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Working with Diverse PLC Teams with Casey Watts, ep. 225

Top view of a blue desk with stationary supplies. These words are at the bottom "Working with Diverse PLC Teams with Casey Watts".

As instructional coaches, we are asked to work with ALL teachers! Veteran teachers, uncertified teachers, alternatively certified teachers, and teachers with different philosophies! Working with diverse PLC teams can be difficult, but it’s something we have to do for our teachers and students!

Today, I invited author and instructional specialist Casey Watts to join me on the podcast to talk about coaching diverse PLC teams. We also discuss how working with your professional learning communities (PLCs) can support your coaching action plan.

During the episode, she tells us about her new book and why clarity is so important for PLC meetings. Casey highlights the need for a common focus and shared values among teachers. She shares strategies for setting up norms, fostering collaboration, and creating cohesive teams. Plus, Casey explains how coaches can differentiate PLC meetings to meet the needs of diverse teacher teams. You don’t want to miss this captivating conversation!

How Working with PLC Teams Can Support Your Coaching Action Plan

It’s very easy for our coaching work to become fragmented and overwhelming to teachers. That’s why in the last few episodes we’ve been looking at how to develop an effective coaching action plan. This includes whole-group professional development (PD), PLCs, and individual coaching.

Casey says we sometimes treat PLCs as separate from the actual work of coaching teachers. Instead, she recommends using our PLCs to inform the work we do with individual teachers, so our workload is more efficient.

When schools have an area of focus, our PDs, PLCs, and individual coaching conversations can fall under that umbrella making them more effective. It also allows teachers to see the connection!

Clarity in PLC Meetings

In Casey’s new book, The Craft of Clarity: Six Steps to Bridge Gaps, Foster Commitment, and Create Sustainable Alignment, she discusses the importance of clarity. In the episode, she says a lack of clarity can lead to unsuccessful PLC meetings.

Casey explains that there are different areas where a lack of clarity might impede capacity and limit what we can do in our PLCs. Below are a few things that could cause a lack of clarity when it comes to professional learning communities.

Lack of clarity around:

  • What a PLC is and its purpose
  • Common instructional practices
  • What an agenda looks like
  • What a professional learning community looks like in action
  • Common area of focus or common goal

Building PLCs with Diverse Teachers Through Clarity, Character, and Collaboration

Building PLCs with very different groups of teachers doesn’t happen in a few days! Casey tells us that there are some foundational things that need to be put in place to build a cohesive team.

Here’s what she believes needs to be at the foundation in order to build a professional learning community that flourishes and helps students grow!

  1. Clarity – Clarity about where they’re headed and how they’re going to get there.
  2. Strong character – This means starting the year by focusing on what our personalities are like, and if we are self-aware and socially aware. Then we need to understand what that looks like in our school.
  3. Strong collaboration skills – Most people haven’t been explicitly taught and don’t regularly practice collaboration skills. They don’t know how to bridge the gaps between people who are different from them. To help with this, she emphasizes setting norms collaboratively after getting to know each other and viewing them as commitments rather than rules.

Casey recommends taking time at the beginning of the year and throughout the year to focus on these three big things because it’s the only way to have truly cohesive teams. Focusing on them allows instructional coaches to bring teachers together in PLCs. She acknowledges that finding time for this can be challenging, but putting it off will only allow the problems to resurface later, causing even bigger issues.

Working with Teachers with Different Philosophies

As instructional coaches, we work with teachers who have a variety of educational philosophies. During our conversation, Casey suggests these strategies for helping teachers with different philosophies work together in PLCs.

  • At the beginning of the year, set norms and core beliefs about student learning
  • Acknowledge that teachers have different philosophies, but they should align on core district values and mission
  • When issues arise, have a conversation about the shared norms and agreed-upon beliefs about student learning
  • Let go of minor disagreements that won’t significantly impact student learning


The goal when working with teachers who have different educational philosophies is to create collective efficacy and a shared sense of purpose by finding common ground, while still respecting each teacher’s beliefs.

Working with Teachers with Various Experience Levels

Working with teachers with different backgrounds and levels of experience can be tough to navigate.

Our teachers may be:

  • Brand new teachers
  • Uncertified teachers
  • Alternatively certified teachers
  • Veteran teachers with many years of experience

While discussing the challenges of facilitating PLC meetings with teachers of varying experience levels, Casey and I explore how to effectively conduct meetings with teams that have diverse backgrounds and expertise.

