Speaker 1 (00:00.098)
Welcome to the PBL simplified podcast for administrators. Brought to you by Magnify Learning, your customized PBL partner. From over a decade of experience with you in the trenches, we are bringing you this top rated educational podcast designed for visionary school administrators seeking to transform their schools with project-based learning. Launch your vision, live your why, and lead inspired. Here's your host, Ryan Stoyer.
Welcome to PBL simplified podcast. I'm your host Ryan Stoyer and here we talk all things project based learning.
I'd like you to go to what is pbl.com. If you've never been to what is pbl.com, we've got that URL so you can go directly there from the podcast. We've got resources, especially for you. We split them up teacher and administrator to make sure it's differentiated for what you specifically need. So go to what is pbl.com to get those free resources today. Today on the podcast, I'm super excited because we have a repeat guest. We've got Dr. Chad Dumas on to talk professional learning communities. And
If you want to get his kind of synopsis of his first book and the first time we talked, it's the book title is Let's Put the C in PLC. So if you're not familiar with this acronym, and we have a lot of acronyms in education, it's professional learning communities. And some of you might recognize it as that meeting you have once a week. And what I love about Chad and why he's kind of our PLC expert, that's who we send you to if you want some PLC help, is that he would push back on that. If it's just,
a meeting on Wednesdays, you're not living PLCs out to their full potential. It should really be a mindset, it should be a culture, and now you're starting to see how it fits into what we think about project-based learning here at Magnify Learning, we think it's a mindset and a culture. And I've got to point out that every one of our model schools, we've got these national PBL model schools across the country, so you can go see PBL in action, and every one of them has PLCs connected to their PBL work. So as they're...
Speaker 2 (02:05.514)
on this journey of PBL, they know there's this, this option of PLCs, the professional learning communities looking at what are you doing? Like reflecting and then making some action steps out of that, that is helping them be successful. So that's why Chad's such an important part to the podcast. We want to bring him on. So the first book he had was, let's put the C in PLCs. Talked a lot of research in there. He talked about teachers being leaders of the PLCs. Again, great book, episode 171.
Go back to the archives and find that one. His new book that you can pre-order when this episode comes out, or you can go to SolutionTree.com because he's a Solution Tree associate and you can get the book there. And I suggest you grab it. The Teacher Team Leader Handbook. He's gonna walk you through how to have teachers leading PLCs in a strong, authentic way that changes classroom practice.
And I just want to reiterate before we bring Chad on that Chad's our PLC expert and we have him on because we want him to give you his knowledge, right? Like you get this consulting session, you get 30 minutes with Chad here, you know, as Ian and I talk, and I think you're going to love it. So I highly recommend the book. He's got action guides that go along with most of his books. So look for that as well. And I really hope you enjoy this episode.
All right, Chad, thanks for being on the podcast with us. You are PLC experts for our listeners that might not know we're talking about professional learning communities. And we bring Chad on to show you how PLCs can connect to your PBL work. I'm saying every I know this actually is to be true. Every national model PBL school that we have also has PLCs. So since success leads clues, it seems like there's something in there for your friends. So
We've got Chad on again. He's got a brand new book coming out that we're going to talk about. It's called the Teacher Team Leader Handbook, Simple Habits to Transform Collaboration in a PLC. So this is the guy that we want to have on here. Chad, thanks for being on with us today.
Speaker 1 (04:15.746)
My pleasure, thank you for having me back.
Yeah, super fun. Your book, putting the C back in PLC is talking about community, right? Totally nailed that. In the first episode was in, it was episode 171. So we'll link that in the show notes. People can go grab that. We give away your book as one of our freebies to people because we just, we love it. And again, we PLCs can have a huge impact in a PBL environment. So we love having that work, but.
People are going to go back and listen to episode, but for right now, and sometimes this can change actually your why for the work. Sometimes it kind of adjusts and changes as you do your work, but what's your specific why for doing this work, Jen?
Yeah, well, these days, it's really about having an impact, right? Like helping educators get better at their craft to improve student learning. And, you know, there's nothing better than that, being able to, you know, like you travel around the country and work with incredible educators all over the place and help them get better. That's like, like, you know, sometimes
Sometimes I think of my role as helping people get out of the trees, right? To see the forest for the trees. We're in the muck every day. I'm not in that muck, right? Like I'm coming in for a day or two or three and then maybe a couple, three, four, five times during the course of the year. But I'm not in the muck of student behavior, discipline issues, parent discontent, community uproar that you see in some areas, right?
