1. INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS Liz City, Richard Elmore and Lee Teitel
April 21, 2010

2. OBJECTIVES AND AGENDA Objectives
Identify the next level of work in your individual and collective practice
Leave with ideas about what to do to make your practice more effective
Agenda
Warm-up
Survey results
Whole School (District) Improvement practices
Lunch
Next Level of Work
Ongoing learning
Wrap up

3. WARM UP—METAPHORS
Which image best captures rounds in your AEA this year? Choose one. Turn to a neighbor and explain how this image captures your year.

4. SUPERINTENDENTS’ NETWORK SURVEY RESULTS—APRIL 2010
n=72 (out of 117— response rate of 62%)
Response rates varied by AEA

5. WHO PARTICIPATED?

6. Whole School (District) Improvement practices

7. LUNCH
“A problem is nothing more than an opportunity in work clothes.” – Michael Michalko

8. Next Level of Work

9. Building a Better NLOW Goal for this session:
Making NLOWs relevant, usable and used
Connection to your practice– what is working and what is not
Seeing NLOW in overall cycle of rounds and school, district, and network improvement
How network practices and visit-specific information combine to  better NLOWs
So what: implications for your network practice

10. What is working and what in not in the next level of work ?
Think about the NLOW portions of a recent network visit and prepare to talk with your colleagues about what is working well and what you are struggling with (or wondering about) in your network’s NLOW practices
It may help to think about a visit where the NLOW went well and one where it felt less satisfying
What makes a NLOW process a “good” one?

11. Seeing NLOW in overall cycle of rounds and school, district, and network improvement

12. Instructional Rounds- A Learning Process
Classroom Observations
District-wide Initiatives
Network

14. What does a “better” NLOW look like?
Anchored by visit data and host needs and improvement processes
Actionable and accountable
Presented in usable (digestible) form
Generative for host and network

15. What network practices and norms contribute to a better NLOW?
Critical + Caring
Connected to visit data (patterns, predictions)
Consultative (to meet the needs of host)
Connected to host improvement cycle
Accountable

16. What visit-specific information and prep contribute to better NLOWs?
Clear TOA and POP
Good information on what host school/district has done to address
Knowledge base on relevant approaches

17. Building a Better NLOW Network NLOW practices Critical + Caring
Connected to visit data (patterns, predictions)
Consultative (to meet the needs of host)
Connected to host improvement cycle
accountable
Visit-specific information
Clear TOA and POP
Good information on what host school/district has done to address
Knowledge base on relevant approaches
A Good NLOW
Anchored by visit data and host needs and improvement processes
Actionable and accountable
Presented in usable (digestible) form
Generative for host and network

18. Experimenting with NLOW
Reflective Questions or Statements?
When is a reflective question a statement in disguise?
What kinds of questions help hosts get new evidence?
Making explicit the hypotheses (TOAs) of the visitors in framing NLOW
Experimenting in your network– establishing and using criteria for assessing effectiveness of NLOW approach/form

19. So what: implications for your network practice
Take a few minutes by yourself to think about 3-2-1
Three ideas that reinforced your approach to this part of the practice
Two ideas or approaches that pushed your thinking about NLOW
One way that you want your network colleagues to do NLOW differently in the coming year
Share your thoughts with your network colleagues and make a plan for following this up

20. ONGOING LEARNING: HOW NETWORKS CAN/SHOULD FOCUS ON CONTINUED SUPERINTENDENT LEARNING?

21. On-Going Network Learning
What: Content– what are you trying to learn?
Why: Why are we interested in learning this
How: Images of kinds of network learning

22. Closing
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” Rabindranath Tagore