Here are a few things you can try:

  • Review your onboarding processes for new people at the beginning of the year
  • Do pre-work before meetings to assess teachers’ current knowledge and needs
  • Talk about the norms and the types of norms that have been established to acknowledge the diverse experiences of teachers within the group
  • Focus on team development – What makes each person thrive and what we know about them
  • Differentiate your meeting content and approach – Don’t rush through content for experienced teachers or go too slow for the new ones
  • Recognize and provide individual follow-up coaching for new teachers who need more support
  • Don’t always rely on veteran teachers for input

The overall goal is to create a supportive learning environment that meets diverse needs while maintaining a focus on collective learning and student outcomes.

Working with Diverse PLC Teams

Casey really knows her stuff when it comes to PLC teams! I know you’re going to love our conversation and get so much out of it! Plus, you’ll learn how to get my Instructional Coaching Action Plan Toolkit and free Action Plan Challenge. Listen to the entire episode to get all the details.

Topics and Questions Discussed in Episode 225 – Working with Diverse PLC Teams with Casey Watts

  • Working with diverse PLC teams
  • How working with PLCs can support your action plan
  • Casey’s new book: The Craft of Clarity: Six Steps to Bridge Gaps, Foster Commitment, and Create Sustainable Alignment
  • The importance of clarity in our PLC meetings
  • Building cohesive PLCs with diverse teachers and what they look like in action
  • Setting PLC norms collaboratively
  • Seeing norms as commitments rather than rules
  • Helping teachers with different philosophies work together through PLCs
  • The challenges of facilitating PLCs with teachers of varying experience levels and strategies for coaches to differentiate effectively


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Working with Diverse PLC Teams with Casey Watts, ep. 225, Instructional Coaching with Ms. B Podcast

Chrissy Beltran 00:00
Welcome to instructional coaching with Miss B where we believe that every teacher deserves a coach, and every coach does too. I’m Chrissy Beltran, an elementary teacher who became a coach, and I had to create my own coaching program that worked now, I teach coaches how to design their coaching programs, build a school wide action plan and use differentiated strategies to support teachers. Plus, I’ve got a special spot in my heart for literacy coaches. Now let’s dig into the episode.

Chrissy Beltran 00:28
Hey coach and welcome to episode 225. We are wrapping up our series on developing a coaching action plan today. The episode that I have for you is all about coaching diverse PLC teams, because sometimes we have a lovely action plan, but the teachers aren’t that excited about it. And whenever you work with teams of teachers in groups, then you might find that they are all operating in different philosophies, from different backgrounds, different experiences, and that alone is a huge challenge to make sure that you know, whenever we’re working with teams, that they actually can get together and make decisions and make plans and do what’s best for kids, because they all might have a different idea of what that is. So today we’re going to talk about how we are supporting veteran teachers and then certified teachers alternatively certified teachers, teachers with different philosophies and all these different backgrounds through the PLC meetings that we have. And so I’m excited to introduce you to my guest, Casey watts, because this is her deal. She is all about supporting PLC teams, making sure that they’re effective, and she does it all through the lens of clarity. So I’m really excited to dig into that. Before we do, I want to mention to you that you can grab a free action plan challenge that goes straight to your inbox at buzzing with Miss b.com/action plan. And that action plan challenge will walk you through how to create a plan of action at three different levels for your coaching work. So that’s like your whole group coaching. You know, professional development, your PLC team meetings that are differentiated, and then your independent, one on one coaching that is an individual level. So those are three tiers of action that you can take as a coach, and this action plan challenge will help you work through creating a plan for yourself that’s actually going to work. I am so excited to share that with you, because I’ve gotten some really good feedback on it gives people some guidance on how to approach their work when they feel like they’re just kind of trying to tackle too many things at once. You can also grab the action plan toolkit. And if you go to teachers, pay teachers, check my name out, Chrissy Beltran, you’ll find the action plan toolkit in my store. It’s got a ton of great resources to help you at all those three levels I just described, and a really great overview of creating your action plan. So check that out for sure. And without further ado, let’s welcome Casey to the podcast. So excited to have her here today. Welcome to the podcast, Casey.

