Key points:

• Teacher-leaders are an integral–but under-utilized–part of a school
• School leaders can secure teacher buy-in around new initiatives through teacher-leaders

The typical leadership structure in a school is quite rigid, with administrators and teachers filling their roles separately. In this model, teacher skills are only utilized inside of the classroom, leaving teacher leadership potential on the table.

Because this is true in almost any school building, it is time for administrators to reimagine teacher leader roles and leverage teacher leadership, specifically at the grade level or in content teams. Many schools have positions such as “Lead Teacher” or “Content Team Leader,” which is a great starting point. The next step is transforming these established positions, or creating similar models, and implementing them across your school. This should lead to actionable steps taken by these teacher-leaders, and the loosening of the reins by administrators.

Leading Grade Level Initiatives

Rapport and community built at the middle leadership level is more responsive to student interests and needs. The foundation of any successful school is a strong school community where teachers and students can build a solid relationship over the course of the year. Quite often, this is artificially imagined by district experts as X or Y initiative in each classroom. Instead, the model needs to move to a teacher determined and led initiative.

A top-down community building set up by administration might be a pep rally for all grades. Not an unpopular choice, as it builds rapport between the students and the school. Given more time and thought, that same space can instead be used to build rapport between students and teachers.  A teacher leader would converse with their team to determine a community building activity that might be a better fit for their students. This might include a trust building activity outside, a teacher vs. student basketball game, or a community service project. Similarly, the activity can more accurately reflect student interest and can be an opportunity to be culturally responsive to the school community. The activity itself doesn’t matter, but rather the student and teacher’s voice.

Key points:

• Communication is key for all those involved in special education
• Don’t forget to think creatively and look at the big picture when framing students’ goals

If you’re heading into your first job as a special education teacher, congratulations. Not only will you be able to use the knowledge you developed as a student to make a difference in children’s lives, you’ll be doing it in the most needed position in U.S. schools.

Two-thirds of schools with staffing shortages said special education is the hardest area to staff, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

I’m sure the excitement of landing a position was mixed with the fear we all face when starting a new job. The demands on special education teachers are unlike any other position in schools, and because of shortages, you may be asked to tackle a bigger role than expected when you start.

While your job will be thrilling, frustrating, and exhausting, sometimes all on the same day, I do know there are successful strategies that can help you make the needed adjustments to be effective while at the same time maintaining a necessary work/life balance.

The United States is experiencing a national education shortage of teachers leaving the profession in droves, coined “The Great Resignation” due to high anxiety, burnout, safety concerns, low salaries, and challenging job demands. This shortage is further fueled by plummeting enrollment in teacher preparation programs.

The Wall Street Journal reported that at least 300,000 public school teachers and other staff left the field alone between February 2020 and May 2022. Recent McKinsey research shows that nearly one-third of U.S. K-12 educators are considering leaving their jobs.

While this situation creates immediate problems for schools, like hiring qualified teachers from a shrinking pool of candidates, it also creates secondary problems, like the troubling trend that the teacher shortage is creating surrounding professional development (PD).

Carving out time for PD can be extremely difficult for educators, especially when their district cannot offer that time during the school day or as an option for time off. Teachers are also already overwhelmed with their work, so adding one more course or event to their calendars is challenging and sometimes not allowed. Yet, professional learning is critical to increasing student achievement by as much as 21 percentile points.

What is micro-coaching?

Micro-coaching is a workflow model that had its roots in business organizations pre-pandemic and has relevance for professional learning in schools. Micro-coaching is a form of coaching that involves brief, targeted, and focused interactions between a coach and an individual or a group. Micro-coaching aims to provide bite-sized, actionable learning, feedback, and support to help individuals improve specific skills, behaviors, or performance.

Survey after survey confirms teachers feel stressed and burned out. Nearly 75 percent of teachers experience frequent job-related stress, compared to just a third of working adults. More than half of teachers have considered leaving the profession earlier than originally planned.

Exhausted and frustrated teachers face a growing list of adversities, including:

• Insufficient funding
• Overwhelming administrative work
• Demanding parents
• Hostile communities

Dire staffing shortages have added to an unprecedented level of strain. When educators pick up the slack from unfilled positions, their work obligations increase. But their plates merely grow more full — nothing is ever removed. Districts can’t afford to lose more teachers and must take steps to assist them.

Key contributors to educators leaving the field include a lack of preparation, mentoring and support. Professional development, however, is one powerful tool that can alleviate some of the pressure and help reduce teacher turnover.

Benefits of professional development

Continuing education and career training make up a vital part of the educational process. It exposes educators to the latest instructional methods, offering research-based best practices and providing the confidence to teach new concepts. New and seasoned teachers can level up their skills and work toward subject mastery.

Workshops and peer groups provide a creative outlet for teachers to lean on each other for advice. More than half of teachers consider collaboration with colleagues the most effective type of professional development. When teachers are encouraged to support each other, they learn new ways to excel in their classroom, improving instruction.

By investing in their teachers, districts directly invest in their students. According to the U.S. Department of Education, student achievement increases as much as 21 percent when their teachers participate in professional development programs and adopt different techniques to deliver instruction. This positive impact is crucial as student math and reading scores decline across the country.

