Planning mathematics learning sequences as a team is becoming increasingly common in Australian primary schools and is often referred to as "team planning" or "collaborative planning." The purpose of this article is to illustrate how a multi-age Year 5 and 6 primary school teaching team, authors Scott, Rai and Kristyn, grappled…

We describe how a modified version of an emergency survival strategy led our team in addressing problems of practice identified in two second grade classrooms. We attended to the urgent needs of students by enacting the curriculum with integrity, doing what was most important and effective, while accommodating their classroom context (LeMahieu,…

The term "neurodivergence" refers to the variation in the human brain regarding socialization preferences, learning, attention, mood, and other mental skills that differ from the societal standards and norms. Every day, schools encounter students whose neurodivergent experiences shape how they communicate, engage, and learn. Sometimes,…

For more than 30 years, Peter Senge's theory of learning organizations has influenced the study of leadership and organizations. Researchers have studied various components of his framework: team cognition and mental models, team learning, shared vision, systems thinking, and personal mastery. But few articles have explored what it looks like in…

Schools are sites of teachers' professional learning for both new entrants and experienced practitioners. In this paper, schools are conceptualised as complex, multidimensional ecologies that are constituted by the relations that exist between school leaders, teachers, mentors and all members of the school community. As relational environments,…

When professional learning is interdependent, a teacher's individual success hinges on the efforts of the entire team. Leadership experts Jenni Donohoo and Ann Mausbach explain why that's a good thing.

This article will discuss how Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) elementary school mathematics team helped teachers acquire the knowledge and skills to implement mathematics instruction and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) 5 competencies concurrently, with the goal of addressing the social and…

This article explores the parallels between improvisational theater, commonly known as improv, and active teaching. Specifically, it focuses in the impact of improv techniques on instructor and teaching assistant professional development. The implementation of an active teaching seminar is analyzed, where improv techniques were used in developing…

This essay discusses one campus's response to the 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic. We explore the issues our campus faced and how we tackled the challenge through cross-functional team building. By prioritizing teaching and learning, we were able to navigate the inherent ambiguity of the public health crisis with flexibility and transparency.…

Howell Township Public Schools in Monmouth County, New Jersey, has reimagined the roles of teachers, school leaders, and all educational professionals around the concept of a team of learning engineers who, through their students, make the world a better place. While education has long required teachers to work in groups, professional learning…

Educators use school gardens to incorporate science, technology, engineering, and math programming into their curricula. Extension agents are called on to assist with planning and long-term support of these gardens, often working with educators who have no horticultural experience. University of Georgia Extension's school garden team created a…

The purpose of Tier 2 positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) is to address identified social, emotional, and behavioral needs with efficient, targeted interventions. Although only 10% to 15% of each school's population will require Tier 2 supports, without effective systems, practices, and data, students will continue to demonstrate…

The logic behind "continuous improvement" sounds simple--but it takes a skillful leader to make the process pay off. While the logic behind the popular "continuous improvement" process seems simple, the authors' study of schools using approaches based on continuous improvement revealed that skilled leadership is as important as…

Teacher-paraprofessional collaboration plays an important part in the daily functioning of self-contained classrooms serving students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Unfortunately, few training opportunities are provided to teachers on how to supervise and collaborate with paraprofessionals in the classroom setting. In this article, we…

Many education stakeholders might grapple with some of these challenges in designing a new way to drive positive change in public education policy: (1) Implementing strategies that appear to hold promise but have never been scaled; (2) Maintaining the integrity of research-based interventions while addressing the need for contextual adaptation…