Casey Watts 02:54
Ah, so excited to be here. Chrissy, this is going to be such a fun conversation. Yeah, yes,

Chrissy Beltran 02:59
it will. I’m really looking forward to it, because we’re going to talk about a lot of hot topics. Hot topics. So as a quick way to introduce yourself, even though you’ve been a guest on the podcast before, we would love to hear about a few things. Who do you help and how do you spend most of your time and energy at work? Yeah,

Casey Watts 03:13
I coach both teachers and leaders. Most of the time my energy is spent bridging the gap between those two parties, or bridging the gap between departments. So I am currently an instructional a district instructional specialist, which means I do coach teachers and leaders and then try to bridge that gap between departments. And then I really kind of do the same thing in my consulting work and speaking work on the side, I focus on helping to bridge. You know, we hear all about bridging learning gaps for students, but we don’t always hear about bridging gaps between people in the organization, and so that’s what my goal is, so we can have aligned, cohesive teams.

Chrissy Beltran 03:57
I love it. And then my next question is a fun question. It’s because I have made it my mission to share hobbies with coaches, because I feel like we forget that we’re supposed to be whole people. So what is a hobby that you love to do?

Casey Watts 04:11
Okay, my very human hobby is my first one is I love front porch sitting like when it when the weather gets nice, I will get outside and sit on the porch for hours, and I really enjoy like, sitting out there with friends or my family drinking tea or coffee. And then my other hobby, I don’t know if this is a hobby, but something I really enjoy doing, and it’s thrifting, like, I like, yeah, like I’ve, I’ve and I’ve done it for years, but just recently, I’ve seen these what I thrifted versus how I styled it. You know, those kinds of things they found me. So now algorithm found both. It sure did, and it covers my feed, and I just click over and over and over again because I want to know what did they do with it. So anyway, that’s. Yeah, it’s, it’s my hobby. I love it.

Chrissy Beltran 05:01
It’s, I am a Thrifter as well. I have been my whole life, since I was a kid. My mom and I used to go to garage sales. That was, like, our fun thing we did on the weekends. And I have made it my goal for the last couple of years to get things, as many things used rather than new, as possible. So like, I have a little list on my phone of things that we would like to replace, or that we would like to have, that we need, but not like, so urgently that I can’t scout around for it for a while, you know? So I just try to, yeah, with that. And that’s I’ve been I think that’s a great thing to do.

Casey Watts 05:33
I love that. Yeah, definitely have mad respect for that. That’s good way to go. It takes time,

Chrissy Beltran 05:37
though. So, you know, it’s, it’s a whole it’s actually, whenever I have a day off, that is what I choose to do, which is weird. My mom is like, so you spend your day off just like, shopping for, like, you know, soap dispensers. I was like, yes, yeah,

05:51
something you could have purchased on Amazon and gotten. That’s right,

Chrissy Beltran 05:54
that’s right. I’m on a mission of a couple of missions. One of them, yeah. So this mainly series that we are wrapping up today is all about developing a coaching action plan. So how do you feel that working with your PLC teams can support your action plan as a coach?

Casey Watts 06:11
Oh, man, what a great question. And I’ve been thinking a lot about this, but you know, as a coach, your work with PLC should inform the work that you do with individual teachers. And really, vice versa, right? Like, I think too often we step we treat them as these separate things, like we have PLC s that we’re going in and some some coaches maybe are facilitators. Some of them are, unfortunately, like the leaders of the PLC meetings, and some of them really don’t have a part in it at all, but we treat it as a separate thing. And then sometimes we we separate that from the actual work of coaching teachers, but they go hand in hand. And if we, if we can facilitate them in ways where they are going hand in hand, and our workload becomes less, or it becomes more efficient. Rather, I’m not going to say it becomes less, but it does. Less but it does become more efficient. So, you know, sometimes I hear teachers or coaches talking about, how do they go like, how can we take one and use it to facilitate another? How can I go into PLC and use that to facilitate my coaching conversations with teachers and vice versa. But that all boils down to whether the campus has like an area of focus that they are collectively working toward, or goals that they are collectively working towards. So all of the work that you’re doing, whether it’s in PLCs or coaching teachers individually, should fall underneath the umbrella of a broader, common focus. So yeah, I think they just think they have to go hand in hand, and we have to see it that way as we’re creating this action plan.

