Peer Coaching Workshops for Spring 2026

Invitation

Join us as we explore LMC facilitation and meeting design. These workshops will offer ways to enhance your meetings through engaging conversational protocols and tools. We will identify ways to best support teams in taking the necessary actions in meetings to achieve their desired outcomes. We encourage participants to attend all workshops but, do not require it. Please feel free to register for any of the workshops below. 

Labor-management collaboration is a demonstrably successful approach to designing an effective, efficient, and successful educational landscape. The success of this type of collaboration is clear, but the art of collaboration needs to foster a certain mindset and knowledge base to have meaningful collaborative experiences. Our Peer Coaching Workshop Series is where we can enhance collaborative spaces by harvesting foundational knowledge, skills, strategies, and resources to move from delegation and reflection to a true co-designing and feedback-centered collaboration. 

At the NJ LMC, we seek diversity of thought and believe that different perspectives lead to better outcomes. These workshops serve as a playground where district and teacher leaders can leverage their knowledge, skills, and strategies to transform collaborative efforts. The series will take us through the personal practices needed to enter a collaborative space with an open mind and help us develop group practices to engage others in the work. Lastly, it can help our teams establish transformative practices to increase effectiveness. This series will allow us to experiment and refine our collaborative spaces in a judgment-free zone.   

We can elevate our collaborative spaces from mere delegation and reflection to genuine partnership and innovation by fostering a true co-designing and feedback-centered mindset. We are excited about the ideas that will result from your participation. Join us in our workshops to imagine the possibilities by asking, “What if?” 

Who should attend? 

Participation is open to a diverse mix of Labor Management Collaborative Leaders (Union Leaders, Superintendents, Building Administrators, and BOE members), Teacher Leaders, and ACCESS program organizers. Workshops will be held on Wednesdays or Saturdays. Attendance is free, and lunch will be provided. Workshops start at 9 a.m. and end at 3 p.m. Please Commit to as many sessions as possible. Register using the links below. Breakfast Refreshments and Lunch included.

Workshop dates and descriptions below:

• January 7th - 9 AM to 3 PM
• February 4th - 9 AM to 3 PM
• March 4th - 9 AM to 3 PM
• April 15th - 9 AM to 3 PM 
• May 1st - 9 AM to 3 PM 

January 7th - “What Do You Do When You Don’t Know Where To Start?”

There is an art and science to leading a collaborative team. The Peer Coaching Workshop Series is designed to support participants in building collective efficacy through empowered participants, shared purpose, and grounding decisions in evidence and reflection. This series will provide participants with opportunities to address their daily LMC needs while experiencing the application of specific frameworks, tools, and practices. Participants in this series will help grow the Peer Coaching Community of Practice and learn how to translate this experience to their local district context. This series aspires to go beyond the introduction of tools to explore the dispositions and  behaviors collaborative leaders must have to lead successful teams. 

Specific to this convening:

For the January convening, we are inviting participants to participate in an Open Space conversation. We will use the harvest from this to design the rest of the Peer Coaching series. We chose this method to kick-off year 2  because it highlights many of the beliefs and values that undergird collaborative practice. From there, we will unpack the experience and help participants understand how they might use Open Space for positive effect in their home districts.

Attendee expectations: 

• Learn a powerful organizing structure to help your teams find shared purpose and develop shared understanding
• Have an opportunity to explore practical issues currently confronting participants in their daily work
• Learn underlying theory to enable participants to design and host meetings adeptly

How will we use this Open Space?

One of goals for this series is to invite participants into forming a Peer Coaching community of practice. Open Space provides an opportunity for people to self-organize around the things that are of highest interest to them, build shared meaning, and move towards collective action. 

For this convening, we will frame the conversation through the question of "What do you need the peer coaching experience to be? How might we best support each other as a community?". We will use this harvest to design the rest of our convenings, ensuring they are aligned with practitioner needs. This will help foster a sense of shared community ownership and align with our competency of empowered participants.

Where might you use Open Space?

Open Space is particularly good when the way forward for a group is murky, when we don't even know the questions that will guide our work. 

• Open Space can work with any size group - from 5 to thousands.
• It works best when nobody knows the answer (***Predetermined outcomes and Open Space are not a good fit***)
• It naturally builds shared understanding, community, and a sense of ownership

Some examples of where you might use Open Space:

• When a new mandate comes from the state and this district needs to learn how best to meet it
• When embarking on a new initiative that affects a diversity of stakeholders in unforeseen ways
• When a new technology emerges, like trying to address the challenge of AI in today's classrooms
• When new leadership arrives either through hiring or election. Open space can help induct new members and build relationships

Location 

The location for this event is located in the 3rd floor conference room. This is a fully accessible venue.

91 Fieldcrest Avenue, Edison, NJ 08837