Speaker 1 (05:53.566)
I get to come in and help teams say, you know what, this is tough work and you are in the trenches. And how can we make sure that what we're doing is getting where we want to be, right? Because we get lost in the trees, in the forest. So let's lift our vision and see why are we here. And so much of my work is like simplifying the work. I find that people make it so much more complicated than it needs to be, right?
And so simplifying the work, asking some key questions, helping to ease the burden, if you will, of what many times people feel is the work that they need to do to be able to be in compliance with some sort of directives or understandings of what a PLC is and is not.
Yeah, I love that you're going to simplify the work for people, right? Because it feels like we have too much. There's overwhelm, anxiety. know, we're leaders that are listening right now, like their teachers are like, you can't give me an extra thing. Like we can't do PLCs as an extra thing. Yeah. There's a misunderstanding there, isn't there? Of, right? Like the PLCs are going to be this extra thing. They're going to be extra work. Can you give us kind of an explanation of PLCs for those that maybe haven't heard about it, but like how it's not an extra thing.
Yeah, yeah, it's it is perceived as that way in many areas and and it is treated that way in many areas. So the the perception is accurate, Yeah, so So I like to think so there's definitions of PLC, right and before an acre and and colleagues put together a really great definition And folks could find that in learning by doing I think it's like page 14
recent edition or something like that. Like it's right early on, right? Like here's the definition. I'm not going to show the definition. What I will share is the idea. The idea of a PLC is that it's a culture. It's a way of being. Richter would call it an ethos. It's who we are. It's not what we do. It's who we are, right? So when you have a professional learning community, another way to think of it is those terms were selected very purposely, right? Going back to Shirley Horde in the 1960s and then
Speaker 1 (08:06.678)
you know, with others, including Rick DeFore and Bob Baker picking that up. Professional learning community, those words weren't just selected because they sounded good because they thought it would make a good acronym someday, but they're very purposeful, right? It's professionals. It's not called the student learning community. It's a professional learning community, right? It's about the professionals, us as adults who are learning together. We're learning about our own practice. We're learning about each other's practice. We're learning about how to improve student learning.
and we're doing it in community with each other. We're creating a culture, an ethos, a way of being. And so one of the things that we hear a lot, you know, I'm a solution tree PLC at work associate in addition to doing my own work. But one of the things we hear a lot is I've got PLC on Wednesday afternoon. Well, what about Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday morning, right? What about the rest of the week? So we're not learning from each other.
as professionals in community the rest of week. It's just, or it's, you know, my third grade team. really? That's, that's, what about the whole school? Can't we learn from our colleagues in other grade levels or other content areas, right? So it really is this culture, who we are. It's not what you do. It's not a place to go. It's not a time. It's not a group that you're meeting with. It's who we are as a community of adult learners, improving our practice and results for kids.
That's awesome. This is why we have Chad back, everybody. I get to learn something every time you come on. That's the best definition of PLC I've ever heard. But it also is not an easy one. We want the technical definition so we can get the technical steps in, but then we want the adaptive results, the outcomes. We want the really cool outcomes of a culture, but it's easier to implement step by step. And I wonder, I haven't got my hands on your new book yet.
It's coming out, but the teacher team leader handbook and in your first book, I remember that you really love the idea of teachers as leaders, right? That's an important piece because these PLC meetings, right? Are gonna happen on Wednesday and someone's going to lead them and might be a teacher. So how do they do that? Right? Like leading an ethos, right? Is more difficult than just running a meeting with an agenda. So I assume this is where the new book came from, right? Is these new experiences.
Speaker 2 (10:30.04)
So I don't know what's best to tell us. Like how does the teacher team leader handbook? Like is this helping a teacher create more than just this meeting? that the idea?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we've got the culture of the school, right? Or the district in some cases that's working to become a professional learning community. And then the teams are the engine for that process. teams, you can't become a professional learning community, right? Like you have to have teams to make that happen. And in teams all across this country, there's typically someone in that team who's designated as a leader, right? And they might be called a facilitator, a liaison.
Mm.
