Seattle, Washington • August 21–23soltreemrls3.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/solution-tree.com/... · to allow teachers to teach the same subjects, 2) vertical teaming, 3)

Agenda Seattle, Washington • August 21–23

Tuesday, August 21

6:30–8:00 a.m.Registration

Continental breakfast

TCC L1

TCC L3

8:00–9:45 a.m.Keynote—Rebecca DuFourThe Power of Professional Learning Communities at Work: Bringing the Big Ideas to Life

Exhibit Hall 4F

9:45–10:00 a.m. Break

10:00–11:30 a.m. Breakouts Titles & locations: pp. 3–5 Session descriptions: pp. 9–18

11:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Lunch (on your own)

1:00–2:30 p.m. Breakouts Titles & locations: pp. 3–5 Session descriptions: pp. 9–18

2:30–2:45 p.m. Break

2:45–3:45 p.m.Panel discussionA Q&A time with presenters. Receive practical answers to your most pressing questions.

Exhibit Hall 4F

Wednesday, August 22

7:00–8:00 a.m.Registration

Continental breakfastTCC L3

8:00–9:30 a.m. Keynote—Richard DuFourImplementing the PLC Process: Will You Soar or Settle? Exhibit Hall 4F

9:30–9:45 a.m. Break


11:15 a.m.–12:45 p.m. Lunch (on your own)

12:45–2:15 p.m. Breakouts Titles & locations: pp. 3–5 Session descriptions: pp. 9–18

2:15–2:30 p.m. Break

2:30–3:45 p.m.Team timeA collaboration time for your team. Presenters are available for help in team discussions.

Exhibit Hall 4F

Thursday, August 237:00–8:00 a.m. Continental breakfast TCC L3


9:30–9:45 a.m. Break

9:45–11:45 a.m. Keynote—Robert EakerWhat It Means to Be a Professional Learning Community Exhibit Hall 4F

Agenda is subject to change without prior notice.

Agenda

1

Breakouts at a G

lance

Breakouts at a Glance

Presenter and TitleTuesday, August 21 Wednesday, August 22 Thursday,

August 23

10:00–11:30 a.m. 1:00–2:30 p.m. 9:45–11:15 a.m. 12:45–2:15 p.m. 8:00–9:30 a.m.

Tim BrownSmall Schools and Singletons: Structuring Meaningful Professional Learning Teams for Every Teacher

TCC 305 TCC LL5

Creating a Climate of High Expectations: It’s a Collaborative Thing TCC LL5

Raising Questions and Finding Answers in Our Grading Practices TCC 301

Rebecca & Richard DuFourBuilding the Collaborative Culture of a Professional Learning Community at Work (Part 1)

4F

Building the Collaborative Culture of a Professional Learning Community at Work (Part 2)

4F

Rebecca DuFourRaising the Bar and Closing the Gap: Whatever It Takes in Elementary Schools TCC 305

Lights, Camera, Action! Setting the Stage for PLC Success in Elementary Schools TCC 202

One Is the Loneliest Number: Developing Leadership Capacity in Your School TCC 202

Richard DuFourRaising the Bar and Closing the Gap: Whatever It Takes in Secondary Schools 4F

Getting Started: Building Consensus and Responding to Resisters 4F

How to Ensure That This Too Won’t Pass: Sustaining the PLC Journey 4F

Robert EakerFriday Night in America: A Common Sense Approach to Improving Student Achievement

TCC 305

Developing a Stretch Culture TCC 302

A Focus on Learning: What Would It Look Like If We Really Meant It? TCC 305

Robert Eaker & Janel KeatingAligning the Work of a Professional Learning Community: Central Office, Schools, and Teams

TCC LL4

3



August 23

10:00–11:30 a.m. 1:00–2:30 p.m. 9:45–11:15 a.m. 12:45–2:15 p.m. 8:00–9:30 a.m.

