Professional Learning

Become a team that teaches itself. By Dr. Tim Grivois of TGS Educational Consulting
Professional Learning

Become a team that teaches itself.

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What I do at TGS Educational Consulting is to help leaders and leadership teams create an organization that teaches itself to get better at accomplishing the good they wants to do for their community. My portfolio of clients includes Higher Ground, A Resource Center, Pima County Community Prevention Coalition, Sonoran Science Academy, and Orange Grove Middle School, and while my work with each client is highly tailored to what they want to accomplish, we achieve our outcomes together through three key approaches:

Three things I learned teaching the Tucson Police Department about the LGBTQIA+ community. By Dr. Tim Grivois of TGS Educational Consulting
Professional Learning

Three things I learned teaching the Tucson Police Department about the LGBTQ+ community

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I am good at leading professional learning. My activities are tailored to my audience. I bring snacks. I balance content time and processing time. And, most importantly, I reflect on each session, seek feedback from whomever I can find who’ll talk to me about what they just experienced, and put that feedback into practice as soon as possible. I’m not good at basketball, making my bed, playing the bassoon, or many other areas of human endeavor, but I do know that many leaders have told me that they have learned how to be a better presenter from participating in something I was facilitating.

Self-care for people who don't want to practice yoga or eat more vegetables. By Dr. Tim Grivois
Professional Learning, Self-Care, Wellness

Self-care for people who don’t want to practice yoga or eat more vegetables.

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For the past three years, I’ve attended and facilitated professional learning events about trauma-informed practice. Each event included a section on self-care. Sometimes I would share a breathing activity or a list of inexpensive ways participants might treat themselves or their staff. More recently, I’ve participated in Zoom-yoga, and have run across two or three invitations to online meditation groups.

Ongoing professional learning with data
data, Professional Learning

Ongoing Professional Learning with Data

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I frequently lead professional learning on how to use data effectively, most recently with Youth On Their Own, a Tucson-based nonprofit that supports youth without a permanent place to live in graduating high school. Over the years, I’ve collected a few topics that tend to be effective for whole-staff trainings, and others that have transformed teams of teachers and individual educators in 1:1 coaching sessions. I also have worked with some amazing administrators to support their use of data as well. If your school is thinking about explicit training in using data, the topics below will be helpful.

Whats on your mind and on your heart
Professional Learning, Social and Emotional Learning, Wellness

What’s on your mind and on your heart?

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Self-awareness is, according to CASEL, the ability to “understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts.” Last week, I worked with a group of twelve teachers, counselors, and school leaders at Davis Bilingual Magnet Elementary School. Davis is a K-8 school in Tucson Unified School District and serves both Spanish-dominant and English-dominant emerging bilingual students. Our goal was to create something to help students understand and regulate emotions. What impressed me more, however, was how powerful our work became for teachers themselves.

As small as possible make professional learning fit
Professional Learning

As small as possible: Make professional learning fit.

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The biggest problem with professional learning is that everything about it is too big. The trainer from out of town is pricey, the stuff you need to implement the learning is expensive, and you need to pay for subs so that teachers can go to the Great Big PD during a workday. Worst of all, the PD might not be what teachers need, making every decision to send teachers to anything a gamble.

Working Smarter
Productivity, Professional Learning

Working Smarter.

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Successful initiatives begin with a shared understanding of what the team is doing, who the work is for, and what’s supposed to happen when we get it right. Sometimes, leaders assume that everyone understands what’s going on. The best, however, take no chances. Recently, Fatih Karatas, Chief Executive Officer at Sonoran Schools, sat down with me and his leadership team to list all initiatives and then identify the audience, responsibility, and outcome for each.

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