Chrissy Beltran 07:50
I like that. Yeah, I think that. I think you’re right. I think that it’s very easy for our work to become fragmented, and then everything, nothing really is all that effective, and it’s overwhelming to teachers, and they don’t see the point,

Casey Watts 08:03
right? Yeah, absolutely, um, and they, they need to see the connection too. Otherwise, that’s when we start to notice teachers feeling like there’s more on their plates, you know, like it’s just one more thing. Well, let’s take that away, and let’s, let’s treat the two as a partnership PLC is in individual coaching, yes.

Chrissy Beltran 08:25
So in your new book, you really focus on clarity through your work. So can you explain a little bit about what that means when we’re talking about PLC meetings or PLC teams at our schools? Yeah,

Casey Watts 08:36
you know how so often there are those PLC meetings or team meetings where it becomes like, just this checklist, the thing that we do because we have to get it done. Or sometimes it can feel like, Oh, this is just another planning meeting. We’re completing lesson plans. We’re checking it off the list so we can move on to something else. I think that so often happens because there is a lack of clarity. Now we don’t always know what teachers are lacking clarity around, or what the coach is lacking clarity around, or what the entire campus is lacking clarity around, but more times than not, it’s unsuccessful. PLC could be unsuccessful because there’s a lack of clarity. So let me give you some ideas of and I talk about this in the book too, but of some different things where a lack of clarity might be impeding capacity, it could be that there is a lack of clarity around what is a PLC, right? Like, how many times have we started off the year restating the definition and purpose of a PLC, because if you think about it, that can look different from campus to campus to campus, and people are coming in with their own experiences from PLC is that they’ve had it like in. Other districts, etc, or maybe they’ve never experienced it at all, if we have bringing new teachers. And so we have to get clarity around, what in the world do we mean when our campus says we implement professional learning communities? So that could be something that we’re lacking clarity around. It could be a lack of clarity around, like common instructional practices, or, what does an agenda look like like? What does a PLC look like in action? It could be lack of clarity around a common area of focus or common goals. Like, there are so many different ways where a lack of clarity could be impeding capacity and limiting what we’re able to do in those professional learning communities.

Chrissy Beltran 10:45
Yeah, I think about even one year we had a teacher, we within our school, transferred from second grade to fourth grade, which I taught, and at the end of one of our PLC meetings, which, I mean, wasn’t perfect, by any means, but at the end of it, she’s she goes, I this is so different. And we were like, What do you mean? And she said, Well, in our PLC meetings, everybody would open their notebook and we’d write down Monday, and then the person in charge of reading from Monday would tell us what to do on Monday, and then they would tell us what to do on Tuesday, and then the person in charge of math would tell us what to do, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And we’re like, Well, that sounds horrible at all, but that was how it was functioning, even at our own school. So yeah, there just was no clarity or alignment around what that was supposed to be exactly.

Casey Watts 11:31
Yeah, and I hate, I hate when that happens. I hate that people have had those experiences and it’s been labeled PLCs, because you and I both know that’s not like we have. We have completely misconstrued this idea of professional learning communities, and sometimes, oh my gosh, I have heard people who don’t even know what the acronym stands for, and they’re in education, you know. So I think we make these assumptions that, oh well, everyone has the same definition or understanding of the PLC, but they don’t. That’s an inaccurate assumption,

Chrissy Beltran 12:07
right? So, like we’re talking about, schools are full of these very different groups of people, very diverse groups. We have people from different backgrounds and ethnicities, people of different genders and races and experiences and philosophies. How can we take a team of very different people and help them all get somewhere together? Yeah,

Casey Watts 12:26
that is such a multi faceted question, and it’s not going to happen in the matter of a few days or even a year sometimes, but it can happen, but there are some foundational things that have to be in place in order for them to build cohesive teams. So what I believe is that cohesive teams are built on a foundation of clarity. First and foremost, they have clarity about where they’re headed and how they’re going to get there. They have a foundation of strong character, meaning that we start the year focusing on what our personalities are like. Are we self aware? Are we socially aware? What does that look like in our organization? And then we also have a foundation of strong collaboration skills, that’s another thing. I think we assume that, because people are adults, well, of course, they know how to get along, or, you know, they should be able to work well together. But you know, when in most schools, have we really been taught how to how to bridge gaps between people who are so different from us? We that’s not a skill that is focused on. We focus. Most schools focus primarily on academic skills, and we throw in those soft skills with, like, you know, we’re going to have the SEL lesson, but it’s separate from, you know, just your day in and day out work with in collaboration with peers. And so it’s no wonder that we get into our work forces and we don’t have those skills because they weren’t explicitly taught, but even more so, they weren’t practiced. And so, you know, I am a firm believer in taking a chunk of time at the beginning of the year and then sporadically throughout the year to focus on those three big foundational things, clarity, character and collaboration. Because that’s, that’s the only way we’re going to have cohesive teams, no matter, you know, no matter what backgrounds we’re coming from.