Paul Farmer

The Power of Data TCC LL5 TCC LL4

The Role of the Teacher Leader in a PLC TCC LL5 TCC 101

The Role of the Administrator in a PLC TCC 204

Timothy D. KanoldThe Five Disciplines of the PLC Leader: Living in the Flow of Your PLC Leadership Life

TCC 101

The Five Disciplines of the PLC Leader: Turning Your PLC Vision Into Action TCC 101

Common Core Mathematics in a PLC: The Fundamental Teaching and Content Paradigms for K–12 Implementation Success

TCC 101

Common Core Mathematics in a PLC: The Fundamental Assessment and Intervention Paradigms for K–12 Implementation Success

TCC 101

Janel Keating

Roadmap: Journey to Becoming a PLC TCC LL4 TCC LL3

Are the Kids Learning and How Do We Know? Data-Based Decision Making in High-Performing Collaborative Teams

TCC LL3 TCC LL3

Dennis KingRTI—Why, What, and How: Developing the Foundation for Effective Interventions TCC 202 TCC LL2

Effective Practice Versus Popular Practice Interventions TCC 202 TCC LL2

Implementing a PLC at Work: Closing the Knowing–Doing Gap in a PLC TCC LL2

Sarah SchuhlHow Do We Write Learning Targets to Assess Students? TCC 301 TCC 301

Common Assessments and Data TCC 301

Using Common Formative and Summative Assessments TCC 301 TCC 305

4



August 23

10:00–11:30 a.m. 1:00–2:30 p.m. 9:45–11:15 a.m. 12:45–2:15 p.m. 8:00–9:30 a.m.

Mark WeichelLowering Secondary School Failure Rates—PLC Style TCC LL2 TCC LL4

Turning on a Dime at the Secondary Level TCC LL2 TCC 302

Kenneth C. Williams12 Angry Men: The Impact of One, the Power of Team TCC 302 TCC LL4–

LL5At Risk or Underserved? Focusing on What Really Matters in Student Learning TCC 302 TCC 302

Failure to Launch: Avoiding the Common Pitfalls of Collaborative Teams TCC 202

Agenda is subject to change without prior notice.

5

Washington State Conference Center

Lower Level: Meeting Rooms Level 1: Pike St. Entrance and Café Executive Level 2: Meeting Rooms

All session rooms located in the conference center (TCC).

6

Maps

Washington State Conference CenterLevel Four: Exhibition Halls

To/FromThe Conference

Center

7

Tim Brown Small Schools and Singletons:

Structuring Meaningful Professional Learning Teams for Every TeacherThe PLC concept resonates with most educators, but making collaborative learning work in small schools or for singleton teachers can be a challenge. To this end, participants explore five models for creating meaningful professional learning teams in such settings: 1) changing schedules to allow teachers to teach the same subjects, 2) vertical teaming, 3) cross-curricular teaming, 4) support roles, and 5) using electronic tools to pair teachers with peers working in the same subject area.

Participants in this session:• Discusscommonstructuralbarriersthatpreventsingletonsfromjoining

collaborative teams.• Developthebeginningsofanactionplantoincorporatesingletonsinto

the PLC process.

Creating a Climate of High Expectations: It’s a Collaborative ThingLee G. Bolman and Terrence Deal write in their book Leading With Soul: An Uncommon Journey of Spirit, “Organizations without a rich symbolic life become empty and sterile. The magic of special occasions is vital in building significance into collective life.”

Tim Brown offers practical strategies to create and communicate a mission, vision, and collective commitments to motivate staff. Using these strategies, educators can teach with high expectations and close learning gaps that exist for some students while helping leadership teams develop a school culture that communicates high expectations for students and themselves.

Participants in this session:• Considertheimportanceofcommunicatingthemissionandvisionoftheschooltoall

stakeholders.• Learnstrategiestohaveengagingstaffdevelopmentthatcreatesinterest,enthusiasm,and

a desire in others to take the next steps in continuous improvement.• Shareanddiscussspecificplansofaction.

