What Makes Power Mondays Powerful

Published October 11, 2012

With the start of the 2012-13 school year, Williamson County middle schools joined high schools in observance of Power Mondays. On these days, classes begin about 40 minutes later giving teachers an opportunity to work together to develop strategies for instructing students.

A recent article written by Ravenwood High School Principal Dr. Pam Vaden addressed the importance of Power Mondays and how they can translate to success and equity for students. Below is an excerpt from that letter:

The founding RHS faculty met together in the summer of 2003 to begin to share a vision for the newest high school in the District at that time. As a group of 32 teachers, we knew we didn’t want to teach in isolation as we had in the past.

I organized three trips to Lincolnshire, Illinois, to visit Adlai Stevenson High School, a school that had gained great academic success through requiring its staff to collaborate in same-subject teams during the school day. Our teachers were so excited about this model that together we went to the School Board three different times to convince the Board members the value of a late-start day. Finally, the School Board allowed RHS to initiate a pilot for one semester.

At the end of the semester, RHS teachers presented their measurable data on student growth, as a result of collaborating on Power Mondays. One year later, the School Board allowed all high schools to embrace Power Mondays.

The reality and value of what we do on Power Monday today is easily observable. On a recent Power Monday morning, for instance, the 6-member biology team decided on a common review guide to prepare their students for the common, quarter assessment. The biology scope and sequence was displayed on the overhead, while they reviewed each objective and state standard taught during the 1st quarter.

I cite this one example, to give you an idea of the work of our teams on Power Monday. We call Ravenwood a Professional Learning Community. It is a community of learners whose goal is to insure that each student, no matter which teacher they have been assigned to, is guaranteed the same curriculum. Power Mondays speak to equity.

Teaching teams also focus on analyzing the data on common formative and summative assessments. The data is presented to the team on Power Monday by the teacher-leader, taking a careful look at which standards were most often missed by students, which questions may have to be rewritten and which teacher may need extra mentoring and coaching. This method of evaluating, remediating and celebrating has thrust RHS into becoming one of the top high schools in Tennessee.

The question has been posed in the past why teacher teams can’t meet after school hours. The answer is that we do meet then, too. However, imagine if every time you met, as least one or two members of the team were absent? On the biology team, for example, is a football coach and the cheerleading coach. Both of these teachers have practice almost every day after school. Many of our teachers have extra-curricular activities beginning at 2:45 p.m., so it becomes impossible to meet regularly as a whole team.

We say that the proof is in the pudding! Collaborative same-subject team meetings have allowed our teachers to be more organized, more rigorous and more intentional in the classroom. This equates to greater success for our students.

- Ravenwood High School Principal Dr. Pam Vaden

While Power Mondays have proven to be successful at the high school level, district leaders say they expect to see similar results in middle schools.

"The middle school approach to Power Mondays is to structure the time to allow teacher conversation to take place around student data, instructional strategies and interdisciplinary collaboration," said WCS Assistant Superintendent of Middle and High Schools Dr. Donna Wright. "Those are all elements that focus on student performance. We also want to provide enriched student time in a different format which is why each school has crafted a plan, unique to their school community, providing remediation, enrichment, tutoring, and in some instances, supervised intramurals."

In the testimonials below, principals from across the district share how their school is using Power Mondays to improve student achievement.

"For students who come to Brentwood Middle before school opens on Power Mondays, we offer additional time to study in a quiet setting. We also provide remediation for students who scored basic on their achievement testing in language arts and math. For teachers, Power Mondays allow us an opportunity to work on AdvancED accreditation items which is ultimately analyzing and creating action plans for school improvement. It also provides time for departments to collaborate on curriculum so that teachers can prepare for Common Core curriculum, to review results of common assessments and to plan for instruction as a result of those assessments."

- Brentwood Middle School Principal Bill Harlin

"At Fairview High, we use Power Mondays for collaborative team planning and assessing student work, professional development in department teams related to school and district initiatives, and faculty-wide professional development on specific topics that are areas of need for the faculty. The benefits to students are a ripple effect of great collegiality and collaborative efforts among talented educators."

- Fairview High School Principal Dr. Juli Oyer

"Power Monday has given our teachers the opportunity to plan in their core content as well cross curricular, share instructional strategies, analyze data and share BYOT ideas, all excellent opportunities with the end goal of course of providing quality and engaging instruction for our students."

- Grassland Middle School Principal Dr. Lily Leffler

“Power Monday is a wonderful opportunity to not only provide time for teachers to participate in professional learning communities but to also provide enrichment and remediation for our students. Each quarter, parents are able to choose their child’s activity which ranges from scrapbooking to intramurals. Heritage Middle School teachers are able to further build relationships with students by sharing in an activity or club students enjoy.”

- Heritage Middle School Principal Marlena Gross-Taylor

"Here at Page High School, teachers meet in curriculum clusters to develop common course objectives, pacing guides, implementation charts, common assessments of student learning and other professional development. Power Mondays enhance student achievement by creating a collaborative school culture that focuses on learning."

- Page High School Principal Dr. Andrea Anthony