Research shows that professional learning has the potential to transform teaching and advance equitable learning and student success. Yet notable gaps in practice undercut its impact.

A new report, Teaching, Learning, Equity and Change: Realizing the Promise of Professional Learning, developed by Every Learner Everywhere in partnership with Achieving the Dream (ATD) and the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), aims to inform the strategic action needed to realize the promise of professional learning at our nation’s equity-focused campuses.

Recent research in the field demonstrates the effectiveness of professional learning in advancing equity-focused change in education. It also provides a clear picture of the best practices used by effective Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs).

Key questions remain:

• What is the status of professional learning on campuses serving most of the nation’s racially minoritized and poverty-affected students?
• How do these institutions deploy professional learning to support equity-focused teaching and learning?
• What does best practice look like?
• What obstacles and gaps in practice get in the way?
• What kind of assistance would be helpful?

The report, co-authored by ATD’s Bret Eynon, Jonathan Iuzzini, and H. Ray Keith with OLC’s Eric Loepp and Nicole Weber, provides answers to these questions through a synthesis of data collected via surveys and interviews.

Teachers (and administrators) appreciate breaks as much as students do. Time away from the classroom allows teachers to clear their minds, celebrate the holidays, relax with family and friends, and maybe catch up on grading or lesson planning in comfy clothing, slippers, and with a ready cup of tea or coffee at hand.

Now that teachers have returned to their classrooms refreshed and ready for the second half of the year, school districts should have a plan to help them maintain that energy — and keep burnout at bay.

Here are four strategies school leaders can employ to support their educators, help reduce their stress and maintain their enthusiasm after the holidays (and all year long).

1. Reinvest in teachers’ career growth and knowledge-building

Many districts bookend the school year with professional development workshops for teachers, but continuing education and career training opportunities available throughout the year have the greatest benefit. A commitment to ongoing professional development signals a district’s commitment to its teachers and empowers educators to stay up to date on current research and best practices in their fields.

Professional development must focus on useful strategies relevant to each teacher and their classrooms. The mid-year point is the perfect time to ask teachers to reevaluate their professional goals and needs. Districts should empower teachers with a voice — and a choice — in what professional development would benefit them the most. Otherwise, teachers will find themselves dedicating hours of their already hectic schedules to listening to professional development not applicable to their current needs.

Continuous professional development programs provide more opportunities for teachers to put their professional development takeaways into practice. Incorporating something new into their lesson planning often requires a little trial and error. Districts — and supervisors — need to give teachers room to experiment as they align these new insights and methods with their approaches.

2. Create space for teachers to connect and engage with each other

Most teachers naturally gravitate toward each other — during lunch breaks or cafeteria duty, standing at the copier, or before faculty meetings — to run ideas by each other, ask for resources and more. It’s how less experienced teachers might work through teaching a lesson on an unfamiliar topic, or a veteran teacher might find a new approach to freshen up an older unit. Teachers are constantly supporting each other — and school leaders should provide as many opportunities as possible for them to collaborate formally and informally.

Collective efficacy, coined by Albert Bandura in the 1970s, is a shared belief that a school’s staff and faculty can positively impact student learning and achievement. School leaders should provide teachers space to collaborate, building in time during department meetings, for example, and establishing professional learning communities. It may be challenging — but not impossible — to launch these initiatives mid-year. Perhaps start with a monthly meeting after school, with a simple framework built around the principles of professional learning communities, including:

• A focus on student learning
• Instructional leadership
• Adult learning
• Privileged time
• A commitment to continuous improvement
• An evidence- and data-driven approach

District leaders and administrators should help teachers build informal and formal communities by:

• Conducting mid-year data analysis and planning.
• Creating moments for teachers to serve as “coaches” and share experiences and insights with colleagues.
• Providing lunch breaks for specific subject teachers or grade-level teams to brainstorm solutions for similar challenges they share.
• Building time into department meetings and encouraging teachers to share their reflections on new and innovative teaching practices.
• Creating schedules for teachers to observe each other “in action.”

These opportunities provide creative outlets for teachers to lean on each other for advice and find new ways to excel in their classrooms and improve instruction.

3. Bring on the volunteers!

A new calendar year provides a perfect time for reflection — and a natural opportunity to try something new. Teachers assess and readjust all year long, whether it’s tweaking homework routines, changing seating arrangements or mixing up small group rotations.

Some changes, however, require observant administrators who ask — and proactively suggest — other solutions to provide their teachers with more support, especially in the classrooms. Budgets meticulously calculated down to each line item might not have room to include additional paid staff for classroom support, but what about inviting families and other community members to lend a hand?

Think about it. Most classrooms have only one educator to meet the emotional and academic needs of 20 to 30 (or more) students. To support teachers in addressing all their students’ needs, school leaders can assign volunteers and interns to classrooms to help with one-on-one or group instruction and enrichment. Check with your local university and solicit volunteers from pre-service education programs.

A bonus: many edtech programs offer scripted lessons and ready-made materials volunteers can use to supplement classroom learning. These materials reduce the prep work lessons often require, saving teachers time and providing students (and volunteers) with a meaningful, beneficial experience.

