School: Tigard Tualatin School District
Grade: Preschool
The Change Idea
Change would look like district leadership and principals that oversee PreK classrooms coming together to establish a plan, calendar, and schedule that supports teaming among PreK teachers and other shareholders. With this support and facilitation, all of the preschool teachers would meet together regularly as a team to discuss, share, collaborate and plan. There would also be occasional, consistent check-ins that include the entire early learning team (teachers, support staff, coaches and administrators). With this in place, the team hoped to see the further development of a culture of reflective practice, alignment and implementation of developmentally informed best teaching practices.
Status of Change Idea : The team is adapting its approach as it goes; however, they are yet to collect the data necessary to evaluate whether to adapt, adopt, or abandon this change idea.
Predicted Outcomes
- Design and implement an effective schedule and structure based on input from teachers and other partners to support regular time for reflection and collaboration.
- Consistent and clear communication
- Strengthen the culture of reflective practice and work together to align the learning opportunities across all preschool classrooms.
What actually happened?
- The team completed empathy interviews with all the preschool teachers and developed empathy interview questions to engage with preschool principals and leaders.
- The team used this data to guide schedule design and structure for regular meetings.
- The team also started meeting with principals to understand the constraints (time, union rules, etc.) better and brainstorm goals and structures they would like to see included in the design.
Key Learnings
From empathy interviews and informal discussions, the team learned that most, if not all, team members were eager and enthusiastic about this change idea.
Challenges
Scheduling was one of the biggest barriers faced thus far. It was unsurprisingly difficult to get all the principals together in a room (in-person or virtually) at the same time. Despite feeling discouraged, the team learned that with persistence, they were able to engage a growing number of team members, and that created an inertia that built participation and ownership.
How did the team navigate barriers to change? Who did the team partner with?
Scheduling stood out as one barrier that required some significant navigation. As mentioned previously, getting all the necessary partners together had been difficult. For some, preschool seemed like an “add-on” to their list of responsibilities, and with that mindset, it was therefore considered optional or a lower priority. The team focused on engaging with those who already understood the importance of developing a robust early learning program and leveraging their commitment and enthusiasm to draw in more partners.
Guided Questions
Coming soon!