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S1 E4 - A Focus on Teaching & Learning in the OSD Feat. Jim Pliner · Inside the OSD

• 0:04
  SPEAKER1: Welcome to Inside the OSD.
• 0:07
  I'm Dr. Leslie Bergstrom, and I'm the host of this podcast.
• 0:10
  Our purpose is to educate and inform you about timely topics and have a little fun doing it.
• 0:17
  We hope to give you an inside look at what life is like in our schools.
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  And that's going to be fun because it's all about our kids.
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  If you have school aged kids, you know that schools are busy places.
• 0:28
  There's always a lot going on.
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  There are classes, co curriculars, and community events, just to name a few.
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  With all of the activity, our primary focus as a school district is on learning.
• 0:41
  Today we are talking about how we keep learning at the center of everything we do.
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  Joining me for this discussion is our Oregon High School principal Jim Pliner and Oregon High School instructional coaches Andrea Anderson and Brad Breunig.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER2: Welcome to this episode of Inside the OSD podcast, where it's all about the kids.
• 1:03
  Here is your host, lifelong educator, and our superintendent, Dr.
• 1:07
  Leslie Bergstrom.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER1: Welcome and thanks for joining me for this episode of Inside the OSD.
• 1:19
  We know that the best learning environment for our students occurs when our staff members continue to grow in their practice and in their ability to meet
• 1:27
  the evolving needs of each and every student.
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  We are a district that is committed to continuous improvement and professional growth, and our instructional coaches play a really important role in this.
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  And I am here right now with two of our instructional coaches.
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  We'll start by asking them to introduce themselves and telling us a little bit about themselves.
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  SPEAKER3: Well, hi, Leslie. It's great to be at the table with you.
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  Thanks for taking such an interest in the work we're doing at Oregon High School.
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  I'm Andrea Anderson.
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  I'm starting my 33rd year.
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  How can that be?
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  SPEAKER1: Congratulations.
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  SPEAKER3: Thank you. And my eighth at Oregon High School and I started out as a science teacher.
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  I've been a varsity boys and girls tennis coach along the way.
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  But right now I live in Oregon and my son is at the high school.
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  He's a junior, so.
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  SPEAKER1: Oh boy. Okay.
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  SPEAKER4: Hi, Leslie. Thank you very much.
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  Yes. Thank you for inviting us to the podcast to take part.
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  And it's fantastic.
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  My name is Brad Breunig.
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  I'm the other instructional coach here at the high school.
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  This is my 22nd year at OHS.
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  I actually did my student teaching here and then was hired as an English teacher.
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  I spent 17 years teaching English here at the high school and now I'm in my fifth year as an instructional coach.
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  And I even went to preschool in Oregon.
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  SPEAKER1: Oh, my.
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  SPEAKER4: Yeah.
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  SPEAKER1: Yeah. I didn't know that about you!
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  SPEAKER4: Yeah. Some listeners may know my mom, Judy, from the Judy and Winnie pair from Oregon preschool for years and years.
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  So my students used to bring in pictures of my mom with them in preschool and that was always such a joy.
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  SPEAKER1: So who who did you student teach with?
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  Doris Keyes.
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  Oh, of course, of course.
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  I think she was here for the first year that I was here about 20 some years ago.
• 3:28
  Yes, Very.
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  SPEAKER4: Nice. Yeah.
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  SPEAKER1: So I know that when people are listening, many of them are probably asking themselves, what is an instructional coach?
• 3:37
  So would you mind sharing for us how we define that?
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  SPEAKER4: Absolutely. My role, really our roles as instructional coaches are to support educators and to help them reach their
• 3:50
  goals for their students.
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  And we do that in a number of ways, including helping to guide the instructional vision of the school and really helping to guide the adult
• 4:02
  collaboration and adult learning in the school so we can maximize our effect on student learning.
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  SPEAKER3: Yeah, and I would just add to that, I love how Brad captures that.
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  And this is a question that I get a lot on the pickleball court in Oregon.
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  "What do you do? Oh, you're not a teacher.
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  Oh, you must be a principal." Well, no, no, not that either.