Raising Questions and Finding Answers in Our Grading Practices As schools focus more on learning than teaching, they must also examine current grading practices, policies, and management systems to support these efforts. As we examine grading issues in our schools, staff members must establish collective commitments on a topic often viewed as too hot to handle.

Participants learn about useful tools and strategies to examine grading practices in their schools or districts. Tim Brown asserts that schools must address the controversial topic of grading to make grading practices more meaningful.

In this session, participants: • Examinecurrentgradingpracticesastheyrelatetoassessmentandlearningoutcomes.• Discussgradingguidelinesthataligntotheirschools’purposes.• Obtainstrategiesforbringingthesediscussionstolightintheirschools.

Session Descriptions

SessionD

escriptions

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Rebecca & Richard DuFour Building the Collaborative Culture of a Professional Learning Community at Work

(Parts 1 & 2) Powerful collaborative teams are the fundamental building block of a professional learning community and a critical component in building a collaborative culture.

Learn how educators transform their congenial groups into high-performing collaborative teams, and get a sense of the specific work undertaken by those teams. Discover ways to provide time and support for collaborative teams during the school day. More importantly, identify structures and strategies to help teams stay focused on doing the work that has a positive impact on student achievement.

This two-part continuing session is designed for educators at all levels and is highly recommended for all participants who are new to PLC concepts.

Rebecca DuFour

The Power of Professional Learning Communities at Work: Bringing the Big Ideas to LifeThe professional learning community concept is supported by research and endorsed by educational organizations at all levels as our best hope for sustained, substantive improvement. But what are the big ideas that drive the professional learning community concept, and what do they look like in the real world of education?

Rebecca DuFour offers practical strategies for bringing the big ideas to life. Participants engage in the actual work of collaborative teams in a PLC and travel on virtual field trips to schools and districts that use these ideas to profoundly impact student and adult learning.

Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap: Whatever It Takes in Elementary SchoolsSchools that function as PLCs must ultimately do two things: 1) build a collaborative culture to promote continuous adult learning, and 2) create structures and systems that provide students with additional time and support for learning.

Participants in this session examine strategies to collectively: • Respondtothelearningneedsofeachstudentinatimely,directive,andsystematicway.• Createandsustainstrongparentpartnershipstoenhancestudentlearning.• Makecelebrationsapartoftheschoolculture.

After examining different models of systematic intervention and enrichment, participants receive criteria to assess their own school’s response and an action-planning template for next steps in raising the bar and closing the gap.

This session is recommended for elementary school educators.


= Keynote10

Rebecca DuFour Lights, Camera, Action! Setting the Stage for PLC Success in Elementary Schools

Elementary school educators beginning the PLC journey face the immediate challenge of how to provide the time and structure essential to the PLC process. This interactive workshop is designed to help elementary educators address that challenge.

Becky DuFour provides effective templates and proven strategies for reallocating existing resources to support learning for all. Participants are invited to bring their creative ideas to this session.

This session is recommended for elementary-level educators who have an interest in and/or a responsibility for creating schoolwide and team schedules.

One Is the Loneliest Number: Developing Leadership Capacity in Your SchoolBoth educational researchers and organizational theorists have concluded that widespread leadership is essential to the success of a learning organization. To initiate and sustain the PLC process in your school or district, lots of leaders are necessary.

In this highly interactive session, participants examine a case study, identify specific strategies to develop and support leaders, and create the structures for widely dispersed leadership that is characteristic of PLCs.

Richard DuFour

Implementing the PLC Process: Will You Soar or Settle?The journey to becoming a professional learning community is fraught with dangerous detours and seductive shortcuts at every turn. Inevitably, these detours and shortcuts can circumvent actually doing what PLCs are meant to do. Recent studies have found that partial implementation of the PLC process produces no gains in student achievement while deep implementation results in dramatic gains. In this session, Richard DuFour alerts educators to inevitable challenges in implementing a PLC and provides research, rationale, strategies, and tools for overcoming these challenges.

Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap: Whatever It Takes in Secondary SchoolsThe mission statement of most schools asserts all students can and should learn. The nagging question that confronts those schools, however, is “What happens when they don’t learn?”

This session uses the powerful video Through New Eyes: Examining the Culture of Your School to help you see school from a new perspective—the perspective of a student. Participants then contrast the traditional school response when students experience initial difficulty in their learning with the systematic response of a professional learning community.

This session calls on participants to:• Assessthecurrentmannerinwhichtheirschoolsrespondwhenstudentsdonotlearn.• Examinedifferentschedulesandmodelsthatprovidestudentswhoarenotlearningwitha

timely, directive, and systematic response that ensures they receive the additional time and support essential to their learning.

This session is recommended for middle and high school educators.


= Keynote11

Richard DuFour Getting Started: Building Consensus and Responding to Resisters

The most significant barrier to building a school culture focused on continuous improvement is the tradition of privatization of practice, isolation, and individual autonomy that has characterized teaching. How can a faculty build consensus for significant change? What are the most effective ways of addressing the concerns of those who resist even when the staff has decided to move forward?

As a result of this session, participants can:• Defineconsensus.• Applythemosteffectivestrategiesforbuildingconsensus.• Utilizesevenresearch-basedstrategiesforaddressingresistance.

How to Ensure That This Too Won’t Pass: Sustaining the PLC Journey Most education leaders have ample experience launching school-improvement initiatives but few have experience in sustaining those initiatives until actual improvement occurs. A central challenge for any school engaged in the PLC process—whether its journey is just beginning or it has been on the journey for several years—is sustaining the focus, collective effort, and commitment necessary to drive the process deep into the culture.

In this session, participants explore current research on how to sustain an improvement effort then translate that research into specific, practical strategies they can implement in their own schools or districts.

Robert Eaker

What It Means to Be a Professional Learning CommunityGiven the fact that there is unprecedented agreement among researchers and practitioners that PLCs offer our best hope for improving schools, it can be said that the time for PLCs has come. However, a word of caution is in order—even in the face of such widespread enthusiasm. Advocates of PLCs face the daunting challenge of sustaining the hard work of change and ensuring that changes ultimately impact school culture in significant ways.

Robert Eaker offers a number of practical suggestions for moving a school along a continuum: from knowing about PLCs to doing the work of implementation to ultimately being a PLC.

Friday Night in America: A Common Sense Approach to Improving Student AchievementImproving student learning is a difficult, complex, and incremental endeavor. However, we know more about ways to ensure student learning than many of us realize. Many of these methods are employed in non-academic school settings. Practices that football coaches use to ensure success on the football field on Friday nights are similar in many respects to efforts that school teams undertake to guarantee academic success.

Robert Eaker reviews school practices that lead to improved student learning. He shows how teacher teams can suit up with powerful strategies to win every day of the week.


= Keynote12

Robert Eaker Developing a Stretch Culture

If the goal of achieving high levels of learning for all students is to be realized, then schools must develop a culture that stretches the aspirations and performance levels of students and adults alike. Robert Eaker focuses on cultural shifts that professional learning communities make during the development of a stretch culture. He pays particular attention to the topic of assessment and providing students with additional time and support.

A Focus on Learning: What Would It Look Like If We Really Meant It?A fundamental difference between schools that function as professional learning communities and their more traditional counterparts is a shift from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning. While recognizing the importance of teaching, PLCs make learning their primary focus. This distinction has profound implications. Participants explore ways that PLCs emphasize learning as their primary mission. Specifically, Robert Eaker offers proven strategies to address the critical questions associated with moving from a culture of teaching to a culture of learning.

At this session, attendees:• Developastrongunderstandingofateamversusagroup.• Determinethecharacteristicsassociatedwithcollaboration,coordination,

and cooperation.• LearneffectivestrategiestostrengthencollaborativeteamsinaPLC.