Speaker 1 (11:10.752)
a department chair, a head teacher, right? Or there may be not any formal title, but there's somebody who's kind of expected to take the reins and lead the team. And so what I did was look at, okay, so what is the role of the teacher team leader? No matter what you call them. In helping this engine of the PLC become a powerful Maserati engine, as opposed to an old, you know,
VW bug that's, you know, sitting been sitting around and not so powerful, right? We want these things to be really powerful. And so what I did was think about and think about and access the research on what are the responsibilities of a teacher team leader? First of all, let's be clear about that, right? Like we put people in these positions and say, go be effective. Right. But we're not clear about what those responsibilities are. And so I identify three responsibilities of any teacher team leader.
And there are these three responsibilities. The third one is one that we talk about most and we don't even mention the other two, but, I mentioned them and I make them explicit. And I think that those first two are more important than the third. So the first responsibility of a teacher team leader is to make it safe, to make the environment of the team psychologically safe without psychological safety. aren't going anywhere. People need to be able to, to express their thoughts.
without fear of anything, right? Like, so that's the number one responsibility of a teacher team leader. And if you try to do the other two without that, good luck. Number two, the second responsibility of a teacher team leader is to build capacity of everybody else. If you are the only person doing all the work and other people are, excuse the phrase, yes men, you're not fulfilling your responsibility. So you've got to be building their capacity. So make it safe.
Number two, build capacity. And number three, do the work. There is work that has to be done, right? Unfortunately, in many cases, we put people in the position of a teacher team leader and say, go do the work, but we don't help them frame their work in terms of it's got to be a psychologically safe environment and we have to build capacity people to do it. So that's like the, like the most basic thing about, about this work is like, we can't get into doing the work if we're not clear about those, those, those three responsibilities.
Speaker 2 (13:37.838)
What I am starting to love about the conversation this time, Chad, is that I feel like we spend a lot of time trying to create these environments for our kids in classrooms. And we don't spend a lot of time and attention to create the same environment for the adults in the building. And then we want the adults in the building to have a really great culture. Right? Right. So there's a missing portion. And we say a lot that, you know, you're
Yep.
Speaker 1 (13:59.572)
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:05.832)
want this amazing student culture. And so, well, your adult culture is going to drive your student culture. That's going to be the driver. Maybe the engine will be to get into your metaphor. So, the leaders that are listening, this is a podcast specifically for principals and central office folks. So, they're listening and they want these really great things in the classroom to happen. What I think we're discovering and you have already discovered, I think, is that
we've got to do this work at the adult level, right? Cause we've, cause to, to use your point, think the third thing doing PLCs, cause I know some people listening have PLCs and like, well, we do them, you know, we do what we're supposed to do, but my teachers don't run them right. Maybe. Right. Or I'm not going to eat those as community thing that, that Chad's talking about. And it sounds like we've got a, I don't know. What, what do we do? Maybe like, do we have to read? Do we have to take this engine apart?
Correct.
Speaker 2 (15:04.148)
Or are there ways we can tune it up?
yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So as part of this work of identifying the responsibilities, I kind of approach the thinking of a teacher team leader. And I think you're exactly right. For teachers, their students are kids. For administrators, their students are the adults. Right. And so we have to be as administrators, we have to be thinking about what do my staff need to know and be able to do. And this book gears in on those people who are in the teacher team leader role.
Mm-hmm, right.
Speaker 1 (15:35.564)
designated teacher team leaders. That's not to say anybody couldn't learn from this work. They absolutely can. And actually I've set it up such that, know, administrators can learn how to be more effective running their own meetings in this work.
Oh, think in ministers, I think this book's a must buy, right? Like right away. In fact, if you go to pblshared.com, go to pblshared.com, put a question in there, can put a need to know in there and put, um, but Dr. Dumas in there somewhere. Um, and we'll give you a free copy of Chad's book and we'll get your question to him as well to come back and answer. So usually I answer those need to knows, but we'll get
your PLC questions, we'll get them right to Chad and we'll get you this book. If you're a principal who's getting ready to start or you know you need to redo them or maybe you just found out you need to redo your PLCs, right? But you've got to know what the teacher leader is going to go through in order to help train and support that teacher leader, right? Because they're still going to some different supports than when they were just doing the technical task of doing a PLC on Wednesday, right? Which is not what we want. We want there to be an ethos of PLC throughout
You're building and you can feel that. And if you go to our national model schools, you can feel that it's throughout. It's not, hey, Wednesday, let's all work together. Right. So yeah, I think our principals, they need to read this book and then they're so just buy two. Right. Start with actually you've got to buy one for each of your grade levels too. So if you've got five grade levels by six, make sure you get one as well. Right. So that you know what your teachers are walking through. You've got to walk on their shoes.
