learn more about Tom’s work, follow @tmany96 on Twitter.
Michael J. Maffoni, an educator since 1987, has a diverse background that includes experience as a teacher, principal, and central administrator in a variety of districts in Colorado. He also teaches courses in educational leadership as an affiliate faculty member at Regis University.
Michael is the former director of professional learning communities (PLCs) for Jeffco Public Schools in Golden, Colorado. During his tenure, Michael led PLC implementation in over one hundred schools throughout the district. His collaborative leadership was instrumental in developing integrated PLC support systems, monitoring processes, and aligning professional learning. Three schools in Jeffco are nationally recognized model PLC schools.
Michael specializes in increasing educator and student learning by developing agency to coach and support collaborative teams. Additionally, he coaches leadership teams to scale PLC implementation in any size school system, both large and small.
He has presented at state and national events on topics related to continuous improvement for schools, teams, and individual educators. Michael has coauthored articles on increasing the effectiveness of collaborative teams and is a coauthor of Amplify Your Impact: Coaching Collaborative Teams in PLCs at Work.
To learn more about Michael’s work, follow @mjmaffoni64 on Twitter
Susan K. Sparks is an educational consultant in Denver, Colorado. Susan retired in 2008 as the executive director of the Front Range BOCES (board of cooperative educational services) for Teacher Leadership, a partnership with the University of Colorado at Denver. Susan spent her career in St. Vrain Valley School District as a teacher and with four different BOCES as staff developer, assistant director, and executive director. She consults internationally in collaborative cultures, conflict resolution, contract negotiations, and community engagement.
She provides professional development and training in facilitating professional learning communities, impacting results through interpersonal effectiveness, managing challenging conversations, and creating collaborative teams.
Susan contributed to The Collaborative Teacher: Working Together as a Professional Learning Community and coauthored Amplify Your Impact: Coaching Collaborative Teams in PLCs at Work and How to Cultivate Collaboration in a PLC and Leverage: Using PLCs to Promote Lasting Improvement in Schools.
To learn more about Susan’s work, follow @sparks12_susan on Twitter.
Tesha Ferriby Thomas is a school improvement facilitator and language arts consultant at the Macomb Intermediate School District in Macomb County, Michigan. She has worked in this capacity since 2012, supporting struggling districts and school leaders by helping them embed systemic practices that result in improved student achievement. Her passion for the power of PLCs has grown over twenty years as she has worked to support PLC implementation as a teacher, department chairperson, assistant principal, and assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. She is a coauthor of Amplify Your Impact: Coaching Collaborative Teams in PLCs at Work. She presents regularly at local, state, and national conferences on topics ranging from writing across the curriculum to implementing an instructional learning cycle in a PLC. She has been a member of the Michigan Learning Forward board and the Michigan Department of Education Surveys of Enacted Curriculum Steering Committee, and is a National Writing Project fellow. She is also a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan Flint where she is researching the impact of coaching on PLCs.
To learn more about Tesha’s work, follow @tferribythomas on Twitter.
To book Thomas W. Many, Michael J. Maffoni, Susan K. Sparks, or Tesha Ferriby Thomas for professional development, contact [email protected].
FOREWORD
By Robert Eaker
It’s no secret; the use of high-performing teams is a powerful way to improve organizational effectiveness—including schools! And the use of collaborative teams isn’t new. As a young Marine recruit at Paris Island, South Carolina, in 1962, I distinctly recall an officer emphasizing that the entire United States Marine Corps was built on one overarching idea: a Marine rifle squad consisting of twelve Marines who work together (interdependently), to accomplish a shared mission (common goals), for which they hold each other accountable for success (mutually accountable). Think about that! The United States Marine Corps understood the power of collaborative teaming in 1962—in fact, long before that!
Since the mid-1950s, the use of high-performing collaborative teams has become so commonplace in organizations of all types, all over the world, that it is not even discussed anymore. There is an exception, however. Sadly, the norm for American education is still one of teacher isolation. In most schools, individual teachers are expected to ensure their students learn more standards than ever before, at higher levels of rigor, and in increasingly adverse conditions. This disconnect between what is known to be “best practice” (collaborative teaming) and what actually occurs (teacher isolation) is one of the great mysteries of modern educational practice.
However, there is good news! The increasing popularity of the Professional Learning Communities at Work® (PLC) framework has resulted in more schools embedding collaborative teaming into district and school structures and cultures. In short, in a high-performing PLC, collaborative teaming is not viewed as an innovation or initiative, or a unique structure to try. Instead, collaborative teams are seen as the engine that drives virtually every aspect of what occurs day in and day out. In PLCs, collaborative teams are the vehicle by which data-driven, research-based best practices are embedded within the daily routines of the district office, schools, teams, individual classrooms, and importantly, the support staff. In a highly effective PLC the use of collaborative teaming has become simply “How things are done around here!”
An important caveat is in order; in and of itself, collaborative teaming will do little, if anything, to improve student learning. Collaborative teaming is a vehicle—a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. Effectiveness—improved student learning—will be determined by the quality of the work being done by teams. Effective teams engage in the right work, in the right ways, at the right times, and for the right reasons!
Engaging teams in the right work will not happen by accident or invitation. If teams are to thrive, they need a number of things such as a rationale (the why for each task, product, or activity), time to meet, training, examples, monitoring, feedback, encouragement, support, along with frequent and timely celebration. In short, teams need to be effectively coached!
It’s not enough to merely recognize that supporting and improving team effectiveness can be accomplished through coaching. The issue is what are concepts, practices, procedures, and tools that educators can use to effectively coach teams? What tools are available to coach coaches? How can coaches get better? In How Schools Thrive, Thomas W. Many, Michael J. Maffoni, Susan K. Sparks, and Tesha Ferriby Thomas present research-based concepts, practices, and protocols that can enhance team effectiveness and are grounded in years of successful practice. The result is a collection of tools that leaders can implement, in a reasonable amount of time, and when taken together and used with fidelity, are proven to be effective.
How can teams and coaches keep “getting
