Data rich but information poor?

What does it take to lead teachers toward using technology?  One might think that serving as an example would be a step in the right direction.  And it might be, but if it is, my steps are definitely slow ones.  This is my third year as an assistant principal.  The faculty at my school was used to an administrator who distributed paper calendars to everyone with the month's upcoming events.  That seemed like a waste of energy to me because I put everything on my Outlook calendar.  So I would "invite" them as "attendees" when something was going on, which would put the event on their Outlook calendars.  It didn't work or I caved too easily.  After a year of having teachers tell me they were frustrated because they never knew what was going on (REALLY?), I started year two with double the work--creating a paper calendar for them and putting everything in my Outlook calendar, so I could get those handy pop-up reminders.

To me, this phenomenon of having information readily available but not being able to use it is much like how teachers engage with student data.  They have a lot of information--standardized testing, common formative assessments, classroom assessments, etc., but they, oftentimes, don't know what to do with it.  Thomas and Huffman (2009) state, "It is imperative that principals . . . employ processes to help teachers examine various types of data and think about how data can be used to inform instructional decisions that lead to increased student achievement" (p. 94).  The process that they describe in their article employs use of teacher collaboration.  See below to read the full article. 

 Thomas & Huffman's Article

To me, nothing offers a greater model of collaboration than the DuFour's model of Professional Learning Communities (PLC).   From the beginning, we have to get teachers engaged with what it means to be a PLC.  We know it's not about discussing field trips and who's been creating classrooms disruptions lately, but teachers are more engaged when they are part of the process.  Here's a good place to start.  Send your teachers to All Things PLC, a great resource of the DuFour's organization, Solution Tree.  (By the way, I've added them to the Twitter list from my last post.)

All Things PLC

 If your teachers are more visual or if you need something to use as an introduction, consider this short You Tube video (also from Solution Tree):