Most scheduled gatherings of teachers are, in fact, meetings at which teachers yawn their way through lists of informational items announced and commented on by the principal. If any clear communication results from those meetings, it takes place in the parking lot long after the official meeting has ended. Good faculty meetings should be…

When Joanne Rooney, a principal, asked 17 tenured teachers who were due for their formal supervisory visits at Pleasant Hill School in Palatine, Illinois whether her annual visits and follow-up conferences help them become better teachers," her question was met with muffled laughter. They knew that her rushed, mandatory visits and conferences…