We had the opportunity to put into practice the notion of instructional rounds as we continued to support schools that are part of our Marzano Research Laboratory (MRL) Academy.
Instructional rounds are a way for teams of teachers to observe good instruction and discuss what they saw. It's as simple as that. The rounds are for the observers - not for the teacher being observed.
We had teams of teachers visit classrooms in Milford Public Schools and the results were rich discussions about teaching.
So in your teaching career - how many times did you have the opportunity to watch another teacher? I never did, once student teaching was over I was on my own. We have to get out of this silo mentality and use the masters in our backyard.
Implementing instructional rounds takes some planning, but is not a high cost endeavor. You need to convince some of your stronger teachers to let folks watch their class for 10-15 minutes, figure out a schedule, and let folks observe and discuss. With guidance from our friends at MRL, Jen Madison has put together a training session for leaders of instructional rounds that assists in facilitating the conversations, so some limited professional development does help.
I am hearing more about professional development programs that include a classroom observation component - which only makes sense. I encourage school leaders to develop intentional procedures that allow teachers to see other classrooms so they can really discuss instruction.
Toby