Exactly. and and the work so so there is the work but there's also so I've divided the book into two parts the first part is who you are as a person because who you are matters and then the second part is what you do those the skills needed to be an effective teacher team leader and I think so you asked the question about like how do you tune up this engine right and what is the role of the teacher team leader so I think
Speaker 1 (17:43.006)
So I lay out three different ideas in this who you are section because that's where it starts. If you just try to jump to the skills and try to implement the skills, you may have some success, but you also might be perceived as or actually be manipulative. And that's no good, right?
I I almost need you to say it again. Chad, I need you to say that again, because I think we're going to miss it. I hear you talking about SEL for adults, basically, is what I'm hearing. We talk about SEL in the classroom, and we ask kids all the time, like, who are you? This is so important. But then we don't ask our teachers. Could you just tell us to make sure that we don't skip to the skills section again?
Exactly. Who you are matters. Your mindsets, your assumptions. And so I lay out, I propose in addition to those three responsibilities, I propose five assumptions that help the teacher team leader to be more effective in their role. And so we don't need to go into each of them in depth, but here they are. First assumption, people do the best they can. Second assumption, you can only control you.
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 1 (18:51.106)
Third assumption is that behavior communicates.
Fourth assumption is people do want to get stuff done.
And the fifth assumption is that conflict is actually good. So these are, propose these assumptions to the teacher team leader, and then also ask them to reflect on their own assumptions. Like, do you agree with these? Do you disagree with them? Do you have other assumptions that may be more helpful? Because the idea is we want to help teams get more done. We want to do it in less time. And we want to be joyful while we're doing it. right. Like, let's do let's be happy. Like,
Let's not just get stuff done faster, but let's get it done and be happy about it. So these assumptions I think are helpful. And I also identify three mindsets. Again, this gets to who you are as a person. If you try to do the skills without these mindsets and assumptions, I think you'll be perceived or actually be meditative. Here's the mindsets first. And I'll begin with a verb. Because mindsets are attitudes in action.
Speaker 1 (19:58.072)
Okay, we hear the term mindset a lot, right around the world, like you hear about growth mindset versus fixed mindset and this and that. And so I went to some of the research is what is a mindset and mindset is an attitude in action. So each of these mindsets begin with a verb. So to see to be and to spread. the first mindset is to see what others don't yet see in themselves.
The second mindset is to be humble with the posture of learning. And the third is to spread the contagion of joy. And I propose that if a teacher team leader has the three responsibilities, make it safe, build capacity, do the work, those five assumptions and these three mindsets, then with that foundation of who you are as human being,
Now we can use skills that are going to be productive and transform collaboration.
Yeah. I love the clarity that's involved in that. Right. I love the clarity that you're giving our leaders to give them wording or for making these PLCs truly effective culture building. And not just a thing that happens on Wednesday because I think, you know, well, third grade, third grade's rocking their PLC. Like they get it. They built community. It's really safe in there. They talk about they're really moving. Fourth grade, man.
It's just, it's tough in there. It's like, get better. What's the next step? Like we can identify it, right? But you can't just say get better. So here it's like, well, let's diagnose, right? Let's figure out where, what's not lining up here.
Speaker 1 (21:39.214)
And that's exactly what part two does. So part one is who you are. Now part two is teacher team leader actions. And I've organized it in a way that I think is really helpful. it's four chunks, well, five actually. But the first chunk is getting started. Like diagnose, like do we have these things in place to help us? The second one is okay, so now gaining momentum. Third is overcoming obstacles, because we know obstacles are going to occur.
And then fourth is refining your skills. The fifth section that's part of part two is real world challenges. I share some challenges that teachers have shared with me. And then how do you take and pull all that together? But like, okay, so let's diagnose, where are you on the journey? Here are some, I divided into what you do and what we do. Moves and techniques that you do as a teacher team leader and then the strategies that we do together as a team. And these are moves and techniques and strategies to get started.