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  There's some other things in between, too.
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  So as Brad said and I said, we were both teachers for quite some time and getting a chance to be in a teacher leadership role, I think about with
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  being an instructional coach.
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  But in addition to coming alongside individual teachers or small groups of teachers, as Brad said, we're really at a school wide level in our work as well.
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  And at the high school we have something called a Theory of Action.
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  I'm not going to go into what that is in detail, but it's really our commitment to what it is we will do to support all students and
• 5:03
  their learning. And we mainly do that through our work with all teachers, all educators and their learning.
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  And what we do is we really work towards that Theory of Action.
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  So everyone is moving in the same direction, towards the same set of goals, and we're doing that by being better collaborators.
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  So we're working together and moving in the same direction as how I think at a big picture level of what our work is.
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  SPEAKER1: I think that describes it really well.
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  It's about alignment of all of our efforts and working together on our common goal.
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  So I can't imagine anything more powerful in the school setting.
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  But for people who aren't used to how this works, can you tell us what it looks like in practice?
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  SPEAKER4: Absolutely. Andrea, I appreciate you bringing up the Theory of Action.
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  I think it really kind of describes in detail our vision of what effective teaching and learning really looks like at OHS.
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  And so as instructional coaches, you know, part of our role, as I mentioned, is to really guide that vision of effective teaching and learning at the school.
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  And we do that. One of the ways we do that, we meet with our building principal, Jim Pliner, every week and we talk about a number of different things
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  that we kind of have going on in the school for the week and some other specific things that we do.
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  We set up things like instructional rounds.
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  And instructional rounds, we try to have these a couple of times a year.
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  We just had instructional rounds in November this year.
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  And that really is kind of a school wide formative assessment for us as educators where we put together visiting teams
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  of educators and administrators, outside collaborators from other institutions like UW.
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  And we go throughout the building and each team visits three different classes, and we're looking for examples of that Theory of Action
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  in action in our classrooms.
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  And then all the teams get back together.
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  We meet in the afternoon, we discuss what we saw, kind of where our strengths right now regarding the Theory of Action and where our growth area is and what
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  could we as instructional coaches help to work toward as far as upcoming professional development and things of that
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  nature.
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  SPEAKER1: Honestly, I participated in the majority of the instructional rounds days.
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  I wish I had been in every one of them because they are probably my favorite days.
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  Not only do I get to see amazing learning happening right in front of me, but because I've been able to do it over several years, I see an evolution of
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  our practice over time and how it's positively impacting students.
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  That's so exciting for me and it's exciting for anybody who gets to do it, let alone gets to be a part of it several times over many years.
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  You get to see what's really happening when people work together towards what they determine to be really important.
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  The Theory of Action.
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  I love it.
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  SPEAKER3: And I'm just going to pick up on that.
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  Thanks for talking about instructional rounds, Brad.
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  And as Leslie mentioned, it's ongoing, right?
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  So our first round of that round of rounds was in 2017, in the spring.
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  And so now here we are in 2023 and we'll have our eighth rounds, I think in the spring.
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  So yeah, just having that system in place to check on the health and wellness and what it really looks like to have a poster on a wall
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  is one thing. And then if you really are about enacting what's on that Theory of Action poster, you check, right?
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  And you learn and you, you take action based on what you learn.
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  So that's really part of our rhythm here at the high school, but that's at a schoolwide level.
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  Another part of the really exciting work - and I would just interject that if it sounds like our positions are really positive, they are.
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  So it's not all, but really it's really positive work.
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  So one of the things we also do is set up and get to participate in the learning that comes from something called a collaborative classroom
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  visit, and that is similar to instructional rounds but much more personalized.
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  So at this time of the year we actually just finished.
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  We work with our new educators and we ask them after a month of being here, who is a colleague that you would love to go see in
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  action? So they're not going to tell you about what they do.
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  They're not going to be after their third period class, but you're going to get a chance to see that colleague and their students and be part of what we call
• 10:00
  the instructional core in action.
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  So a teacher, student, content in the presence of a task or tasks that they're working on.
