Talking about education

1. Talking about education presented byElena Kastani- Primary School Principal Costeas-Geitonas Schooland Aphrodite Vlahou- Primary Years Programme Coordinator Costeas-Geitonas SchoolBased on Teacher Teams presented at Costeas-Geitonas School by Katherine C. Boles The evident lack of instructional talk in our meetings was the key factor in our decision for tackling this issue. This “adventure” was undertaken with the grade coordinators of kindergarten through 6th grade. Implementation of these practices took place during our 2 hour weekly coordinator’s meeting. 1

2. Connections with Colleagues After conducting a force field analysis we came to the realization that the weekly staff meetings were consumed by logistics and there was little to no time allocated on instructional talk. Our belief in “learning by doing” and not telling others what to do, led us to change the coordinator’s meeting. We then took the following steps: • We divided the meeting into two clear parts: logistics and educational topics. • The agenda with the issues was given out two days earlier so everyone involved could come prepared with thoughts and ideas. • We gave out roles such as timekeeper and discussion leader to a different person each time. In order to facilitate and accomplish this task we had to establish the following connections: • Secretaries to Coordinators- grade secretaries had the task to accumulate the topics for the weeks meeting and distribute them to all coordinators. • Coordinators to Coordinators- all involved in the meetings had to engage actively in the process. • Coordinator to Teachers- coordinators communicate the successes of this new approach in meetings and set the example for grade meetings. 2

3. Successes This resulted in: • Precise time being kept and discussion becoming focused- solutions on logistics had to be found. • Everyone taking the role of discussion leader and therefore having to participate actively. • Each meeting having an element of excitement because each discussion leader added their own personal touch. • Logistics taking a back place and education coming to the forefront. Discussion on educational issues occurring on a deeper level. Participants expressing feelings and thoughts on primarily educational ponderings. • Higher level questioning occurring such as why children react to the teachings the way they do or how we can improve our teaching on literature and maths. 3

4. Challenges During this process we had to deal with these suspending factors: • Getting through the logistics in the appropriate time. • Convincing teachers that it is useful in the long run to spend time talking about instructional issues. • Understanding that personality traits need to be put aside in order to achieve a greater goal. • Developing the means for mutual accountability. The issues that got in the way of our successes are: • The amount of things happening in school that need to be attended to. • The practical problems that occur “out of the blue”. • The belief that talking about educational issues in a more theoretical way is a waste of time. • The belief that responsibility lies on the others and not on oneself. 4

5. Next Steps Even though the goal of instructional talk becoming the centre of the coordinator’s meeting has been achieved on a large scale, the following are the next steps in improving our practice: • Keeping up with the new protocol of the staff meeting. Practice makes perfect! • Making even better use of time. • Trying to solve logistics through email and eliminating time for those in the meeting. • Implementing the same tactics used in the coordinator’s meeting in the rest of the staff meetings. • Using video and the video protocol strategy to enhance instructional talk and get teachers to come out of their own isolation , to connect team conversation to teaching practices and to develop individual and mutual accountability within the team. 5