I want to take a moment to talk about something that’s important for all of us—improving how we work together as district content supervisors and building leadership. You all play a huge role in supporting our schools, and I truly believe that when we strengthen our collaboration, we can make a much bigger impact across the district.
With the recent changes in several leadership positions, I am hopeful this blog post may provide us some ideas that will improve that partnership and make things run more smoothly.
Build Trust and Respect
Real collaboration happens when there’s trust and respect between us:
- We need to keep things open and honest when we talk. It’s okay to disagree or challenge each other, as long as we’re doing it constructively.
- Let’s make sure we’re celebrating wins—big or small—together. Recognizing each other’s efforts is key to building a positive culture.
- Sometimes, simply looping a building leader in on what you’re considering goes a long way toward building collaboration and trust. Instead of just telling them after the fact, involving them early in the process shows that their input matters and fosters a sense of shared ownership. Even if it’s not finalized, sharing ideas early fosters a sense of inclusion and partnership.
Let’s Communicate More and Be Transparent
Good communication is the foundation of everything we do. Here’s how we can up our game:
- I’m proposing we attend more regular check-ins between district supervisors and building leaders. These don’t have to be long, but they should happen often enough that we stay aligned and can tackle issues together before they snowball.
- We should make better use of a shared online space (like Google Drive) to store curriculum updates, resources, and any documents we’re all working on. Having everything in one place will keep us organized and will help building leaders find all resources they need to support instruction.
- Remember, I’m all about the open-door policy. Don’t hesitate to reach out to principals or anyone else when you need to connect. The more we talk informally, the better we’ll understand each other’s needs and challenges.
Get on the Same Page with Goals
To really work together, we need to make sure our goals are in sync:
- Let’s keep in mind that flexibility is important, school have varying needs, and we need to be mindful of the perspective of building leader and work together to meet those differentiated needs.
- Also, let’s agree on how we’re measuring success. If we’re all looking at the same learning evidence and using the same benchmarks, it’ll be a lot easier to stay focused and on track. I believe our renewed focus on PLCs and our district level ILT meetings will enhance this area.
Work Together in Leadership PLCs
Collaboration works best when we’re actually working together:
- Perhaps we work set up cross-functional PLCs where building leaders and district supervisors come together regularly to share ideas, look at the learning evidence, and problem-solve.
- We are also focused on joint professional development. For example, the focus on Making Observations Meaningful. This PD will continue throughout the year at regularly scheduled principal and department meetings. Solution Tree sessions from August and throughout the school year should bring us together in refining true PLCs. When we learn together, we grow together, and it’ll help us understand how we can support one another better.
Use Learning Evidence to Guide Us
Data is our friend, and it should be something we all feel comfortable using:
-We are working toward regular learning evidence deep-dives where we, as district supervisors, can sit down with building leaders and really dig into what the numbers are telling us. From there, we can come up with solutions together.
- We are also on track with more training on data analysis for both district and building leaders. The better we are at interpreting data, the more effective we’ll be in making decisions.
Moving Forward Together
At the end of the day, we’re all working toward the same goal—helping our students and teachers be their best. By building trust, communicating more openly, aligning our goals, and learning together, we can make a real difference in how we support our schools. You’re all vital to this work, and I know we’ll achieve amazing things when we’re in sync.
I am inviting Don, Chelsea and all building leaders to become a part of this blog as we work to build a more collaborative culture.
I’m excited to keep pushing forward with all of you, and I can’t wait to see what we can accomplish together!
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