All Means All Newsletter
October, 2022
Collective Commitments & Collaborative Team Meetings
With our Collaborative Team Meetings (CTMs) in full swing, the staff is beginning to engage in deep conversations around student learning. It is becoming increasingly apparent that many of our students are presenting with gaps in their learning. This is not unique to Northland Pines; instead, this data is evident across our region, state, and nation. As we engage in conversations around meeting the varying needs of our struggling, typical and advanced students, we must continually reflect on our District’s Collective Commitments as members of a Professional Learning Community.
Our innovations, including Professional Learning Communities, Universal Design for Learning, and Responsive Classroom, have been intentionally selected as they match our District’s commitments and have actionable practices. When our staff are collectively committed and implement these actionable practices, we become change agents who can ensure all students are reaching their goals and dreams.
In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.” Our District’s mission is to guarantee rigor, relevance, and relationships to prepare all learners for life. To bring a mission statement to life, “educators must be willing to transparently communicate their commitment to students as it relates to their stated mission and challenge one another to live up to that commitment” (Muhammad & Hollie, 2012, p.28). All staff are encouraged to print a copy of the collective commitments, engage in self-reflection, and have the courage to hold themselves and others accountable.
When does change happen?
The Leadership and Learning Center facilitated a webinar, Closing the Implementation Gap by Doug Reeves. He conveyed that there are four stages of installing a new innovation: exploration, installation, initial implementation, and full implementation. Student achievement does not increase consistently over the process in a linear fashion. The reality is that it is a non-linear process where we might not see significant results until the full implementation stage and full implementation can take three to five years.
So as we continue to implement the Professional Learning Communities with our CTM process, unit plans, UDL, and Responsive Classroom, rest assured that what we are doing is working. We map out our promise standards for a guaranteed and viable curriculum. We know that using the essential learning target to begin a lesson and referring back to it throughout the lesson engages the learning brain. We can see what active student learning looks like with interactive learning structures. We are making a difference in our students' lives. Student achievement gains are on the horizon when we reach full implementation. We will continue to chart our course to prepare all students for life.