This community of support benefits everyone. The students gain the perspective of another adult cheering them on. The volunteers and interns gain the opportunity to mentor the younger generation. And the teachers gain valuable support for their mental well-being.

4. Involve the community

Teacher support begins in the classroom but shouldn’t be limited to the school or district. Why? Because only 46 percent of teachers feel like the public respects them as professionals — a 31 percent decrease from 2011. And why shouldn’t educators expect their school communities and students’ families to appreciate them? After all, they’re entrusted with teaching the world’s most precious resource: its children.

As a leader, look for opportunities for the community to understand and recognize teachers for the time and effort they dedicate to shaping the future for millions of children, community leaders should:

• Showcase teacher achievements during focused gatherings within the larger school community.
• Set aside time for teachers to share the complexities of their careers during administrative and leadership events like school board meetings.
• Publicize job and volunteer opportunities within school districts.
• Contact local media and news outlets to showcase small, medium and large accomplishments at the classroom level.

An ancient African proverb says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Now more than ever, communities should embrace their role as advocates for teacher success by encouraging and recognizing teachers as valuable and vital professionals.

Fewer than 15 percent of teachers feel “very satisfied” with their jobs. But it’s not because of the students they’re teaching; in many cases, the districts are doing the best they can with the available resources. School district leadership can show teachers (through actions, not words) that they’re valued by implementing innovative strategies via volunteers and edtech, slight schedule adjustments, and meaningful professional development to offer support and remind them everyone’s in it together — for the students.

Related:
6 reasons to improve teacher and principal evaluation policies
I’m a first-year teacher. How do I become successful in the classroom?

The 2023 TCEA Convention & Exposition is almost here, and with the conference comes the opportunity for educators to connect in person and share insights and innovations around teaching and learning.

This year’s conference is in San Antonio and, according to the TCEA site, is “the intersection of passion and possibility, curiosity and discovery, education and technology. And it’s the kind of learning that will change the story of education.”

Conferences offer the opportunity for educators–from administrators and classroom teachers to IT leaders and curriculum directors–to attend sessions targeted to their interests and their individual school or district needs.

It’s not too late to register! Get started here.

Here are 7 TCEA 2023 sessions that caught our eye:

1. From Stigmas to Selfies: The Power of Using Social Media in the Classroom. Break through the stigma surrounding social media and learn how you can utilize it to foster communication with parents, develop and model digital citizenship skills with students, and grow personally in your field as an educator. Walk away with various apps, tools, and resources you can use to create your own personalized content today!

2. Immersive, Innovation Spaces Are Propelling Future-Readiness! Come actively engage with artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and a variety of innovative technology-rich devices. Explore ways to deepen STEM concepts, fulfill TEKS, and increase collaborative thinking and creativity. Refocus from strictly “making” to creation and innovation! Immersive, innovation spaces create endless opportunities for students to expand and apply their ideas and offer immeasurable opportunities for accelerating achievement and increasing engagement for students of all backgrounds and abilities. Let’s create a trajectory of learning opportunities for future-ready learners!

3. How to Create Accessible and Equitable Library Collections. Most librarians understand the importance of including diverse books in their collections, but deciding which books to get can be an intimidating challenge. What should you look for when considering books outside your life experience? How can technology tools, like social media, help you with your book research? How can you discern between respectful representation and harmful stereotypes? And what is up with #OwnVoices? In this session, which will have a special emphasis on mental health, disability, and neurodiversity, an autistic librarian will share tips and recommendations for making your library a place where everyone can belong.

4. 30 Apps That Support Student Executive Functioning. Learn how to support neurodivergent students’ executive functioning skills with 30 apps that promote time management, self-control, planning, goal setting, and problem solving. Leave with resources to share with peers and parents and the know-how to successfully train students and deployment the apps.

5. Analyze This: Data Is for Students, Too! Students analyzing their own data changes how they view ownership in their education! Learn why student-led data is not only impactful for your classroom or campus but essential for student ownership and growth. You will receive a “starter pack” that will not only answer the important question of “how do I get started?” but also give you all the resources needed to make your own version of student data trackers– digitally or on paper.

6. Organization for the Techy Teacher/Librarian. There are so many awesome ideas out there that we want to try out, but how to keep track of them all? Come learn about different ways to keep your library programming ideas, presentation ideas, and lesson ideas, and make sure that they go from “I want to try this” to “That was so much fun!”

7. Seven Social Media Inspired Project Ideas for Any Subject. Our favorite social media platforms can act as inspiration for student creations! Using the popular ways content creators share on social media as a baseline, we’ll examine how students can create graphics, write captions, and record videos related to their course work. Explore cross-curricular connections and applications for all ages. We’ll look at strategies for helping students share what they’ve learned, in big and small moments, and in ways similar to how they share in social spaces online. We’ll discuss what you need to do to set students up for success whether they are sharing with visuals or text.

Related:
9 new digital learning resources from TCEA 2022

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

This is my first year as a teacher and I’m teaching sixth grade, so both my students and I are new to the school. I’m wondering if you have any advice for how to make students feel welcome in a new building? — I’m New Here

Dear I’m New Here,

Congratulations and welcome to the classroom. You are about to learn the magic of classroom leadership. 

You have a toolbox of strategies from your pre-teacher service work. Use them. You will need to try all of those strategies and see which ones work for you.  