Chrissy Beltran 14:37
And what does that look like? What does it look like whenever you focus on on collaboration.

Casey Watts 14:43
So let’s talk about the word norms. Okay, so I you know when I work with teams, especially in consulting, when I go to work with an organization, or, like, with a campus, and they want to focus on. On resetting PLC or starting them from scratch. One of the first thing we talk things we talk about is setting norms. And we will spend a good two hours talking about norms, number one, because we have to get rid of any misconceptions behind the term, because we’ve come to this work kind of thinking, when we say norms, it’s a set of rules, right? Or we have all of these background experiences that we have to unpack and learn a new way to approach norms, which takes time. And I think that’s the same thing that should be happening in schools at the beginning of the year, when you have your team come together, we have to let go of the assumption that we’re going to agree to a set of norms that are rules, and we’re going to follow them throughout the year, because it’s really just kind of like even if you write them down, it becomes wall art. It doesn’t have any meaning or purpose. We’ve done it because we checked it off a list. We knew we felt like we had to do it. But when I when we set norms with teams after they’ve had a chance to get to know each other, and I’m talking like, tell me about what you feel like you are naturally gifted at. Okay, now on our team, let’s figure out who struggles with these different day to day things that we know we have to get accomplished. Okay, let Now, let’s talk about what it is you need from team members, like when we’re in a planning meeting or we’re in a PLC, what is most helpful for you? Are you a person that needs time to process. Or are you a person who you process really quickly, and you throw out all of your ideas and you don’t need a response, you just have to get them out, you know, like we don’t think about that at the beginning of the year. And those are such key characteristics to know about people if you’re going to have productive meetings together, any kind of meeting, and your norms can fall under the idea of, here’s what we know about each other, here’s what we know about our team collectively, here’s what you what we know about the project that we’re getting done. Okay, what can we commit to? So I think of norms as commitments. What can we commit to that’s going to help us to accomplish this project or this work that we’re doing together, because then your people are coming around things that they committed to, and it’s so much more than just we have all of these different personalities instead. Now it’s, yeah, we have all of these different personalities. But guess what? We’ve agreed to the same commitment for the same overall purpose. I can go on a tangent, if you can tell, if you guys can’t see that, I mean, can’t see me, but my hands are waving, and I’m like, I might as well have some feathers on behind. I don’t even know, fireworks going off. No,

Chrissy Beltran 17:59
I think that’s a really good point, bringing together people who have different approaches to things. Whenever I was a newish teacher, we had to take some kind of assessment on processing. I don’t remember what it was called. It was a long, long time ago, and all I remember is that I learned that I was an oral processor, and that makes a lot of sense, because I don’t necessarily know what’s going to come out of my mouth until it does come out of my mouth. And even if I’m like writing, sometimes I can write, you know, without doing this, but I sometimes, if I’m getting stuck, I just start talking out loud to myself. And then eventually I’ll settle on whatever direction I could go in, because it’s just so much faster than writing it all and then settling, like, you know, editing and revising all that out. So yeah, I and I know that not everybody thinks that way, and so it can be overwhelming to somebody who needs a minute to stop and think and like, like, process information, you know, internally, yeah, you know, like, everything just shoots out of my mouth. And sometimes people would say, Oh, that was good. What did you say? And I’m like, I don’t know. It’s already

Casey Watts 19:08
gone. So funny, yeah, and it’s so true, and so many teams are like that too. Like, we have such a variety of people on our teams, and I’m going to go ahead and and address what I feel like leaders and even coaches would push back with and that is like a lack of time. Like, where in the world do you find time to do that? We don’t have time to do that, to do that at the beginning of the year. But, you know, it goes back to that age old phrase, you gotta go slow, to go fast. Yeah. I mean, you could choose not to do those things, or do them in a in a surface level way, but you’re going to reach a point, probably sooner rather than later, where you’re having to address issues, and you’re spending time addressing those issues. And guess who is at the brunt of all of that? It is not only your teachers, but your students and you. You know, we can’t, we can’t afford to do that.

