Henrico County Schools is on a journey to create 21st century learning environments to ensure our students have the skills needed to succeed in an ever-changing world. The ideal 21st century learning experience is created by leveraging the synergy of relevant content, engaging pedagogy, and the support of high quality technology tools to both deliver content and allow students to interact with and create their own material in a global environment.
The Reflective Friends process is designed to provide participating schools with objective data on their efforts to build 21st century learning environments. Through a series of systematic classroom observations and interviews with teachers and students, a profile of trends in classroom instruction (content, pedagogy, and technology) will emerge. These data will become good information to be used for future development of your school program.
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Reflective Friends Overview:
- One site visit (October 25 – November 20)
- 6 teachers selected
- Administrators will be assigned to participate in a site visit at another school.
- Administrators will participate in one norming activity prior to site visit at another school.
Site Visit:
- A one-day site visit is scheduled between October/November.
- All participating teachers will know the day of the site visit and should prepare to teach a high quality 21st century lesson.
- Observations will be aligned to this version of the TIP Chart.
- A classroom observation tool similar to this will be used. Click here to see sample tool.
- Analysis of data and development of report will be presented.
Presentation of Data:
- Data will be presented to the school after lunch on the day of the site visit.
- Persons involved should include the principal, members of the administrative team, ITRT, librarian, and Reflective Friends lead(s). Key teacher-leaders may also be invited to attend.
- The group will discuss areas of growth and next steps.
- An Excel RF data file including commendations and recommendations will be distributed.
Feedback for Teachers:
- Teachers observed during the site visit will have an opportunity to meet with his/her observer for a 10-minute feedback session. This level of participation is optional.
- The observer will discuss elements of the lesson with reference to the TIP Chart.
- Appointments will be available after school on the day of the site visit.
- The teacher will sign up with the site-based ITRT in advance.
Role of All Teachers:
- Complete a self-assessment based on the TIP Chart criteria
- Work regularly with the ITRT to develop and implement new skills.
- Integrate 21st C. Skills in daily lesson plans.
Role of the ITRT:
- Assist Instructional Technology Specialist with preparation for site visit (schedule, room reservation, etc)
- Meet with instructional technology specialist at least twice between RF visits to review progress toward goals in plan
- Meet with principal following the site visit to develop a RF school plan based on the 2011 and 2012 RF data.
(Taken from the HCPS Reflective Friends blog.)