I teach 12th grade now, but when I was a middle school teacher, I was constantly thinking of ways to reach students. I felt like I spent more time managing behaviors than teaching. To fix the problem, I planned amazing lessons that would flop because the kids would either stare at me without paying attention or refuse to turn in assignments. I remember being so frustrated and ready to quit. 

Today, during parent-teacher conferences, a parent approached me and asked, “Did you used to teach at Meramec Elementary School?” I could not believe my eyes because this woman looked exactly like a fifth grader from my first teaching assignment. She told me her name and I was transported back to 2001 when this 10-year-old wore two long braids and smiled all the time. 

She shared great memories and told me how much I influenced her life. This now-adult told me my presence meant the world to her. I found her message heartwarming and timely because for me, it was hard to believe my first year of teaching was a good experience for her. 

The truth is when you teach middle schoolers, you feel like you don’t make a difference. I learned from this former student that I was wrong. As a first-year middle school teacher, you can be successful and impact adolescents’ lives. 

Here’s how to get through your first school year

Bad advice abounds, ignore it! When I graduated with my master’s degree in education, there was a popular book that urged teachers not to smile for the first days of school. We were advised not to smile because we needed to send a message that we meant business. The theory was if we wanted respect from students, we had to communicate that we were no-nonsense educators who wanted conformity.

That did not work for me at all. I started smiling on the first day and felt like a total failure. I continued to smile every day because I realized the stern approach does not work for me. 

I finally asked myself what does work. The answer: authenticity. I needed to show up as me. 

Think of the old Bible story of David and Goliath. David was a teenager who wore an adult soldier’s tin uniform. The strange armor and borrowed weapons ended up hurting more than helping him, so instead he threw a stone to slay the giant. 

In the same way I continued to smile and David dropped that armor, don’t be afraid to lose whatever you were told or taught that isn’t working. 

Don’t isolate yourself. Most of the time, you will be alone with 20-30 students. Though you might not feel it yet in the excitement of your first year, being in a classroom with students all day can be tiring. 

If you’re like me, around the third or fourth hour of each day you might begin to question your decisions in the classroom and might even wonder if you have chosen the right career. 

This is a daily occurrence. Having teacher friends reminds you this is normal and to see the bigger picture. We have a big task and teachers support each other. 

In my first year, I made friends by eating lunch in the teacher’s lounge and planning lessons with grade-level teachers.

Decide what you value. Are you a teacher who values conformity over free thinking and expression? 

Someone who values conformity might emphasize strict due dates, teacher-enforced rules and consequences, and lecture-style learning. 

Someone who prefers free thinking in the classroom might tolerate late work policies, student-created rules, student choice teaching such as stations and differentiated instruction. 

Whatever you value as a teacher should be represented in the physical and social environment of your classroom. 

– Physical environment – Consider the systems you will use to communicate your values. If you lean toward a student-centered classroom, a system could be as simple as identifying space in your classroom where students can access basic supplies such as a pencil or Chromebook charger.

What are your non-traditional seating options? I follow on YouTube a middle school teacher, Joy Bazzle, who uses spin bikes for desks. She has standing desks and wobble boards. Her classroom has great energy. 

Avoid items in your classroom that can cause bad feelings for students. My high school students have shared with me unfortunate memories of their names being on the board or the color being red on a classroom behavior chart at the end of the day. They recount times of missing recess or not attending popcorn parties. These punishments did not change their behaviors, the students said. They felt targeted.

Will your behavior management system convey feelings of superiority and exclusion? 

– Social environment -How will you encourage students to interact? Consider equitable systems for calling on students to participate in discussions. Trust students by including more movement in tasks where students are only using paper and pencil.

In my own classroom, I use fishbowl strategies to encourage discussions and debates. An easy way to incorporate movement and encourage discussion is to take an anticipation guide and have students move across the room based on whether they agree or disagree. 

Support students as individuals. As teachers, we’re trained to see who’s not doing what we asked or to prioritize finding mistakes. I have found that providing affirmation and validation are worth learning. 

Spend more time finding and acknowledging the ways in which you and your students are growing to help change the narrative that schools are a place of discipline. 

You could use your wall space to provide positive reinforcement and encouragement. If you set up your classroom as a place of cooperative education, it can create an opportunity for additional buy-in, especially from reluctant learners.

Build a community of learners. My No. 1 goal is to help children learn as much from each other as they do from me. I make it clear that everyone in class doesn’t have to be best friends. But as long as we are assembled together in a classroom, we will listen and hear one another, accept each others’ differences, and recognize strengths and how each student can contribute to the classroom environment. 

Sixth grade teachers can also facilitate collaboration. My favorite go-to strategies as a middle school teacher were the annual poetry slam and the million dollar project. There are other ideas to deepen student collaboration.

I’m New Here, teacher programs attempt to imitate the complexities of your first year as a teacher but it is nearly impossible to know what every classroom and every student will be like when you take over your classroom. 

Know that you will survive and what you learn this year will stick with you for a lifetime.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education.