Chrissy Beltran 20:01
Yeah, it is exactly like in the classroom. If you started the year without spending a lot of time on management and procedures. You’re going to pay for it now or later. What do you want to pay for it? Moving too greatly, you end up having to redo everything anyway, exactly. Yeah, yeah. So one of the things that teachers come to us with is their philosophy about teaching and learning. You know, the way that they view students. You know, whether, I mean, not necessarily even what they learned in college, but they, you know, they could have graduated from college together. They could have all attended the same PD since then, and still, they’ll have a different, different ideas about the way kids learn. You know, I think back to, oh, we need to do daily or language, and we need kids to make corrections and paragraphs, and that’s how they’re going to learn to edit. And then, you know, people like me who are like, ah, that’s only reinforcing the ones who already know you’re not teaching them anything. But those philosophies are are completely counter to each other, and we can’t always communicate. Well, you know, to help somebody see something differently, like from my perspective, this is what we’re seeing. So how can we help teachers as facilitators of these meetings? How can we help them whenever they have different philosophies, but they have to work together through PLC? Yeah,

Casey Watts 21:14
one of the things that I like to do with PLC is definitely at the beginning of the year, but I think we have to address this throughout the year, especially if something like that comes up, like if we are at a point in our PLC meeting where we’re just getting stuck on something, we resort back to, okay, remember, at the beginning of the year, number one, these were the norms that we set, and here’s why we set them. Number two, at the beginning of the year, we agreed to these things that we believe about students and student learning. So if that’s something that is not done by your instructional leaders at the beginning of the year, guys, I would advocate wholeheartedly that you challenge them to implement that and include it as a core piece of the beginning of the school year. And just think about, you know, we, we may come to the table, and we likely will come to the table with so many different philosophies and beliefs, but if, if we’re making it okay, that yes, everybody has different philosophies and beliefs, and you go to your classroom and you do what you feel like is best for kids, then we are missing out on a crucial component that is going to create collective efficacy. Instead, what is happening is you guys are creating or you say, you guys we we as instructional leaders, and including coaches as instructional leaders, we are creating unintentional gaps in student learning because we haven’t adhered to a common set of values and beliefs about student learning. So you know, when you are looking at instructional strategies, or you are looking at just the district, vision and mission like, here’s what it says, Here’s what our district says, that we believe in, what falls within that, that we can commonly get behind, and then outside of that, you know, have your own philosophies and beliefs that should be expected. We don’t want everyone to be robots that are the same, but we do have to have some sort of core values that align, because if we don’t, then, you know, our disagreements are going to get in the way of really great teaching for students and get in the way of really great student learning. So if you have that to fall back on then in the midst, we’re in those moments where teachers are disagreeing, you can push pause, revisit the norms and say, You know what, let’s just have a conversation about what we agree to believe about student learning, or what is it that we can agree to in this moment. And then outside of that, if it’s not going to make a hill of beans when you leave the room, then let it go. Like, encourage people to let it go and be okay with letting it go. Like, this is one of those things we’re going to have to just put in our pocket for later, or completely let go

Chrissy Beltran 24:15
of. Mm, hmm, yeah, yeah. Sometimes it’s like, is this the the hill we’re going to die on today? Maybe, yeah, every day can’t be the hell we die on exactly

Casey Watts 24:23
yeah, so yeah, and I do want to say too though, like I think, as facilitators of PLC, we, we also have, we have the responsibility of acknowledging what people believe and not adding our own spin to it or our own opinions to it, like we have to recognize and acknowledge this is what you believe, and that’s okay, even if we disagree with it. That’s you have your beliefs and your mindsets about this. So you know that’s important. Right, because they had the right to that.

Chrissy Beltran 25:05
Okay. Yes, good point. So then, okay, in your room, let’s say that you’re facilitating a PLC meeting, and you have a brand new teacher. You have an uncertified teacher who hasn’t been through any kind of teacher training program really, hasn’t really been in classrooms. You maybe have somebody who’s alternatively certified, so there’s they’re certified, absolutely, but they haven’t spent much time in schools. And then you have a veteran teacher of like, 20 years. They’ve got them all in the same room, right? So how do we facilitate these teachers working together. And this is a question that I received from a coach. You know, I send out a survey every year to find out, okay, what are your problems? And this was a couple a question I got from a couple of people saying, How do I pace the meeting? How do I make sure that that everybody’s getting what they need? Whenever one person obviously has so much more experience. And some people are like, I don’t even know what that is to start with. I’ve never seen this curriculum before. Like, how does, how does a coach facilitate a meeting like that?

