How Instructional Rounds optimize learning for teachers and students

<p>Vicki Wilson, the principal of the Monroe Elementary School in the Wyandotte, Michigan School District, and author of <i>Lead with Instructional Rounds: Creating a Culture of Professional Learning</i>, shares her views on why and how and when you use instructional rounds to both create a culture for learning, as well as support the teachers' learning.</p><p>Vicki Wilson recounted some of the experiences that shaped her approach as a school administrator and very passionate advocate for learning for both children and adults. As a fourth grade teacher, “I wasn't expecting the depth of the relationship that I had with students as individuals, but also that you have just with your class as a whole and the community that you build and the culture that you build. So that was the first thing that shaped me, is that realizing that it's so much more than sharing content with kids so that they learn it but it is about community and culture and family and getting to know each other."</p><p>The second experience Vicki Wilson recalled was as a principal in a school where she had been working previously. She visited the classrooms of teachers she knew and with whom she had taught and using a wider lens, “I realized that as I went into everybody's classroom I saw strengths that I did not know that they had and that changed me and shaped me dramatically. And I started to think about how can we leverage these strengths that are in classrooms.”</p><p>Moving beyond her walls and community and becoming an educational leader was the third experience that came later in her career as a principal. She became more connected, "reaching out beyond her district and joining the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals’ Association (MEMSPA) state association and building a professional learning network, getting active on Twitter and eventually writing a book."</p><p>The instructional rounds approach that staff took at Monroe Elementary School was to examine different research and best practices. “The research out of Harvard support