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6 key elements to build a successful coaching program

New data and analysis released by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) finds ample opportunities for improvement in states’ teacher and principal evaluation policies. With educator quality as the most powerful in-school factor that contributes to students’ academic success, an essential component to supporting student recovery in the wake of pandemic-related learning loss must be ensuring all students have access to effective teachers and administrators.

Evidence-based teacher and principal evaluation policies, when well-implemented, have great potential to help individual educators strengthen their practice, promote overall improvements in the quality of the workforce, and—most importantly—support increased student achievement.

“Strong, well-implemented teacher and principal evaluation systems can make a big difference for both teachers and students,” said Dr. Heather Peske, NCTQ President. “It’s disappointing to see that states have continued to back away from evidence-based evaluation policies and practices over the past several years, especially when we need to ensure every child has access to great teachers more than ever.”

The new NCTQ report, State of the States 2022: Teacher and Principal Evaluation Policies, presents data and analysis on policies from all 50 states and D.C. covering essential, evidence-based components of teacher and principal evaluation systems. Despite increased state adoption of evidence-based evaluation policies over a decade ago, the most recent data documents a continued decline in the number of states with teacher and principal evaluation requirements in place that research shows have the potential to drive significant improvements in student learning. 

Key findings in the NCTQ data include:

• Fewer states require that objective measures of student growth be included in a teacher or principal’s evaluation. Helping students to grow academically is core to the role of all educators. Between 2009 and 2015, most states adopted policies that required educator evaluations include some objective measure of student growth, such as student state, district, or school assessment data or data from student learning objectives. However, while 43 states had this requirement for both teacher and principal evaluations in 2015, that number has since dropped to 30 states for teachers and 27 states for principals. While the pandemic may have interrupted assessments, recent declines in student results should reinvigorate states’ focus on student growth.

• Fewer states now explicitly allow or require that student feedback be incorporated into a teacher’s evaluation. Teacher evaluations that include multiple sources of data, including from student assessments, teacher observations, and student surveys, create a fuller, more accurate picture of a teacher’s performance. Despite evidence that feedback from students is an important component to include in assessing teacher quality and to gauge students’ experiences, only five states now require that student surveys be included in a teacher’s evaluation. Support for including survey data in principal evaluations has also declined, with now only eight states requiring surveys or feedback from students, teachers, parents, and/or peers be included in a principal’s evaluation.

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Post-COVID plans should focus on program values and evaluation

When I started teaching in the early 90s, I was an eager and very green third grade teacher ready to change the world, one class at a time. My colleagues and I worked hard to build a learning community that met the needs of our students, no matter their circumstances or the resources at our disposal (or lack thereof).  

Since then, I have served in various roles in public education and the private sector and have witnessed innovations in curriculum, instructional design, classroom design, and more. But amid all this change, one area has remained relatively static in public education. When it comes to training and developing teachers, we have been letting opportunity to leverage technology pass us by. Instead of a place to break new ground and match the demands of the modern classroom, professional development programs remain a pain point for teachers.

More than half of teachers have expressed wanting to leave the profession, with many citing a lack of quality development and support as a contributing factor. Teacher PD feels obligatory, generic, time-consuming, and for many, out of reach.

So, what can we do? I propose three ways to address the professional development needs of teachers today:

Increase Teacher Choice

As a former principal, I know that data and district mandates can determine the focus and timing of professional development. The increased focus on social-emotional learning as we emerge from the pandemic is a great example school and district PD requirements. Administrators are right to equip their teams with SEL trainings and resources, but teachers also face myriad challenges unique to their classrooms that aren’t being met in the moment.

According to a 2014 study by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 38 percent of teachers cited “learning that is not customized enough” to the content they teach and the skills they need as a barrier in their professional learning. However, teachers who choose all or most of their professional learning opportunities are more than twice as satisfied with professional development as those with fewer options.

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Is your PD missing this key element?

A successful coaching program can have an extraordinarily positive impact on teachers, students, and schools. A recent national survey of educators showed that most districts agree — 75 percent see the connection between coaching, teacher growth, and student achievement.

Here are 6 key elements of successful coaching programs that can serve as a roadmap for building and sustaining a successful instructional coaching program.

1. Create a strong vision for the coaching program

The most effective coaching programs are the ones in which the leaders are intentional about building and designing them with teacher support and student outcomes in mind. As a district, ensure that there are conversations about the ultimate goals of the program. What will look and feel different in a school that has a coaching program? What are the resources needed to invest in the program? What is the timeline for implementation? How will you measure coaching work to make sure the program is meeting your objectives?

2. Get the right people in the right roles

People are the key factor in any successful coaching program. Selecting the right people as coaches is very important in creating credibility, particularly with other teachers. When selecting coaches for your program, district leaders need to determine the process for selection as well as who will be involved in that process. What role will the district play? The school? How will you ensure the program is inclusive of diverse backgrounds and perspectives?

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How teachers like me can use AI to improve their teaching

The importance of professional development in education cannot be overstated. In fact, according to research, when teachers receive well-designed professional development, an average of 49 hours spread over six to 12 months, they can increase student achievement by as much as 21 percentile points.

Yet, professional development is often overlooked and considered an afterthought—especially with pressing concerns around students’ mental health and well-being, gaps in reading and math skills, and so much more. The COVID-19 pandemic shook up professional development, encouraging schools and districts to rethink what this process looks like and how to best set their educators up for success and, in turn, their students.