These are moves and techniques and strategies to gain momentum. These are moves, techniques and strategies to overcome obstacles and then to refine your skills is just on you, your own.
Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. So that's how, if you've got PLCs, right? Anybody, every leader listening, if you've got PLCs, you can walk through that process, right? With, with team teachers, really with all your PLC, probably with yourself first, like, do we have these things? Am I talking about these things? What about a principal that's listening and is like, I want those things.
in my grade levels. I'd like to start a PLC. What if they've never started a PLC? Where do they start?
Speaker 1 (23:25.07)
So one of the things I loved about an institute I went to many years ago, I was like a Rick DeFord, not falling around from session to session. I remember one of these sessions over and over throughout the institute, someone would ask him a question about different things or whatever. And over and over he would ask this question. He'd say, what's the first step in the journey of becoming a professional learning community? What's always the first step? Anytime you have a question, you have an issue, what's the first step?
we learn. That's the first step. So if I'm in a position where I want to improve our practices or start to implement professional learning community practices, what's the first step? I learn. not only and we're not just talking I don't think of it just as book learning, but the great book that is the Bible, if you will, at the PLC, our process is learning by doing, right? We learn by doing so
Yeah, you're gonna have to read some books. You're gonna have to read some articles. You're gonna have to talk to some folks. You might go to an institute or some other conferences of some sort. And just book learning isn't gonna cut it. We learn by doing, right? We implement, we act, we reflect, we act again, right? And so that ongoing process, that recurring cycle of action research and collective inquiry just continues on.
That's awesome. So Chad, where do PLCs work? you're going to say everywhere because this is the air that you breathe. like, we've got people are listening from, you know, title one elementaries, you know, and they might have a charter school that's K-12. It might be a PBL track that's in a larger district, right? Where have you seen PLCs and you can just, can you just give us a success story if you will, of like where PLCs are really just crushing it with, you know,
Just yeah, if you could just give us kind of a positive side of this, so someone can hear their journey, right? Of what it could look like.
Speaker 1 (25:24.942)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, so the cool thing about professional learning community processes is that it does work everywhere because it's about a culture. It's not about what you do, it's who you are, right? Anybody that says to me, well, at our school, it doesn't work. really? Learning doesn't work in your school? Professionals learning doesn't work in school? Professionals learning in community doesn't? Like, part of...
of collective inquiry and action research, which part of recurring cycles of this process doesn't wait. Maybe the technical aspects that you have understood or others have understood in implementing aren't working. That doesn't mean PLC doesn't work. That means that certain technical process, right? Like it looks different everywhere. There's a school I work with that has 3000, high school, 3000 kids in grades 10, 9 through 12.
large school. Yeah, I think they've got 15 algebra one teachers, right? Like it's a big old, big old school. And then there's schools I work with where there's one, two math teachers. One teaches algebra one, algebra two and geometry. The other one teaches pre-calculus, calculus and statistics, right? Like very, if you try to take what is working at a 3000 student school with 15 algebra one teachers and apply
that exact, those technical aspects to the small school, it's not gonna work, obviously. And that's, we do see that a lot, right people? And so fortunately, this concept of being a PLC has been around for 60 years, right? Since the 1960s. And it was furthered tremendously at Adelaide Stevenson High School with Rick and Bob, Rick DeFore and Bob Aker. But since then, there've been all kinds of people who picked up the mantle and learned
Well, how does this work in a small school? Right. And there's great books and, you know, if anyone reaches out to me and says, Hey, I'm in a small school. I need this help or I'm in a huge school. I need this help or I'm in a middle school or I'm in it. Right. Yeah. We can, we can help you out. And, in terms of specific examples, I learned this actually recently, in October, there was a solution tree PLC at work associate retreat every two years we gather together and learn from each other.
