Teamwork Makes the Dream Work! Really.

Teamwork makes the dream work!  Really.

This cliche statement has become somewhat of a rallying cry at Novi Woods.  Our students know what it means and looks like.  I have taught leadership chats about it.  We have it written on our school shirts.  It gets repeated by the entire school at the close of our morning announcements.  We use it to help solve problems around our school.  Parents send me e-mails about how their children discuss it around the dinner table.  It's cute.  It's simple, and it's very powerful.

A colleague recently gave me an article entitled: Leveraging Collaborative Inquiry to Increase Collective Teacher Efficacy by Jenni Donohoo.  The article opens with:

"When teachers believe  that together, they are capable of developing students' critical thinking skills, creativity, and mastery of complex concepts, it happens!"

Collective efficacy matters.  Does our staff believe that together they can positively influence student learning?  If we believe we make a difference--together--then we make a difference.

Collective efficacy matters more than almost anything else.  Collective efficacy is one of the greatest factors influencing student achievement.  Collective efficacy matters more than student socioeconomic status, student home environment, teacher clarity, or many other factors as studied by John Hattie, an eminent researcher whose visible learning studies rank "what works best" for learning.

The staff at my school understands how crucial collective efficacy is.  I see teachers supporting each other on a regular basis.  They meet for professional learning on their own time.  They collaborate to implement new instructional strategies.  They dream together.  They laugh and sometimes cry together.  They review hard data and plan together to increase proficiency levels.  They conduct peer observations and provide feedback to improve their instruction.  They take risks--together.  They challenge each other.  They make a difference.

I look forward to reading more about collective teacher efficacy, and I know our school is poised to continue to make a difference---together.