Coaching Tips for Virtual Application

Sharing of results:

Sharing results is critical to model results transparency; this way, all faculty can see and agree on the applicability of their efforts.

Celebration of results:

Every time there is growth, a celebration is necessary. This helps all stakeholders see what leadership celebrates and will make celebrations of results more likely to happen at the team and classroom levels.

SMART goals: These goals are necessary at all levels. They provide metrics to show areas of growth and areas of need. At faculty meetings, have different teams present their team-level data and action plans for improvement. During sessions in the virtual Results class, have teams present and post their results and action plans; all teams should contribute as the year progresses.

Celebrate results in leadership and faculty meetings; share the celebrations with the district too. At a virtual faculty meeting or in the virtual Results class, celebrate state or provincial and districtwide achievement results. Create graphics to present the data. Celebrate the gains, and focus on the areas for growth in pre- and postassessments, attendance, behavior, and so on. Send the virtual meeting links to central-office staff, and ask them to attend and say a few words to boost morale and show appreciation for the hard and successful work.

Once teams identify their areas of focus, share the worksheet for SMART goal development (page 127) with them. Start with school goals, and then move to team goals and then teacherlevel goals. Use the virtual Results classroom to teach all teachers about SMART goals. Have all teams use the SMART goal development worksheet (page 127) to create SMART goals aligned to one or more school goals, and have each teacher create SMART goals aligned to team goals.

School leaders should focus on the following nine tips as they expand their focus in support of the three big ideas of a PLC in a virtual environment. These tips are a starting point for school leaders as they continue to guide their school or district PLC journey. 1. Help all faculty know and understand the three big ideas of a PLC. 2. Assign all teachers to meaningful collaborative teams. 3. Have collaborative teams determine observable behaviors they can commit to for each of the three big ideas, and have the teams list the behaviors on a shared document the whole school can see.

4. Create a master schedule that builds in frequent and protected collaboration time for all teachers (at least fifty minutes a week). 5. Clarify how collaboration time will be used; provide a sequence of events and expected outcomes. 6. Create a virtual classroom called Results for all faculty. Build results-based lessons for faculty to learn how to use results and write SMART goals.

7. Meet with teams virtually to develop SMART goals for the school. Share the long-term goals through online documents. Ask teams to post their teamlevel SMART goals online for others to see. It takes several short-term goals to achieve the long-term goals. 8. Present data to all faculty; start at the school or district level, and share examples down to the student level. 9. Set up celebrations to honor growth and achievement.