Speaker 1 (27:46.998)
ground ourselves back in the work to make sure that we are really fully grounded in advancing the work of the authors, right? Like this isn't the Chad Dumas show. When I'm representing PLC at work, I'm representing Rick Dufour and Bob Aker and Vicky Dufour and now Mike Mattis and Anthony Muhammad and you know, whole host of other amazing authors. And my job is to advance their work. And so I have to be grounded in that. So one of the things I found out at this institute was that
Shortly before Rick died, he died in 2017. Shortly before he died, somebody asked him what was he most proud of and what would be the biggest legacy, like what would be his personal biggest legacy? And what I found fascinating was he didn't talk about, like, I think you authored like 60 books. He didn't talk about the whole PLC at work movement. He didn't talk about institutes. He didn't talk about all the, he said, and
Listeners, I'll write this down. It's a website, allthingsplc.info.
It's a totally free website. Anybody can access. It's sponsored by Solution Tree, but you can't buy, as Mac Matta says, you can't buy a dang thing on it. It's completely free. The whole website is dedicated to PLC at work stuff. Articles, videos, blogs, downloadables, and an evidence of effectiveness tab where you can go on there and you can search across the whole world rules that
that are doing this work. And they're not just doing this work, but they're getting results. Because in order to be a model PLC, you have to demonstrate two things. One, that you're doing the work of being a PLC. But secondly, you have to have at least three years of that show, in student performance data, that shows that you're having an improving student learning. Now, some schools might have gone from 10 % to 25%, and others might say, wait, I'm at 75. Well, yeah, we're not talking about
Speaker 1 (29:51.606)
like getting there, they're on the journey and they're improving student learning. And I can show you a lot of schools that are stuck at 10 % for a long time. And these schools are showing increased improvement. You've got other schools that are in the nineties and showing improvement. But if folks go to all things plc.info and look at the evidence of effectiveness tab, you can see all kinds of schools that are doing this work that are getting results. And like you said, like to see them, to see yourself in it.
so that you can see that there is somebody else that's doing this work. And part of that, one more thing is part of that application process is that people put their contact information. So you can reach out, like email or call the principal of that school and say, hey, here's where we are. Here's what we're doing. Help us. yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's a cool network. I think there's 750 almost schools on there now that are doing the work and getting results.
Oh, that's inspiring. I love that. So a little bit of my story, like when I first started teaching, was a school that had PLCs. So somebody said, hey, read DeForest's book. I know I do who that was, right? I was an engineer before I was a teacher. like, OK. I was like, sure. And. I would say that things were run somewhat effectively. It was a failing school. We didn't have the culture at the adult level that.
would have loved to have you come in and fix that culture. But as a young teacher, I just did what I was told, right? Like I just wonder and I want our listeners to think like principals are thinking like as your new teachers come in, we think about new teacher orientation really, really purposely. At hopefully you are. Hopefully you're creating really great scenarios to come in. But then they're gonna go in with the teachers and that's what they're gonna learn. And I just...
gosh, what would have happened if I would have stepped into an environment like you're talking about, that you're helping create, that DeForest helped create, there's all things PLC.info, we'll put it in the show notes, but I just, the things that it would have done just for a new teacher right away, right? And we say, they came out of college and they're not ready. Of course not, right? So what are we doing, right? Like what if they walked into this ethos of learning and growth and that's all they knew because they don't know anything different.
Speaker 2 (32:14.004)
Yeah, really exciting work.
Yeah. Oh man. Yeah. You know, I talked to obviously a lot of educators and administrators and, and, you know, going through the pandemic and then now with teacher shortages, those schools who have a deeply ingrained PLC culture don't have the same issues that others do. They don't have the issues with retention because teachers do stick around. They don't have the issue with new teachers not knowing what to do because they, they come in and the team, the engine,
takes off with them, right? They don't have the issues of teacher burnout, because I'm not doing this by myself, right? Like I'm not. Rick DeFore would say that most schools are a collection of independent contractors, connected by a common parking lot. In a PLC, that's not the case, right? Like we are in this together, and we're working together, and we are figuring out what we're going to guarantee every kid learns. those schools that were doing this work,
through the pandemic, they said they don't know how they would have survived without that culture of togetherness and clarity about what we want kids to know and be able to do and going after it laser focused.
Yeah. Well, I love it. think just as I think through kind of my background a bit now, like in that school I was in to start with, we actually, we did some team teaching at the middle school level and there was a great community within our team of the adults, but we loved on kids, but we didn't have the academic focus. Like that's not where we were growing. And again, as a new teacher, it's the effect of that is so profound.
