Briggs Test as a team, and determine key ways to engage.
2) SUPPORT MEANINGFUL DISCOURSE
Assign a facilitator to identify the purpose, process, and direction of the community. Engage in discourse that works toward solutions and new approaches, and be hard on ideas and soft on people. Use our clarifying and reflection prompts resource for giving meaningful feedback. See the Teams Playbook’s Coaching section to provide you with a bank of discussion cues to help guide conversations, such as Coaching Prompts for Preparation and Reflection, and Correcting Questioning Mistakes.
3) USE PROTOCOLS
Time is a teacher’s greatest asset, so use it wisely. Protocols maximize the use of time, structure interactions, and designate roles for engagement. The National School Reform Faculty has a collection of free protocol tools that can support your efforts for a variety of purposes, ranging from PLCs to Equity. Visit the PLC, Coaching, and Video sections of the Playbook under “Get Started” for a range of protocols that are ready to use with Teams.
4) LEVERAGE CONTENT
Make use of existing materials to drive your work; don’t reinvent the wheel, but do adapt it! Highlight the resources, videos, and tools in your Teams group that others can benefit from using. You can also use materials from Teaching Channel, including our video library, and the Playbook’s Face-to-Face Professional Development section to start getting better together with blended learning today.
Bridge to Practice: Let us know how your Teaching Channel Teams made use of these promising practices and resources from Teaching Channel, and share other useful resources and feedback with our community!
