Imagine two schools.

Both have teachers who meet every Wednesday for “collaboration time.”

In School A, teachers are working through instructional strategies, unpacking the standards by doing the math together, sharing student data, and refining lesson plans to put into practice their new understanding.

In School B, teachers are reviewing the scope and sequence to agree on what topics will be covered in the next week, classroom management tips and tricks, which practice set should be paired with which lesson, responding to emails, preparing for that parent night, and catching up on tasks they couldn’t squeeze into their packed schedules.

Here’s the kicker: 

Both schools believe they’re using collaboration time effectively.

Only one is actually making progress.

Which one sounds familiar?

Here’s another kicker: 

When collaboration time (think PLCs) was studied it was discovered that over 70% of that time was spent on pacing, logistics, and tips and tricks. 

They were spending most of their time on the WHAT and the WHEN.

30% of the time was spent on the HOW and even less on the WHY. 

When we think about PLCs or collaboration time we have this vision of teachers huddled around whiteboards, planning powerful learning experiences.

And sure, that happens (rarely).

But when you’re constantly being pulled into IEP meetings, sub coverage, or last-minute admin asks… it’s no wonder the needle isn’t moving the way we want it to.

If we want to see better student outcomes and more empowered educators, we have to get real about how we spend our time — especially our collaborative time — and we have to be committed to protecting it.

Intentionality matters.

Otherwise, we’re stuck in a loop of reacting instead of transforming.

But here’s the catch — it’s not your fault.

Most teachers aren’t choosing to sideline strategy and growth on purpose.

They’re drowning in demands, unclear expectations, misaligned priorities, and collaboration structures that were never designed to support real change — in short, as a system we’re not helping our educators protect and learn how to use collaboration time effectively.

So here’s the shift you can make: 

• ✔ Start naming these categories during meetings. Bring visibility to how time is spent.
• ✔ Audit your next collab session. How much time is spent in the four categories (WHAT, WHEN, HOW, WHY)? – make the focus on the HOW and the WHY.
• ✔ Be brave enough to reallocate. Even shifting 15–20 minutes toward deeper instructional work can be a game-changer. Move from pacing and logistics to unpacking why this math idea, why does this matter, why does this math make sense, and how can we best give this epiphany to students.
• ✔ Protect collaboration time: Ensure that the instructional shift priorities align with the school/district vision for mathematics so that teachers, coaches, and administrators know the goals — alignment from all of these roles gives permission to turn off (or turn down) the competing priorities.

We don’t need more time — we need to just protect and better use of the time we already have.

Questions for you: Which shift(s) do you feel you can make now? Instead of asking:  How  can we make that shift? Replace it with:  What would it take to make that shift? See the subtle difference?

Here are two videos that can shed some light on how to maximize your math PLC impact.