"Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners."
​John Holt 

The steps required to adopt this school-wide student-engagement approach in your school

Getting started

This document is designed for the School Leader who has been in contact with Learn Implement Share and is interested in exploring the possibility of having their school adopt the school-wide student engagement program, based on the course 'Create an engaged learning environment with your students'. 

Several critical steps are required for a school to adopt this program. These steps are outlined below.

The program in a nutshell

• A School Leader needs to be chosen to oversee the program onsite. This leader is referred to as the 'Program Champion'.
  
• The Program Champion does not need to undertake the online course but needs to at least 'dip in and out' of the course.
• Participating teachers are assigned to teams, each team with a Team Leader.​

• Team Leaders undertake the program with their teachers.
• The comprehensive online course content is accessed by teachers individually, available 24/7.
• Teachers progress through the (usually) 6-month program according to a timeline.​

• Due to the style of content, participating teachers:
  • Deeply reflect on their own teaching.
  • Begin implementing course strategies with their students from approx. one month into the course. 
  • Keep implementing multiple strategies through to the end of the program.
  • Report on their implementation experiences.
  • Become inspired by the improvements their students' engagement and in the renewed responsibility shown for learning.
• The Program Champion and Team Leaders actively encourage and foster collaboration between teachers spontaneously around coffee, the staff room and workstations, etc.
• 2-3 team meetings are held during the program to allow teachers to discuss their implementation experiences.
• Note schools have the opportunity to place extra focus on implementations and on specific implementations if they wish.

Two non-negotiables

In order for the program to be run there are two non-negotiables which need two be met:​

1. The Program Champion needs to be 'on board' and determined to see the program succeed. 
2. The Team Leaders need to be committed to the program and keen to offer their encouragement and support to their team members. 
3. ​Strong communication needs to exist among all leaders, between leaders and teachers and between the Program Champion and Learn Implement Share.

The School Leader's 'pitch' to the executive committee (decision makers)

• ​If not already established, the Executive Committee will need to acknowledge the need to improve student ownership over learning, i.e. to improve student engagement throughout the school.​
• Next, the Learn Implement Share school-wide engagement program needs to be seen as a credible means for this to occur. Having spoken with Learn Implement Share, the School Leader will already see the potential in this program. However, the Executive Committee will have questions. 
• To have those questions answered a conference call may be organised or the questions can be asked and answered via email, or both. Note, to minimise cost Learn Implement Share does not visit schools.
• In answer to the question of cost: This course is $AU495 +GST for individuals. The advantages of the School-wide approach are the collaborative/onsite support and the ability for Leaders to significantly influence their staff through the program. However, for School-wide enrolments, there is also a cost reduction to $AU450 +GST per person.
• With this whole-school model there are:
  • ​No casual relief teacher costs.
  • No travel or accommodation requirements.
  • Minimal logistical hurdles (no pupil-free days required, for example).
• In NSW, Australia the course is NESA accredited at 15 hours.​​

Start date, end date and progress

​The remainder of this document assumes the school has decided to proceed with the whole-school student engagement program.

A decision is required regarding the way teachers progress through the online content. There are two options:

Option One: Teachers progress through the online content individually.

Option Two: Teachers progress through the online content in teams during regular, designated, team meetings.

Unless the school provides a compelling reason in favour of Option Two we strongly advise schools to adopt Option One due to the following reasons:.

• Option One is logistically far, far easier than Option Two
• Experience informs us that teachers tend to absorb information much better and reflect more deeply when accessing online content individually than when reading information and watching videos in a group setting.  

With Option One the school may decide to grant participating teachers some release time to work through the online content. 

The remainder of this information applies to the Option One scenario - teachers access the online information individually in their own time.

Decide the start date and duration. 

• The program duration is typically 6-months, which is the minimum duration allowed.
• A longer duration is possible.
• If the program has not been completed by the agreed end date then it will be extended.
• The start date is flexible and is decided by the school.​

Choosing the Leaders

• The leaders need to be chosen carefully. They may be Department Heads or regular teachers, but most of all the leaders need to understand the importance of having students truly engaged in their learning. And, they need to be enthusiastic about being a leader within this program.
• ​The number of leaders required will be determined by the number of participants (see below). As a rough guide, you will need one leader for every ten - fifteen participants. 

Choosing the Teams; choosing the participants

• Teams may be based on departments or may be comprised of teachers from multiple departments. This is completely up to the school. ​

Which teachers should we enrol?

• There is little point enrolling teachers who are strongly resistant to change. Therefore, we do not advise schools 'blanketly' enrol all teachers.
• You might want to survey your staff regarding their willingness to undertake the program.

• Such a survey could include the following question: "Assuming the PL will be worthwhile, engaging, enjoyable and is going to make your teaching role easier, which of the following applies to you":
  1. I'm keen
  2. I'm sort-of keen
  3. I'm not very keen but could become keen if I can see benefits for me in the program
  4. I'm definitely not keen

• The results would influence the way you proceed
  • Option A: Enrol everyone except those who responded with (4).
  • Option B: Commence with half the teachers who respond with 1-3 (but mostly 1s and 2s). Then enrol the remainder (1-3s, perhaps with a few 4s) during a later, second intake. 
  • Option C: Firstly, enrol only the 1's. Then during a second intake, enrol the 2s and 3s

.