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  So like I said, Brad and I set those up.
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  We start by asking new educators and in we go, not just with one person.
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  It's a little bit of a troop coming in, but other colleagues come.
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  So maybe an art teacher, maybe a chemistry teacher and a new music teacher might be off to the AP music theory class, along
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  with Mr. Pliner and myself.
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  And we are in, we write down a bunch of notes and like Brad said, we make sense of those together.
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  And I really think that we're together is important to underscore.
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  And when you do these - in 2015, every teacher who worked here was part of one of 29 collaborative classroom visits.
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  So that was a part of what what our work is really about, which is the culture of our school focused on learning, collaborative and
• 11:06
  realizing that we are so often our very best resources.
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  But we're not if we're only seeing each other in the copy room or in the parking lot.
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  Right? Right?
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  When we're in with each other as professionals, engaging in professional conversation and learning with each other, that's where we really realize how
• 11:27
  awesome we are and how much we have to learn within from each other.
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  SPEAKER1: Well, it builds real collective efficacy within a school to to realize the level of expertise you're surrounded by all the time and the expertise that you bring,
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  because that's acknowledged through throughout these processes, too, is that we are all bringing something very special to our students and all trying to get
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  better at it. And we use one another in that effort.
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  SPEAKER4: Absolutely. And something else that we do as coaches, is we put together a help guide
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  what is known as Forward magazine, which the subtitle is "a professional journal by Panthers for Panthers." So we invite our
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  educators to write an article about specific ways that they are forwarding our Theory of Action, engaging and teaching and
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  learning with our students in ways that are very exciting for them.
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  And they're seeing great things happen and they want to share all the great things that are happening in their classrooms.
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  And so they can write an article with very specific details about the ways that they are interacting with students and forwarding our Theory of Action.
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  And right now, we're in the process of gathering rough drafts for our third issue of Forward.
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  And we hope to to come out with it in a couple of months here.
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  And, you know, you mentioned collective efficacy, and that can be hard to kind of point at, right?
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  SPEAKER1: It's hard to measure! What does
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  SPEAKER4: collective efficacy look at?
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  But we can we can read through our Forward magazine and we can watch our educators reading copies of the magazine, and they're reading about the great
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  things that their colleagues are doing.
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  And it's just a great way for us to celebrate the important work that educators are doing and a great way for us to learn from each other.
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  As Andrea mentioned, most often, we really are our own best resources and we know this very challenging work that we're engaged in.
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  So really working together towards our goals is the very important way that we do our best for kids in the district.
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  SPEAKER1: I think there's a quote some would remember who said it, but it's "education isn't rocket science.
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  It's more complex than rocket science." And when I am able to watch our staff do what they do so well, I see that, right?
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  I see that in action.
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  But I also know a really cool collaboration that the school has with an outside partner is our work with authentic intellectual
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  work or AIW.
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  Can you talk a little bit about that?
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  Because it's really powerful, really powerful stuff.
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  SPEAKER3: Yeah, I'm happy to.
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  Thanks for bringing that up, Leslie.
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  And I just want to connect with Forward.
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  One last thing is that's a great example of something that's new, right?
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  Brad mentioned that this is our third issue, right?
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  And so I'm going to talk about these teams that have been around for five years.
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  Right. And they're not static.
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  They're evolving and whatnot.
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  But Forward is something that was an idea that we had and we've never done before.
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  And so it's exciting to see other possibilities come into view and then to take that idea, work together and make it reality.
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  So that's a neat thing about Forward, but more neat things with these AIW teams.
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  We have five of those teams here at our school and also we have three teams at the middle school and that's exciting because this all of this
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  work is not, you know, prioritized or it's not like there's no seal that says it has to be at the high school.
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  All of this can really be part of any school and any grade level.
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  And we're so excited that it's that we're making it happen with our colleagues, with Jim, with all the educators here.
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  But AIW teams are a hallmark of them is that they're cross-disciplinary.
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  So I mentioned there's five teams.
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  Brad is a leader and on a team.
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  I'm a leader and on a team and there's three more.
