Our team will engage in strategic planning this Friday as we look deeply at the needs of students. At the recent Teaching and Learning Conference 2015, David Johns, Executive Director or the Initiative for African American Education advocated for strategic planning when it comes to teaching every child well. We'll follow his lead.
Strategic plans in all we do help us to do our teaching/learning work well.
What does a strategic plan include?
Goal/Vision
First, we have to think deeply about what it is we want to achieve. What's most important, and what is not as important? We have to prioritize. The goal setting process needs to be deep, reflective, and inclusive. We all have different vantage points in our teaching/learning communities and the more that we can share our vantage points, priorities, and goals, the better we'll be able to work together to best teach students.
Action Plan
Once the goals and priorities are set, the next step is to create the action plan. What will we do? When will we do it? How will we troubleshoot around problems? What will we use for a communication vehicle? What are our communication protocols? How often will we communicate? When will we meet again to review, assess, and refine our actions?
Final Efforts
How long will this effort last? How will we close the effort? What kind of final reflections will we make, and where will this effort lead in terms of future action and effort?
We'll participate in more strategic planning the following Friday at PLC, strategic planning related to math teaching, DDMs, and an upcoming parent meeting. That effort will include the steps above as well.
Good process leads to positive efforts. Laying a path for thoughtful, inclusive strategic action will help you and your team to achieve the goals you set forth.
Addition
As I reviewed this post, I realized that it fits well with the use of principled negotiation outlined in this post. Together good communication/process, apt analysis routines, principled negotiation patterns, and strategic planning can serve to uplift PLC work to the benefit of all students.