• Note: Options B and C allow the same few (excellent) leaders to be used. Options B and C also allow for the initially less enthusiastic teachers to become more willing as they become aware of the strength of the program during the first intake.   

A Department-based approach

• An alternative approach would be to survey the Department Heads and begin with the Departments who are most willing to embrace the program.​

Leadership Roles

The Program Champion's Role - The Champion needs to:

• Take an active interest in the program and in the progress of teachers.
• Help to facilitate discussion among teachers.
• Regularly check in with the Team Leaders.
• Refer names of teachers not making minimum progress to the relevant Team leader.
• Schedule the 1-3 collaborative Team meetings with Team Leaders.

• Write Course Announcements of encouragement into the course platform (Very easy to do, and very powerful)
• Liaise with Learn Implement Share every month or when required.

The Team Leaders' Role - Team Leaders need to:

• Take an active interest in the teachers within their team.
• Help to facilitate discussion among the teachers within their team.
• Ensure all teachers in Team keeping up with the timeline.
• Report/discuss any issues with Team members to the Program Champion which may be passed onto Richard if required.
• Run the 1-3 Team Meetings with their team - mainly a sharing of implementations. ​

Participants' Role (Team Leaders are also participants) - Participants need to:

• Progress gradually through the course.
• Fulfill course requirements.
• Implement multiple strategies with multiple classes. 
• Self-reflect. Share and discuss with colleagues, mostly informally.

​Learn Implement Share's role - (usually) Richard will:

• Liaise with the Course Champion.
• Respond to all submissions.
• Encourage participants. 
• Recognise potential issues with participants and discuss with course Champion / Team Leader as deemed necessary. ​​

The timeline

• The timeline is an essential component of the course.
• The timeline denotes the 'the agreed minimum progress' i.e. that everyone agrees to progress at least according to the 'Minimum progress timeline'.
• This timeline will be easy to achieve for anyone who is serious about benefiting from the course. Many participants will progress at a much faster rate.
• Below is an example of a timeline (6-month duration) 

Timeline Example (for minimum progress)

• A minimum of 15 minutes EVERY week (when too busy to do more)
• Aiming for 30-min to 1-hr per week on most weeks

Minimum Progress:

• End of Week 1 - everyone has created their Open Learning account and logged in.
• End of Month 1: Modules 1 & 2 completed
• End of Month 2: Modules 3 & 4 completed (Implementations start in earnest)
• End of Month 3: Modules 5 & 6  completed (More implementations)
• End of Month 4: Modules 7 & 8 completed (More implementations)
• End of Month 5: Modules 9 (A or B) completed (More implementations)
• End of Month 6: Final module is a consolidation of implementations Modules 10 & 11 - implementation reports and course completion. Note, all teachers need to have satisfied all course requirements to be deemed complete.  It is the Leaders responsibility to check that each of their team members has fulfilled all course requirements. (This is easy to check.)
• A month or so extension is always possible.​

What the program looks like as it runs

With the foundation solidly in place, the program should run very smoothly.

The initial 'All-participants Meeting'
To initiate the program an All-participants Meeting is required where:
- Teachers are shown the course, the requirements and a reiteration of the reasons for the course (teachers have already been made aware of the program by now) and an explanation of the Teams
- Minimum Timeline is agreed to
- Teachers are supported in creating their Open learning account and logging in
- Meeting duration would be 10-20 minutes plus the time taken to have teachers log in.

Months 1 to 3
- Teachers work through the content individually.
- The Champion and Leaders help instigate and/or contribute to collaboration and discussion between participants randomly over coffee, etc., offer encouragement support any progressing slowly to meet the timeline agreement and respond encouragingly to online submissions.
- The Champion writes encouraging Course Announcements
- Richard responds to submissions and liaises with Program Champion

- Some implementations will commence during the second month.
- A Team occurs around end Month 3 to enable teachers to share their implementation wins. Leaders actively work to establish a non-judgemental, transparent environment in the meeting.

Months 4 to 6
- Same as for Months 1 to 3 with another Team meeting in Month 6.
- The school is free to run extra Team meetings if desired.
- However, during Month 6 the Leaders could initiate a focus on implementations i.e. to target a set of strategies (e.g. eight) and have everyone choose five to implement across multiple classes. This is over-and-above the course requirements but would add significant extra power to the outcomes for the school.

This sounds great but we are not ready to embark on a school-wide program yet. What can we do?

That's fine! If you would like to proceed but you don't have sufficient school-wide support there are some options you can take:

• Invite those teachers who are keen to enrol as one TEAM. Once they complete the course there may be other teachers interested in creating a second TEAM, and so on.
• ​Start with just one or two departments who are keen to improve the engagement of their students. Enrol them into Teams.
• Choose a number of teachers who you think could be ideal Team Leaders. Enrol these teachers into the course. When they complete the course liaise with these teachers and with Learn Implement Share to explore the possible whole-school rollout of the program. 

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