To My Fellow Administrators and For My Teachers: On Meetings

img credit: http://tickietackie.blogspot.com/2010/11/bored-meetings.html

I was recently speaking with the parent of one of my son's friends. After being told that he might be heading up a project in the Caribbean, I asked, "So what do you do? For real?"

"Basically, I solve problems."

For the record, that's not a job title.

So what does this mean? Well, I asked, and he described his meetings as a "for instance".  They're called stand-ups ("because when we sit, we get comfy and stay too long").

How it works:

1. The group stands in a circle.
2. Each person answers 2 questions:
1. What projects are you working on?
2. What are your roadblocks?
3. If there are roadblocks, we look for a way to crowd-source the solution. ("Has anyone else encountered this? How was it resolved? Is something we can resolve here?")
1. If yes, we solve it.
2. If no, we set up another time to meet individually and discuss.
4. Go around the circle until all have answered the 2 questions.
5. Adjourn 

This whole process should take no more than 10 or 15 minutes. Because we're standing, people have not had the opportunity to settle in to their comfort zones. Distractions are minimized, and people are not allowed to turn the session into a complaint meeting.

The keys to success will be in the follow-up. Grade-level discussions can be had following the initial stand-ups. Teachers experiencing similar roadblocks will have time scheduled to sit with the supervisor to discuss strategies. Those teachers not experiencing roadblocks are able to break out to continue planning or grading that needs to be done. Ultimately, the teachers have captured more of their time for themselves.

And if you ask any classroom teacher what they need more of, time is high on the list.

Give it a try with your staff! Let me know how it turns out.