Robert Eaker & Janel Keating Aligning the Work of a Professional Learning Community:

Central Office, Schools, and TeamsA districtwide professional learning community is more than a sum of individual parts. A high-performing school district that functions as a PLC reflects a thoughtful alignment and integration of work at the central office level, in individual schools, and in teacher teams. While highlighting the efforts of highly successful school districts, Robert Eaker and Janel Keating describe how these districts organize and align at each organizational level to implement professional learning community concepts and practices districtwide.

Paul Farmer The Power of Data

Paul Farmer offers data examples of subgroups, gender groups, grades, and high-stakes test scores to prompt discussions at team levels and with the entire faculty. Participants analyze real-life examples of school-based data—data that were used to provide guidance as well as test and challenge previous practices and beliefs. Participants identify and discuss data samples related to projects or initiatives at their worksites.

The session is interactive as attendees:• Reviewexamplesofdatausedtoengageteachersandadministratorsindatadiscussions.• Examineprocessesforimplementingandenrichingdatapractices.• Networkwithotherprofessionalsonusesandapproachestodata.


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Paul Farmer The Role of the Teacher Leader in a PLC

Paul Farmer provides guidance and suggestions for teacher leaders in a PLC. Attendees learn how to clarify team members’ roles and how to help teams become more organized and productive. They also focus on career advancement readiness.

Learning objectives include:• Supportingteameffortsandgainingthesupportofadministrators• Helpingadministratorsbecomemoreeffectiveinfacilitatingteams’objectives• Servingasateammemberandteamleaderatthesametime

The Role of the Administrator in a PLC Paul Farmer shares strategies, tools, useful resources, and practical applications of administrative leadership in a PLC. The session includes ways to support the leadership team, clarify the administrator’s role in teacher meetings, and understand key differences between department meetings and team content meetings. Paul facilitates a discussion about how to support teams while holding staff accountable to its commitments.

Participants in this session:• Reviewmodelsofdistributive,facilitative,andservantleadership.• Learnhowtohelptheleadershipteamdevelopproducts—essentialskills,assessments,

and interventions—as collaboration goals. • Identifywaystoworkwithdifficultteammembers.• Compareteammeetinggoalsandobjectives.

Timothy D. Kanold The Five Disciplines of the PLC Leader: Living in the Flow of Your PLC Leadership Life

This session provides insight into how to live, lead, and train for a dynamic and fully engaged work life. Using cutting edge resources such as recent energy management research and Daniel Goleman’s Social Intelligence work, participants take a close look at how to manage their life energies, fully engage their collaborative teams, and guide those within their sphere of influence. They then can use the PLC leadership discipline of reflection and balance to lead others and themselves into optimal work experiences.

Participants learn how to use an in the flow analysis tool to create and design differentiated expectations for all collaborative teams. This leadership discipline helps attendees to reach a state of mind in which, Dr. Kanold says, “Your focus is energized, your involvement is deep, and your engagement is total.”

The Five Disciplines of the PLC Leader: Turning Your PLC Vision Into Action

PLC at Work™ schools are a great idea, but they are not soft; successful leaders set tight expectations for the right set of adult behaviors—with consequences. Timothy D. Kanold offers leadership training insights and practices that can inspire leaders, teachers, and teams to fully implement the vision of a program, school, or district. He shows how leaders can turn vision into action by motivating individuals and collaborative teams, by applying the discipline of accountability and reward of celebration, and by focusing the effort and energy of the school’s programs.


= Keynote14

Timothy D. Kanold Common Core Mathematics in a PLC:

The Fundamental Teaching and Content Paradigms for K–12 Implementation Success Timothy D. Kanold provides insight into the dynamics that led to the Common Core in mathematics. He identifies fundamental curriculum and instructional paradigms that schools and districts must address to improve mathematics programs. Based on the book series Common Core Mathematics in a PLC at Work™, this session explores how collaborative teams and district personnel should proceed to maximize proficiency.

