Learning Together Book Study

I also highlighted the quote on page 20 about the alignment between how teachers learn that result in powerful change in teacher practice. This concept of making a change in teaching practice takes much more time and grappling than often one professional development session can offer.

Another quote that stood out to me was on page 26, "You can't look good and get better at the same time." This is true even as coaches facilitating this experience. We are all learning together and it is ok to not feel confident or have the answers to every question that comes our way.

Page 28 made a great point about making lasting change with teachers. It mentioned how we want to support all teachers to make effective decisions as they improvise to meet the needs of their students. Every group of students has their different skill sets and needs. Therefore, learning to plan and respond to these challenges is what makes teaching so complex.

On page 60, a great explanation is given of a learning lab that it is " a playground, an incubator, a launching point for what a grade-level team is specifically working on with respect to instruction." This is the type of learning and experience I hope to facilitate as we launch into learning labs.

Thank you for this reflection! That line on p. 20 stuck with me too. How we treat teachers as learners really does shape how they treat students.

Your BTC story says it all. Teachers chose to come, trust grew, and the door opened to planning and co-teaching. That’s the heart of this book.

On the prep time question, I wonder if it’s less about adding time and more about rethinking the time you already have. Could one PLC or PL session become a chance to learn together in a classroom with kids? The teachers from your BTC session might be a great place to start. They already said yes once.

Bring these questions to our live session on 11/17. Chapters 4 and 5 are all about partnerships, and I think they’ll speak right to what you’re wrestling with!

My favorite quote of the book thus far on page 27,

"Teaching is everything the teacher does to intentionally put children in the conversation with one another and orient them to the content ideas they are exploring".

So many other great quotes in this book that help me feel so validated and seen in the teaching I am doing with my students!

What a thoughtful reflection. Thank you for sharing it.

That line on p. 20 stopped me too! I highlighted it. It’s such a simple idea, but it asks a lot of us. If we want students to have voice, choice, and time to make sense of things together, teachers need that same experience. Otherwise we’re asking them to create something they’ve never felt.

I love your BTC story. You didn’t mandate anything. You offered something worth learning, and people showed up. Then the relationship opened the door to planning and co-teaching. That’s the whole arc right there. Buy-in didn’t come first. It grew out of a good experience. I had a similar experience when I was coaching last year in a different district. I offered PD on BTC, then was asked by some sites to please come do site PD, which then grew into working with teams. I loved collaborating with teachers as we all worked together to better our practice.

Your questions are the right ones. How do we find the time? How do we get teachers to want this? How do we start? I don’t think the answer is asking teachers to give up more prep. I wonder if it starts smaller. Could one PLC a month become a mini learning lab? Could a small group of willing teachers try it first and share what they noticed? Sometimes the best “rollout” is a few colleagues saying, “You have to try this.”

The p. 38 piece on new norms feels important here too. If a lab feels like an evaluation, nobody will want to go first. If it feels like shared curiosity about student thinking, that changes everything.

I’m so glad you have colleagues in this study with you. That’s a built-in team to start dreaming with. What’s one small step your group could try this semester?

I’d love for you to bring this to our live session on Chapter 4 on 11/17. I think a lot of folks are wrestling with the same “how.” You've got some great insights and reflections, and we all love to learn together.

Chapter 2 focuses on the principles for teaching that guide the way we design student and teacher experiences. I resonated with this because I feel that many of the best practices that we plan for kids are also strategies that we should be incorporating for teacher learning as well. I resonated with the quote on p. 20, which stated, "how we position and engage teachers as learners will fundamentally affect how they position and engage students." Teachers are engaged and excited about what they are learning or participate in PD when they have buy in or choice in what they are learning. They are more likely to retain and apply their new learning to benefit their students. I experienced this in my first-year coaching when I offered an additional PD on BTC. I was surprised by the number of teachers who signed up to attend. This PD helped me build relationships with the teachers. They were then open to the idea of spending their prep time planning with me and co-teaching to roll out the new concept in their classrooms. This makes me think of how powerful the learning labs can be if implemented. The teachers would be able to have choice, learn, practice and reflect with the support of a team. How powerful it is to have that many minds supporting and providing feedback at once.

Our current practices allow for weekly PLCs, PL twice a month, and daily prep periods. All which are spent on important tasks such as unpacking standards, goal setting, analyzing data, grade level planning, and other valuable learning. Page 26 mentions, "we must not lose sight of the responsibility to teach the teacher," which can be supported by implementing learning labs. Page 38 mentions that "if we want to work together as adults in different ways in service of student learning, we need new norms for our collective work." I also feel like these key takeaways are what challenged me. How do we do this? How do we get teacher buy in to give up more prep time, see how beneficial this practice can be and how do we roll it out on our campus? These are all things I hope to work through with my colleagues who are also participating in the book study. Looking forward to more planning and discussions to come.

This is the space to share your thoughts, comments, and questions. What resonated with you? What challenged you?