The results of the Fall Teach for Success sweeps was shared with Department Chairs who then relayed that information to their departments and continued the conversation on strengths and weaknesses.
At Fairfield High we are continuing to run our Plan/Observe/Debrief, or POD, sessions this year. We added our Physical Education, Foreign Language, Special Ed, and Visual Performing Arts departments to the POD cycle this year. Our department chairs who are also instructional coaches are leading the POD sessions and planning and guiding side by side with their colleagues in their department. This is extremely valuable time spent as the department works to increase DOK and key instructional strategies. Observations are held the second day and then we get back together on day three to debrief and talk next steps. The POD cycle allows for ongoing refinement and reflection on teaching practices. The sweep data is therefore no longer information that is shared in isolation. Instead it is now incorporated int our next steps of POD.
We are also taking our remaining POD sessions for the year one step further. We will be incorporating our Ed Tech Specialist into the planning day. That way we can work on incorporating our educational technology alongside our increasing rigor and focus on key instructional strategies. We want to emphasize that integration of educational technology complements instructional strategies and is not a one or the other approach to planning.