At Waxahachie ISD in Texas, we’ve implemented professional development through the use of video, and lean on self-reflection and personalization that is naturally part of the video process to transform how our educators learn, collaborate and grow.

Here’s why.

Enhanced self-reflection

Self-reflection is challenging, but crucial in any career and especially in education. A report from RAND notes that collaborative professional development activities provide opportunities for teachers to engage in informal mentoring with more experienced and more effective colleagues, experiment with new instructional approaches, and co-construct understandings of policies and practices—which, in turn, can shape teaching practice.

When a teacher watches themselves teach through video, they often notice things they missed in real-time. For example, perhaps a teacher is using their hands to explain a concept, but find when re-watching their lesson that the hand movements were distracting and took away from the lesson as a whole. Video enables teachers to capture real moments in their classrooms and pick up on little things that can otherwise go unnoticed. There’s a reason sports teams dedicate so much time to watching film on their opponents and themselves. Video allows teachers, much like sports teams, to reflect on their practice and note areas of improvement. They gain a new perspective, and their craft is further enhanced.

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Do your teachers think PD is a dirty word?

Teacher leader programs offer opportunities for teachers to assume leader roles and leverage their expertise in teaching without leaving the classroom. Despite some of the potential and promise of teacher leader programs, new programs often struggle with problems that stem from mismanagement that limits their effectiveness.

As teacher leader programs become more prolific across the country, there is a growing need for district- and school-level staff to design policies and practices to select, develop, support, manage, compensate, and retain teacher leaders. While there is a plethora of literature on teacher leadership that addresses these components, the information is not accessible to educators in a manner that allows them to easily and efficiently digest all of the different approaches and lessons learned to adapt to their context.

To make the literature on teacher leadership more accessible and engaging, we chose to develop interactive online modules—Managing Teacher Leadership—that cover nine components critical to managing teacher leadership programs. The modules focus on increasing awareness and understanding of how to design, implement, and evaluate a teacher leader programin a school building or district. 

The nine modules correspond to components of talent management and present big ideas that distill essential information from the literature and offer readers relevant approaches to the specific work described in each module, varying from general guidance and exercises to relevant tools and resources. The online modules are designed to engage educators and make the approaches and lessons learned more accessible, to help school districts design and implement teacher leader programs on their own and at their own pace.  

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Is your PD missing this key element?

A report published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirms that the pandemic greatly impacted students’ academic progress across all grade levels and instructional models.

Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS) has leveraged pandemic relief funds to invest in additional resources for our district community. In addition to enhancing our summer school program, we are helping teachers support their students—and close learning gaps—by providing access to online, high-impact tutoring services. 

While we originally implemented online tutoring for our virtual school only, we were so impressed by the results that we decided to scale the service across our district. Now, every student has unlimited access to high-quality tutors—regardless of their grade level or academic standing.

Here’s how high-impact tutoring benefits students, families, and educators.

Identifying the need

Throughout the pandemic, OKCPS has focused on maintaining communication with students, families, and teachers to ensure they have the tools they need to be successful.

In March 2020, one of our first priorities was to roll out a one-to-one device program and implement a new learning management system (LMS). While these initiatives can take two years or more to fully scale, our district’s program was up and running by August—just in time for the 2020–2021 school year.

Instructionally, we pulled in a variety of tools to help our teachers—including TutorMe, an online tutoring platform. While this has been a valuable resource for all students, it has been especially valuable for families who may not have had the money for tutors and related services. It’s not just about closing learning gaps—it’s about equitable opportunities for academic advancement.

Supplementing instruction with online tutoring

In a poll conducted by the National Education Association (NEA), 55 percent of educators indicated they are ready to leave the profession. The NEA has termed this situation as “an unprecedented [school] staffing crisis across every job category.” The well-being of teachers directly affects the quality of their teaching, and online tutoring can reduce some of their workload. And, for educators who are teaching across several grade levels within one classroom, tutoring alleviates much of the work that must be done to differentiate instruction for individual students.

While the pandemic accelerated the demand for virtual learning, it’s clear that online pedagogy is now an integral part of an educator’s toolbox. As part of this shift to hybrid or virtual learning models, today’s educators face a new set of demands – it’s not just about teaching the curriculum; it’s about understanding and leveraging the tools that make learning possible and beneficial. 

As many of our interactions move online or become increasingly integrated with the digital world, teachers and the universities that prepare them need to shift as well.

Expanding Possibilities with In-Person and Virtual Learning

I spent 10 years working in classrooms as a substitute teacher, but I decided to advance my career by becoming a certified middle school math teacher. I student-taught for two semesters through a program at Lewis University in partnership with Proximity Learning, a company that makes it possible for certified teachers to live stream into classrooms around the country. When structuring my education, I felt that teaching one semester in-person and one virtually would best prepare me for an unpredictable educational field. 

I selected this program because it provides student teachers with the coaching and experience to thrive in any educational setting. In order for me to feel prepared to teach in both in-person and online classrooms, I wanted the mentorship, tech skills, and learning strategies to build my confidence in connecting and engaging with students.  