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  So on my team, I work with a phy ed and health teacher, an English teacher, a Spanish teacher,
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  a math teacher, a physics teacher and me, an instructional coach.
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  We meet every single week at 7:00 in the morning.
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  Oh yeah, on Thursdays and again, it's us bringing our work to share with one another.
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  And when you think about - we don't replace something that we would call a professional learning community or a PLC where physics teachers get together,
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  geometry teachers get together, music teachers get together.
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  That's in addition to an AIW.
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  Teams are in addition to those content alike teams.
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  But when you think about it, it's so exciting and refreshing to say, "This is what I've got planned for my applied physics class,"
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  right? Take a look at it.
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  And not just take a look at it as who you are.
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  We spend time getting to know what these AIW criteria are and it helps just make more actionable this Theory of Action.
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  So we're speaking the same language.
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  We talk about things like where are kids constructing their own knowledge?
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  Where are they kids getting a chance to make their thinking and their learning and their questions visible through elaborated communication and where is what
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  they're learning and doing and thinking about in our classes?
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  Where does that have value beyond school?
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  So we use that language across our school on these teams I mentioned we're meeting regularly throughout the whole year and that's really what
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  professional learning when it's teacher driven, it's job embedded, that's when professional learning really can have impact.
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  So it might seem like you might have a question, "how are these people?
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  I don't hear a lot about them working with students, but yet they're claiming to have impact on student achievement and learning." And that's really how that
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  happens, is working so closely with our classroom educators on a regular basis about the tasks that they're designing that
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  kids are engaged with, with the work that kids are doing, and then trying to make some meaning of that with your colleagues.
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  What do you see? What does that mean for a next step, etc.?
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  So those are regular features of our days here at Oregon High School.
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  And again, it's really positive work.
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  And these positions, I think this is interesting too.
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  They didn't exist when Leslie and Brad and me, when we were high school, right?
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  So when we say we're preparing kids for their futures and those professional positions they may find themselves in do not exist
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  - we are living that.
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  And it's so great because teachers don't - like this doesn't just happen.
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  So to have a district that realizes that when you invest in positions like ours, then things like this can happen.
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  So it's such a pleasure to be able to do this kind of work at this stage in my career.
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  SPEAKER4: I agree. It really is.
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  We have such great educators here in the district here at our high school, and it really is an honor to be able to support
• 19:03
  them, help them do their best for our students, and really to empower them, right?
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  To reach the goals that they have for their students.
• 19:14
  So it really is yeah, it's an honor.
• 19:16
  I love educators and really love being able to support them in this challenging work.
• 19:22
  We know it gets more challenging every year.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER3: More so than rocket science, as Leslie reminded us.
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  That's true statement.
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  SPEAKER1: Thank you both.
• 19:32
  Mr. Pliner, we've just heard all about the role of instructional coaches, and this may be the first time many of our listeners have heard about what our
• 19:39
  coaches do in our schools.
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  So let's bring it home.
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  Why is this role so important and how has it been impactful at OHS?
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  SPEAKER2: We're constantly striving to build a culture that focuses on learning in our building, and that means both student learning and learning for adults.
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  And our instructional coaches are such key partners in helping us establish the conditions and the context by which we reflect on the impact of our work,
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  as well as working together collaboratively to establish the outcomes that we really want to have for kids.
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  And our coaches have just an amazing expertise of helping people reflect deeply and
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  to form really strong relationships so that as educators we can be vulnerable with one another.
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  And so they have been just so important to helping establish the mission as well as really create the conditions by which
• 20:40
  that mission can come to life.
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  SPEAKER1: Thank you for being an excellent example of purposeful collaboration, which is a priority as identified in Portrait of a Graduate that our community recently
• 20:52
  came together to refine this past year.
• 20:55
  I want to remind our listeners you can find links to Inside the OSD on our website at
• 21:01
  OregonSD.org/podcast. It is also available on Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon
• 21:11
  Music. Make sure to subscribe if you're listening on one of these apps to get notifications on the most recent episodes.
• 21:18
  Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time on Inside The OSD, where it's all about our kids.