Instructional Rounds

Maggie Schumacher contributed this post. Click here to read more of Maggie's thinking.

There’s nothing more powerful than teachers learning from other teachers. Instructional rounds in schools and across buildings can be a very powerful tool for supporting teacher learning. In the Baraboo School District, we utilize instructional rounds and I’m always so inspired when I participate in these rounds. Read on to learn how we organize and benefit from these collaborative opportunities at the middle school.

Once per quarter, a teacher leader in our middle school organizes instructional rounds within the building. Participation in instructional rounds is completely voluntary. A form is sent out to all teachers in the building and people can sign up to be either a host teacher or a visiting teacher. People also indicate which hours of the day they teach and an area of focus they’d like to showcase with teachers visiting their classroom. The teacher who leads these efforts then works to organize the responses into an action plan. Approximately four or five teachers visit four or five classrooms on a selected day that works for all involved. In our building, rounds typically last for about 2 class periods. The teacher leader works to create a schedule for visiting and works with building administrators to ensure the teachers who are visiting classrooms get in-building sub coverage as needed. Typically, due to high interest, we can’t include all teachers who want to participate in each round, but we rotate through who is selected so that all teachers benefit at least once if not multiple times throughout the year.

On the day of instructional rounds, the teachers participating as visitors meet with the teacher leader in a designated location. Prior to going into classrooms, the teachers discuss the expectations and preview the schedule. Some of the host teachers have left a message to be shared related to what will be observed in class that day, but this is not required. The understanding is that teachers who visit will take notes on positives only; these notes are then copied and shared with the host teachers before the day is over. The teacher group who is observing stays in each classroom for approximately ten minutes before moving onto the next room. When all classroom visits are completed, the group returns to their starting location and discusses the positive things they saw throughout the day and takeaways and strategies they plan to use in their own classrooms. They finish by writing thank-you notes to those teachers they visited. The teacher leader places these in mailboxes before the end of the day.

There are many benefits of instructional rounds. Teachers get to visit classrooms they don’t normally get to see. Teachers have opportunities to cross content areas and grade levels and see what the other side is doing. Teachers see excellent models of classroom management and student engagement. There are so many great things we do on a daily basis that we don’t really think about until someone comes in and points it out to us. We all have so much to share and so much we can learn from each other if we are willing to open our door to others.

In our building, we have had only positive feedback following instructional rounds. Teachers who have participated as host teachers have spread the word to others about what a positive experience it is to have others come in and observe because they “feel like rockstars” when all of the positive feedback comes streaming in. Visiting teachers have been inspired and have left with many excellent instructional strategies, classroom management tips, and even room arrangement ideas, some of which they’ve incorporated in their own classrooms and instruction the very next day. There is so much possibility and opportunity to be provided to teachers when they are able to learn from each other. Some of the best professional development and teacher training can come from within your very own building!