Casey Watts 26:09
Yeah, I am not going to lie. That is one of the I mean, even for myself, that is a challenge. It really is a challenge. And I think it’s something that you have to build up over time, like you have to try out some different things. See what works. Yeah, see what doesn’t work. And and also ask your people, like, is this working? What’s working about it? What’s not working about it? What would you suggest that I do differently, or we do differently? And I think sometimes we underestimate the value of the input of our teachers when it comes to that kind of thing. But I think one of my questions to coaches, if they are asking, how do we facilitate this with such varied experience, one of the things that I would ask them is, tell me about your onboarding process, like, what does that look like at the beginning of the year for your new people, or for your first year teachers? I would also ask them, let’s talk about norms, and what kind of norms have been set to acknowledge that you do have a variety of experiences in the room. And then, of course, as I’ve already said, I would ask about team development, like, let’s sometimes I think we get so focused on we have these veteran teachers who have 20 years of experience. You’ve got this one teacher who’s brand new, and we’re trying to differentiate, but we’re focused so much on like knowledge and skills, about content and maybe instructional strategies, but we’re not necessarily focused on the things that could be more beneficial for us. For example, do I know about in what ways this person thrives like do they thrive at when they’re giving ideas, or is this a person who’s really great at nitty gritty details, and even though they might not know a whole lot about what we’re talking about right now, maybe they can sift through some of the research that we’ve given or through some of the ideas that we’ve provided, and they can look for the details in that, or maybe there’s a logistical person you know. So I think that’s a layer that we could also look at. Is, what do we know about the people behind just their experience? Like, don’t let that be a label. And then finally, I wonder how, how often, when people ask that question, like, how do I facilitate PLCs with people of such such very varied experience, I wonder how often those people are becoming the lead facilitators, instead of the PLC is being teacher led and teacher driven. So those are the first things that come to mind. I’m really curious to hear what your responses have been.

Chrissy Beltran 29:14
You know, I think that if we’re thinking about in the context of an action plan, and we are thinking if we are looking at the knowledge and skills. Then, if we’re all focused on a specific area, and they’re getting learning about that in other places, right? We, you know, in our tier one, maybe our whole school, you know, PD, then differentiate each PLC to be kind of like areas that those people are interested in growing in. That’s one way to frame it. Obviously, it’s not the only way. There’s lots of different ways to take this, but one way you can do it is, okay, this is our whole school focus, and our PLC is can be our PLC meetings can be like differentiating that main content that you’re working towards with teachers, right? Let’s say it’s reading and writing across a curriculum. Then you can look in your PLC meetings that okay? So. This specific team, what do they need? What are their interests? Because a teacher who has been teaching for 20 years may or may not have ever had a background in that area, and so obviously they’re going to have a lot of valuable experiences to share, and I think we do need to highlight that. But you also don’t want it to always be like, Well, what do you think Maggie? Because you’ve been here forever, you know, yes, yeah. I think if we can kind of differentiate the work around maybe their questions and what they would like to learn more about, that’s one way to take it. But I also know that planning together is something that a lot of coaches do with their teams, whether it’s inside of PLC meetings or other meetings, and so at that point, you may do some more general planning together, and then you might have to follow up individually with people who you know that they’re just like, I don’t even know what that looks like, right? That’s ongoing individual coaching work. They’re not going to walk away from that meeting with a vision of what it could be in the classroom if they haven’t taught before. Exactly true of any new teacher. You just, you can’t see it, you know? Yeah, sometimes I look at my first year of teaching and I’m like, I think I was pretending I was a teacher.

Casey Watts 31:10
No kidding, yeah. I was playing, yeah, yeah. I was playing slowly, yeah, uh huh.