Participant outcomes are to: • Understandhowthecurriculum(content)andinstructionalexpectationsforthe

Common Core in mathematics K–12 (Standards for Mathematical Practice) impact school districts.

• ExplorethelatestinformationandtimelineforCommonCoremathematicsreadiness.• Learnthemathematicscontentandinstructionalprofessionaldevelopmentthathavethe

greatest impact on student achievement.• Interpretreferences,resources,anddigitalinformationtosupportthetransitiontothe

Common Core.

Common Core Mathematics in a PLC: The Fundamental Assessment and Intervention Paradigms for K–12 Implementation SuccessThis session provides insight into the most recent developments from the Common Core assessment consortia in mathematics—both the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARC) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Attendees examine two second-order assessment and intervention paradigms necessary to meet expectations for improving mathematics program assessments at school and district levels.

Based on the book series Common Core Mathematics in a PLC at Work™, series editor and author Timothy D. Kanold explores how collaborative teams and district personnel can erase assessment-based inequities and create a high-quality formative assessment process that prepares all students for the assessment expectations of the Common Core in mathematics K–12.

This session helps participants:• Develophigh-qualityassessmentandinterventionprocessesindistrictsandschools

toward meeting Common Core for mathematics. • UnderstandthelatestinformationandtimelineforimplementingtheCommonCore

mathematics. • Exploreformativeassessmentprofessionaldevelopment(thePLCteaching–assessing–

learning cycle) that has the greatest impact on student achievement.• Discoverreferences,resources,anddigitalinformationtosupporttheCommonCore

transition.


15

Janel Keating Roadmap: Journey to Becoming a PLC

Beginning the journey to becoming a PLC isn’t enough. There is no single right way for schools to complete the journey, but there are definite stops that all must make.

Administrators and teacher teams need a map—a reference—to check where they are, to identify next stops, and to get a sense of progress. This session, which is aligned with the Solution Tree resource The Journey to Becoming a Professional Learning Community, helps participants pinpoint their places along the path.

Are the Kids Learning and How Do We Know? Data-Based Decision Making in High-Performing Collaborative Teams In a PLC there are a couple of important reasons to look at your data: 1) to answer the question of whether kids are learning and 2) to improve professional practice. This interactive session highlights how high-performing teams quickly examine their data to make decisions that impact the kids in the classroom. The data represent the names and faces of our kids.

Dennis King RTI—Why, What, and How: Developing the Foundation for Effective Interventions

Creating an effective intervention model is a challenge that all schools face when meeting the needs of students who struggle. This session helps participants reflect on the PLC foundation (focus on learning, collaboration, and results) and explore the moral imperative to develop effective intervention models in their schools. Participants gain a basic understanding of RTI and explore intervention concepts associated with the three tiers of RTI.

Outcomes of this session are to:• Understandwhy effective interventions are essential to helping all students learn.• Explorewhat RTI is.• IdentifythecriticalcomponentsofthePLCfoundationforeffectiveinterventions.• LearnandsharespecificRTIstrategiesattheelementary,middle,andhighschoollevel

(Tier 1, 2, and 3).

Effective Practice Versus Popular Practice InterventionsCreating an effective intervention model to meet the needs of all students is the desired outcome for all schools. This session delves into the work of Austin G. Buffum, Mike Mattos, and Chris Weber and their book Pyramid Response to Intervention: RTI, Professional Learning Communities, and How to Respond When Kids Don’t Learn to explore CPR (creating powerful responses) in popular practices versus effective intervention practices.

Participants evaluate their current interventions to identify their purpose and effectiveness with students. Additionally, attendees explore three intervention programs to support effective practice interventions and use evaluation to build effective intervention models in their schools.


16

Dennis King Implementing a PLC at Work: Closing the Knowing–Doing Gap in a PLC

A common phrase regarding the PLC process is “We do PLC.” As we close the knowing–doing gap, it is imperative to differentiate between what we believe and what we do. Participants identify where they are in the PLC process in relation to knowing versus doing. Dennis King explores strategies to close the gap and identifies the sense of urgency associated with PLC implementation. He shares strategies and examples to illustrate the process, encouraging participants to create a plan of action and fully understand the results associated with a PLC culture.