Many teachers can attest that the energy of the classroom inspires them on their toughest days. There’s nothing quite like the spirit and collaboration of in-person teaching. I was a little hesitant to teach online, worried that virtual teaching would dull that spark.

However, after collaborating with my mentor teachers and learning how to use technology to engage with students, I was amazed at the possibilities. 

Fostering Cross-Country Classroom Collaboration

Guided by my Proximity Learning mentor teacher, Elizabeth Dodds, I dove into new tech tools and remote learning strategies. 

I tackled platforms like Nearpod, Google Classroom, and Kahoot, learning how to use them to encourage meaningful conversations and learning opportunities that mirrored what I experienced in a brick-and-mortar classroom. Elizabeth showed me how to cultivate confidence and comfort for both students and teachers in the virtual classroom. Through her expertise in lesson planning and technology, I learned how to implement remote learning strategies into my instructional practices. 

After a tumultuous few years teaching during a pandemic, some educators are embarking on a unique approach to social and emotional learning (SEL) training this summer: They’re pursuing a virtual wellness, SEL, and yoga training course.

Graduates of Breathe For Change’s 200-hour program will be certified to teach inclusive yoga classes to both adults and young people and lead SEL and wellness experiences in their schools, districts, and organizations.

“Our whole approach is a community-wide wellness approach–the home-school connection matters deeply,” said Dr. Ilana Nankin, Breathe For Change’s founder and CEO.

The certification program is designed specifically for educators who can use their SEL and yoga education for teacher well-being and student SEL.

Educators were stressed, overwhelmed, and overworked before the pandemic escalated things, said Nankin, a former PreK teacher, who focused on this topic in her dissertation. When Nankin used her research and teaching experiences to create Breathe For Change in 2015, educators who participated in the program saw transformations in their students, from an SEL perspective, but also from an academic perspective.

It reveals “how powerful SEL and wellness practices can be for students’ lives, in school and in an educational context,” she said. “Then, as educators, how do we utilize wellness, SEL, yoga, and mindfulness as vehicles for healing and social change across our whole community?”

Teaching at any level can often be a solitary occupation. Even with a classroom full of students, teachers often work in isolation from peers. Teachers rarely receive instruction on how to work with co-teachers or teacher assistants in their pre-service teacher education programs. Therefore, it is often difficult or awkward for teachers to ask for help or effectively collaborate with others. Instructors often don’t know how to accept help from the instructional coaches, even when they would like to.

Educational practice is shifting from isolating practice to collaborative efforts, and creating healthy and productive team dynamics is often a challenge. Instructional coaches can positively impact these relationships, but the trust must be in place for it to occur. Even in systems where working with a coach is expected, building those initial relationships can be challenging.

Instructional coaches, instructional designers, and even assigned co-teachers often struggle to establish working relationships with individual classroom teachers. Librarians regularly complain that they spend more time clearing jams from printers instead of assisting students with reference questions. However, clearing that paper jam can help the student see the librarian as a resource. In the same way, the instructional designer might start to build a relationship by helping an instructor properly format hanging indents for a research paper. One instructional coach started building a positive relationship by making copies for classroom teacher. Just like the proverbial salesman who had to get a foot in the door, sometimes the first step is a small one.

Just as teachers rarely learn about collaborating with others in their classroom, instructional coaches and others of their stripe are often trained to focus on analyzing student learning data or the technical skills. However, that is only one facet of the coaching role. Gathering and analyzing data is an important aspect of instructional improvement, but it is rarely successful as the first facet.

Many people envision artificial intelligence’s (AI) role in education with a sci-fi twist, but in reality, AI is already embedded in promising new tools that address student learning, real-time feedback, and continuous professional development (PD).

AI-powered learning tools can offer students immediate feedback and a customized learning experience. And when used in PD, time-strapped educators can better reflect on their instructional practices and target areas for improvement.

Edthena, a provider of video-powered PD tools, is harnessing AI in its new AI Coach platform. The solution helps schools and districts give teachers access to supportive coaching to improve teaching effectiveness. AI Coach uses artificial intelligence to guide teachers through coaching cycles aligned to common growth areas.

Using AI Coach platform, teachers connect with Edie, their virtual coach. Edie asks teachers about their professional goals, and then teachers analyze and reflect on videos of their classroom instruction by adding time-stamped comments.

Edie takes a guide-on-the-side approach to help teachers summarize the evidence found during video analysis and develop action plans to increase impact with their students. As part of their conversation with Edie, teachers develop a short-term goal, identify a strategy for change, and commit to a timeline for implementation. This evidence-based process enables teachers to receive many of the benefits of instructional coaching even if an in-person coach is not available.

“In the conversational AI space…you’re fundamentally able to have a conversation with the computer on the other end. That’s really exciting,” said Adam Geller, founder and CEO of Edthena. “What it means is that we’re able to take the ideas of some general-purpose technologies people are becoming familiar with and translate those techniques to professional learning for teachers. High-quality coaching is essential to helping teachers succeed in the classroom. However, ensuring that a coach is available for every teacher on a regular basis to support ongoing reflection was a near-impossible task until now. The AI Coach platform is a support tool for teachers that complements the efforts of school leaders and instructional coaches.”

