Our teachers do a little bit of both… Sharing responsibilities, etc. they meet every Wednesday after school. They do this by individual grade levels. It’s relatively a small group for each… With seven teachers in each group.

We have collaborative planning for literacy and math each week. This includes myself and the literacy coach, sped teachers, and intervention so that we can plan instruction with all the teachers that see a particular set of students.
We also use components of Visible Learning to help shift the accountability of learning from being teacher centered to student centered.

Our team meets every week. Our planning is collaborative with individuals who might take the lead on areas where they are strongest. I plan for social studies and math, while others plan for ELA and science. A majority of our planning is discussing best practices while looking over data.

Planning has taken a lot of different formats. For me, the best is when all work together, but we do not have common planning time.

My team is the best team! We meet every Tuesday and plan together. We all work together to get the work done in closing plans and weekly news letter. We also take turns making copies so we have everything we need by Friday! This keeps us on track.

This year, we've had the best planning experience because each grade level shares the same planning period. This has really improved collaboration across the grade level. We have a designated grade level lead who keeps us on track during the school year, but when it comes to lesson planning, we all pitch in. Each of us plans for one subject, and then we share those plans and internalize them. We meet twice a week: once as a grade level and once with the whole staff.