3 Ways to Cultivate Quality Teaching and Learning

Cultivating quality teaching and learning is the main goal for school leaders. When instruction is appropriate and rigorous, then students are able to achieve at high levels. It’s a double benefit when we improve the quality of teaching and learning happening in classrooms.

This post will reveal a three prong method for cultivating quality teaching and learning in k-12 classrooms across the globe.

Hire

Hiring is an intentional process leaders engage in to ensure they attract and hire qualified candidates aligned to their school mission. A thorough hiring process will uncover red flags that could be a risk if that potential candidate was hired. This process could include an application, phone interview, in-person interview or teaching a demo lesson, ending with talking with references.

An application should gather basic information, a career summary, and responses to carefully chosen writing prompts. These prompts should highlight the candidate’s professionalism, experience, passion, and ability to think critically and connect with others. This helps school leaders find candidates who match their school’s goals and fill specific grade-level needs.

The interview process has two parts. First is a phone interview. This allows the interviewer to expand on the application and ask deeper questions. It focuses on the candidate’s interest in the role, why they’re a good fit, and how they think under pressure. This step helps predict how they might respond to challenges or conflict on the job.

Next is the demo lesson. This gives leaders a chance to see the candidate teach in real time. It also shows whether their teaching matches what they shared in the application and interview.

A thorough hiring protocol ensures quality candidates get hired.

Helpful resources include:

• Cultivating Capacity- Nurturing new teachers into impactul educators
• Preparing for an Interview (Print + Video)

Train

Once hired, we must train the new employee (whether brand new to the profession or new to the school). Training consists of onboarding and professional development. The onboarding process allows a colleague to walk the new employee through how to be successful while working at that specific school- everything from a campus map to getting a substitute teacher for an absence.

Professional development is an ongoing process where leaders guide new hires towards mastery in curriculum initiatives, school and district goals, instructional best practices and more. This ensures a quality candidate continues to grow in their proficiency which then allows students to grow in their capacity as well.

Helpful resources include:

• The Importance of Providing Onboarding for Educators
• Onboarding: How to Support a New Hire at your School
• Professional Development Training Options

Support

There are a variety of ways to support a new hire beyond the professional development workshops. Assigning a mentor to meet monthly about current needs, upcoming events, and trouble shooting common obstacles allows the new hire to receive a more systematic support from a high performing mentor.

Utilizing an instructional coach is another way to add a layer of support for the new hire. This coach will conduct coaching cycles focusing on areas of need aligned to high quality teaching in areas such as lesson design, classroom management, student engagement and student ownership. These cycles could last six to nine weeks honing in on high leverage areas one at a time.

Professional learning communities [PLC’s] is a final way to support a new hire. PLC’s are a collaborative  structure where colleagues work together weekly to plan lessons, design assessments, brainstorm differentiation strategies and more.

When you support a new hire in this way, your retention rate for quality teachers skyrockets and so does student achievement.

Helpful resources include:

• Success Secrets of Colleague Mentorship
• Characteristics of an Effective Teacher Mentor
• Mentor Kit
• Coaching Printables
• PLC Guides
• 5 Ways to Enhance your PLC Meetings

Wishing you a fantastic year as you cultivate quality teaching and learning!

GO BE GREAT!