As Covid-19’s Omicron variant is pushing some school districts back into distance learning, teachers may be frustrated at the return of video meetings. However, imagine if video wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is today.

I contend that video technology helped to save education during the pandemic, and therefore should not be abandoned. As years of research from Harvard University has shown, the benefits of capturing and sharing videos to support preservice teachers, new teachers, and instructional coaching are far too great.

While a districtwide system dedicated to recording, annotating, and sharing video may sound like it would require a big budget, teachers can get started using just their cell phones. The evidence is all around us. From TikTok to Instagram to Snapchat, students are perfecting complex dances, learning, and showcasing their skills with musical instruments, teaching each other about climate change, and more.

That trend isn’t limited to young people. Educators are using video apps and tools to share lesson ideas, best practices, and classroom instruction. They record themselves, self-reflect, observe, and learn from each other. It’s all about growth.

Here are three suggestions for how educators can leverage video for years to come.

Teacher preparation

The pandemic forced teachers to broadcast videos to students who were at home. While this may have worked as a temporary solution, preservice teachers were not as fortunate.

Remote learning meant classrooms were shut down, with preservice teachers not only unable to be in schools, but also unable to observe more experienced teachers. As many teachers will attest, observing experienced teachers is critical to their development. This situation presented professors in teacher preparation programs with yet another challenge.

LaGrange College in Georgia was well-equipped to overcome this obstacle. Its teacher-preparation program had already been using video-based feedback for seven years. Dr. Rebekah Ralph, instructor of educational technology and EdTPA coordinator, pivoted to using video to support teacher candidates who had little to no interactions in the field.

During pandemic-induced shutdowns, Ralph provided feedback to preservice teachers from her back porch. As she recalls, she and her team “were able to support preservice teachers by continuing our observation and coaching models through the use of video when the school systems were not allowing visitors in the building. Our preservice teachers also were able to see a variety of teaching strategies used by their peers in diverse school settings as they shared, commented, and reflected on their teaching and the teaching of others.”

Mentoring and teacher induction

Research tells us that new teachers most often leave the profession in the first few years because they don’t feel supported. While mentor and induction programs have traditionally been effective, in the current environment, instructional coaches with districtwide responsibilities have been unable to visit classrooms frequently enough. The stress of teaching during a pandemic has amplified the problem.

Teachers who have entered the profession in the past 18 months only know chaos and uncertainty. As a result, and with an increasing shortage of teachers in the pipeline, education leaders like Kenya Elder, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning for Georgia’s Douglas County School System, have sought new ways to support new hires. This year, Douglas County onboarded 76 teachers “who were not only new to our district but also new to the teaching profession. This specific group of teachers joined us as we were enrolling and welcoming 26,000 students back to in-person learning.”

The problem, as Elder saw it, was, “How do we effectively and consistently connect our Induction Coaches to these teachers?” Their solution was to set up a structure that focuses on video observations “that are safe and non-evaluative.” So far, she says, this approach “is resulting in trusting relationships between teachers and coaches.”

Instructional coaching and observation

MSD Decatur Township in Indiana has been using video to support instructional coaching for about five years as part of the Empowering Educators to Excel (E3) TSL grant project.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Stephanie Hofer and the district’s instructional leadership team started by asking teachers to record 10 minutes of their practice in order to encourage self-reflection. Eventually, this led to teachers sharing videos with peers and mentors for feedback. As teachers and instructional coaches became more comfortable with video, Dr. Hofer said, “We started using it more because it was actually giving us more value than anything else we were doing.”

When the pandemic arrived and physical classrooms shut down, the district had to make a choice about how to best support teachers. They decided to double-down and increase the use of video coaching—but they were met with a new challenge. According to Dr. Hofer, “We weren’t sure how we were going to evaluate our teachers or get evaluations completed. We decided to give teachers the option of recording themselves and uploading their lessons—and we’re still giving them that choice.”

The district’s several years of implementing video coaching had built a culture that enabled it to push through a difficult period. Dr. Hofer said that the pandemic “…was the catalyst for our district to go all-in on video coaching and begin using asynchronous video for teacher evaluations with the full support of our teachers union.”

Despite how uncomfortable video can be at times, the benefits are clear. It’s a tool that can help teacher candidates, new teachers, and veteran teachers improve practice, while also increasing the reach of mentors and instructional coaches. There’s never been a more important time to support teachers, and video can play a vital role.

I am currently in an online doctoral program at Winona State University. One of our recent discussion queries required answering the following prompt: “Share three pieces of your own PLN that you think would be helpful to the others.”

I wasn’t quite sure if I should share platforms, tips, or connections, so I will be sharing three things I wish I would have considered sooner than later.

1. Drop the IRL

I have listened and visited with Angela Maiers–an educator, consultant, and speaker–a number of times. One thing that she frequently shares in her keynotes is around dropping the “IRL” (in real life) mentality when talking with your online PLN. For those who connect with you virtually, a digital relationship is IRL. You may never physically meet these individuals due to logistics, geography, or time and that is ok. Such relationships do not necessarily become instantly more meaningful when you meet in the same moment of time or space.

Darci Harland uses the term “digital colleagues” (DC) within research to support similar mentalities of the value of these online relationships attributed to working and collaborating during the COVID-19 pandemic.