Speaker 2 (33:57.576)
on what you're gonna bring to your classroom. And so I just think as a principal, as a leader, there's so much fruit to be had from diving into this adventure and really tuning the engine here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And thinking about like as new teachers, teachers come in and they're given like this whole long curriculum guide or the whole list of 732 state standards. And it's just so much. But when you are in a school that's operated as a professional learning community, the team says, look, we're gonna teach all of that. Absolutely. Kids are gonna learn way more than what I'm gonna hand you. But what we as a team have decided is,
This is what we're going to guarantee every kid learns. And it's a small subset of all that stuff. And we as a team now, because you're new, welcome. We want your perspective and input. Here's what we're going to put. We're going to intervene on this stuff. We're going to make sure every kid learns and we're going to do it together. We'll teach it all. But this is what we're going to guarantee. And think of the relief that you or I or any new teacher has when they have that clarity. Like, here we go.
I can, you know, as a kindergarten teacher, yeah, I'm going to teach kids the difference between an author and illustrator and what they do. I'm not going to guarantee every kid learns that. I'm going to guarantee every kid learns their capital letters, their lowercase letters, their sounds, some blends, right? That's what high frequency words, that's what we're going to guarantee every kid learns and character and setting and plot and those things. Yeah, we'll teach it. You're not going to guarantee every kid learns it. And so that, provides a huge relief.
This is just an example of something I get to work with.
Speaker 2 (35:41.038)
Look in the clarity of what you just described for a new teacher who's overwhelmed, passionate, right? Excited, going to change the world. But has no idea how. That's so so refreshing and grounding and. That's a place I want to stay.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly.
There's a teacher shortage for those teachers are somewhere you want to make sure they're at your school. They're there for a reason, you know, that's exciting. All right. Well, Chad, we're going to again, well, I'm sure we'll have you back on. This has been a super fun conversation. I've learned a ton. So your new book's coming out. Where do we go? Where should we go to find it? What are the URLs you want us to know? We'll put them on the show notes, but give us a little bit of an idea of where we can go to find out more.
Yeah, I well, I don't have those exact URLs as of this point yet. So here's what we'll do is we'll put my my website, and then my website, you can get to it. And so next learning solutions.com would be the place to go. And actually, you know what, I do have this setup. At this point is a tiny URL. So people go to tiny URL.com slash t t l h.
as in teacher team leader handbook TTLH. So tinyurl.com slash TTLH. I think there's almost 50 downloadable reproducibles that are totally free. Whether or not you own the book doesn't matter. You can download those reproducibles. Of course, I'd love for you to buy the book because that'll give you more explanations of that and be helpful there. But tinyurl.com slash TTLH.
Speaker 2 (37:30.37)
Yeah, there's a ton of value and we're recording this earlier than when the book's coming out, but we'll put some details in the show notes of where you can go exactly to grab a copy. you need to do that, leaders, you need to do that. Let's tune up those PLCs so that the engines roar in. We've got one last question for you. If you are in the, just imagine that you're in, it's not hard for you to imagine because you're out in the field doing this all the time, but this is the question I end with now.
Imagine you're in front of a room full of teachers and principals who are pouring their hearts and souls into their work every day. They truly desire the best outcomes and opportunities for their learners. What parting advice do you have for them to help them on their PBL journey?
Yeah, my parting advice, I think might be this. Without you, there is no ever advancing civilization. You are the profession that creates all other professions.
We need you, we love you, and you can do this together, focusing on the right work. You got this.
I love it. Chad, thanks for being on today. Thanks for coming back to the podcast. I so appreciate it. All right, movement makers, you just heard that. You should probably play that last part of Chad's parting advice again, play it for your staff, play it for yourself. The work you're doing matters and it matters a lot. And you can do this. You can be that school, can be that school that people come to, to come and see.
Speaker 1 (38:49.208)
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:11.48)
the culture and they're gonna wonder, how do you do this? And then you're gonna have a plan for that, right? There's a way to do this. You can learn it, you can teach it. So you can have it, your kids can have it. Thanks for tuning in today. Go out and lead inspired.
That's just what I needed to bring PBL to my school. If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing the show. It only takes two minutes to scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select write a review. Then be sure to let us know what was most helpful about that episode. Your review helps the next inspired leader, just like you. Find their why and lead inspired.
