Making the most of our time with Pre-paration.

Making the most of our time with pre-preparation; Data Team, and the Google Doc.

The most important part of the Data Team is for the teachers to leave with a plan of how to address their student’s deficits (academic or behavioral). With 60 minutes to get through 10 teachers, we did not have time to waste rifling through books or web pages looking for interventions in the few minutes allotted for each student.  

My teachers were leaving without comprehensive plans, and I knew there must be a better way. We were not able to provide comprehensive plans for many of the teachers, and they left empty-handed.  I had heard of another district that put information about their struggling students on a Google doc.  

I decided to try this with my team, have them read about their peers' students ahead of time, and develop evidence-based interventions before the meeting even started.  I brought the idea to the team.  They liked it, and we decided to give it a try. I created a Data Team Intervention Relay Google doc with spots for students' IEP goals or areas of need, current data, and current interventions.  There were spots for the accepting teacher and their suggested evidence-based intervention. Why call it an intervention relay? Because my teachers "pass the baton" to each other for when they need a new perspective. I also created a list of websites and resources for my teachers to find evidence-based interventions. I sent out all the information for our first new data team and hoped for the best.