Sarah Schuhl How Do We Write Learning Targets to Assess Students?

How can students articulate what they are learning? What should teachers assess to determine whether students are learning? Learning targets clarify outcomes for students and teachers in each course or subject area. In this session, participants learn how to use standards to write clear learning targets. Sarah Schuhl discusses strategies for using learning targets to help students self-assess their progress and PLC teams to create and analyze common assessments.

Common Assessments and DataIn building common assessments, teachers on a PLC team must determine the data they are going to analyze to identify whether students have met learning expectations. What data will they collect? How will they score assessments so the data are comparable? How will the team discuss the data? In this session, participants explore ways to collect and organize data from common assessments. Also, they examine protocols for interacting with and analyzing data as a team to create products that help students and teachers learn.

Using Common Formative and Summative AssessmentsCommon formative and summative assessments help students and teachers answer the second PLC question, How do we know whether students have learned? However, the considerations are dizzying. How are these assessments alike and different? When should they be used? How can they help students identify what they have and have not learned so they can close the gap?

Participants compare and contrast common formative and summative assessments and learn how to use common formative assessments in PLC teams and ways to involve students in their learning. With Sarah’s help, participants explore PLC and teacher interventions and extensions.


17

Mark Weichel Lowering Secondary School Failure Rates—PLC Style

As educational leaders, we are directed to make changes to how schools respond to underperforming students who receive the dreaded F. Instead of playing the blame game—in which teachers blame students, students blame teachers, and parents blame teachers and/or students—we need to find a win-win solution for all stakeholders.

This new challenge poses the question: How should an administrator respond when classroom data indicate that a large number of students are failing? The real way to lower failure rates is to get more students to follow the tenets of a PLC. Mark Weichel discusses strategies that can be employed at their schools to improve student learning and decrease failure rates.

Turning on a Dime at the Secondary LevelThere are no disposable kids. Participants learn effective ways high schools can respond and take action when students are not learning at expected levels. By providing templates of a successful school, Mark Weichel inspires participants to investigate strategies for turning on a dime when students are underperforming. He suffuses an interactive discussion with video, roleplaying, and collegial sharing.

Participants at this session:• ExaminethekeycomponentsofPLCsandschoolwideinterventions.• Analyzetheirschools’existinginterventionplansandlearnnewstrategiestobringabout

higher student achievement.

Kenneth C. Williams 12 Angry Men: The Impact of One, the Power of Team

Kenneth C. Williams uses the classic film 12 Angry Men as a lens to discuss the five qualities that support effective teams:

1. Open inquiry2. Accepting responsibility for decision making3. Participation of team members4. The value of productive conflict in discovering ideas and revealing new information5. The essential role of diversity in decision making

The film explores techniques of consensus building among a group of people whose diverse personalities create intense conflict. Ken shows how teams face and overcome challenges to collaborate and achieve results. Participants gain ideas to substantially improve team effectiveness.

At Risk or Underserved? Focusing on What Really Matters in Student LearningThe questions we ask about educating our youth impact our results. During this session, participants learn to shift traditional thinking and change paradigms by using expertise and resources collaboratively to maximize student achievement. Kenneth C. Williams helps attendees capitalize on PLC principles to ensure success for all students.

Failure to Launch: Avoiding the Common Pitfalls of Collaborative Teams The collaborative team is the engine that drives a PLC. There are a series of steps necessary to make that engine run. Having worked with hundreds of teams, Kenneth C. Williams has identified the most common pitfalls that sabotage the progress of teacher teams. Explore these areas and walk away with the tips, tools, and templates necessary to improve team effectiveness and student learning.


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Documents

Seattle, Washington • August 21–23soltreemrls3.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/solution-tree.com/... · to allow teachers to teach the same subjects, 2) vertical teaming, 3)