Chrissy Beltran 31:16
So I think that we just have to be realistic about that and know that those PLC meetings, we can’t rush through the content, obviously, because one person has already got it, and we also can’t just dig into every single detail, because one person needs that. We’re going to have to find a happy medium, and hopefully people will walk away with at least a skeleton of what they need, if that’s what your task is, to plan, and then you can fill in the missing pieces, you know, like with a differentiated group, because we can Group plc in different ways. We tend to group our PLC teams by grade level, because of the common planning time or by content area. But in reality, you might have to have something special with no people, and that’s just going to have to be okay with them if they want to know what their job is. Yes, yeah,

Casey Watts 31:59
yeah, there’s so I, when I first started working in this district that I’m in right now, they PLC was not a thing. Like they said, Oh, we used to have PLC, but we stopped doing that. And it come to find out that I don’t think they really even knew what they were doing, you know, like they were saying, we’re implementing PLCs, but it was not that at all. So what we ended up doing was to start it. We started collaborative studies, and so it was completely voluntary, like we had different topics. You chose the topics, and we did it in a variety of different ways, until we got to the point where we’re like, Okay, we’ve done these collaborative studies. We’ve been looking at data, we’ve been learning about some strategies and skills together. Now we’re going to start doing that in what we call professional learning meetings, and then it shouldn’t, you know, it’s like just a slow shift over time, but to your point, I really like what you were saying about the differentiation that we have to have as facilitators, just like we would in the classroom. Like there has to be that differentiation, differentiation piece, but also there has to be, like, we’ve got to know before going into the meeting what it is we’re, I don’t want to say up against, but what to expect. So as much pre work as you can do before a PLC meeting, the better. So if you know like this is what we’ve been focusing on, but now we’re about to make a shift and focus on something different. I need to know where my teachers are with XYZ. So you send out a survey, or you go and you do a quick listening tour with each of them, or you do some observations, and you see, here’s where we all are, so that when we go into the meeting, you can differentiate appropriately for those for those teachers.

Chrissy Beltran 33:48
Yes, I think that’s such a good point. Figuring out where people are, what they need in that specific area can go a long way towards making sure you can actually meet teacher needs during your PLC meetings. And if you can do that, they might actually like them. Yeah,

Casey Watts 34:02
yes. Get something out of 100% Yeah.

Chrissy Beltran 34:05
So thank you for that. Maybe Yeah, 50% Yeah. Let’s start with, start realistic, you know. So thank you so much for sharing everything today. Casey, how can people keep learning from you? And please tell us about your book.

Casey Watts 34:18
Yeah. So that’s the first thing you can find my book on Amazon. It’s called the craft of clarity, six steps to bridge gaps, foster commitment and create sustainable alignment. Now when you look at that subtitle, it does say to bridge gaps. Now that could be we’re bridging gaps between leaders and teachers or district office and administrators, and it also could be bridging gaps, but in student learning. So yeah, definitely take a look at the book, and then if that is something of interest to you and you’re thinking, we really could gain clarity around what PLC is are and. We maybe need to reset them or start from scratch. That’s where I come in. And I bring the clarity cycle framework to you, and we make it happen so that they can be successful professional or in communities, instead of just professional lesson planning communities, okay? And then the other place where I put out a lot of content is LinkedIn, so anybody can find me on LinkedIn.

Chrissy Beltran 35:24
Alright. Thank you so much, Casey. This is great. Yeah,

35:27
absolutely.

Chrissy Beltran 35:32
That was such great information from Casey. She’s so thorough and realistic, and she knows what she’s she’s talking about when it comes to PLC teams, I can tell you. So you’re going to want to want to check out her book for sure. I ordered it myself, and I can’t wait to share about it with you. And you can also grab that action plan guide. So that’s at buzzing with Miss b.com/action plan. You’ll get the four day challenge sent right to your inbox next week, we are talking about a brand new coaching theme. We have wrapped up our action plan theme, and we’re going to start looking at better coaching conversations. To kick us off, I’ve got an episode for you about tracking your coaching work and your coaching conversations. Because keeping track of the things that we talk about with teachers, the outcome, the next steps, all these things, it can be tricky. I mean, half of our conversations happen in the hallway, right? And so, you know, obviously you’re not going to track everything, but we gotta track the gist of what we’re trying to do with teachers, or else it can feel like there’s no movement and we don’t know where to go next. So definitely tune in for that episode next week, and until then, happy coaching.

Chrissy Beltran 36:34
Now that you’ve got so much to think about, head over to buzzing with Miss b.com to grab some free downloads, become a VIBee and check out the podcast show notes. Happy coaching!

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