EDUC 703: Early Europeans
Thank you for this expansive explanation of Augustine's beliefs and involvement in PLCs as well as your detailed recount of PLCs in practice.
I wholeheartedly agree that PLCs create opportunities for all educators to gain insight on best practices, innovative approaches to reach students as well as a means of social
emotional support. I think it's important to highlight that Augustine was new to being a Christian, and yet he found great strength in being a member of the PLC (Smith, 2020, p. 12). This causes me to reflect on the practices of my first-year teachers or my new-to-
profession educators and how their perspectives of learning are vital to the success of a
productive PLC. Through encouraging them to be involved, their input would refine the grade levels instructional "beliefs, attitudes, techniques, and processes," ultimately yielding increased student achievement (D. Ingersoll, Theories of Historical and Social Foundations of Education, January 21, 2024).
As an elementary principal, I remind my staff each time I attend their PLC meeting that my purpose in attending is to serve as a collaborating educator. Due to my title, often it is perceived that I am there to evaluate the effectiveness of the meeting and thus, I share that we all bring a mastered skill to the table. I reinforce that my interest lies in increasing my awareness of students' performance, a goal of ensuring that the depth of the standard is taught and to support with identifying instructional strategies so that I may be purposeful in my observational feedback (Tam, 2015 as cited in Carpenter, 2018). These truths have helped my teachers acknowledge that we are all professionals
learning within a community of learners.
References
Carpenter, D. (2018). Intellectual and physical shared workspace: Professional learning communities and the collaborative culture.
The International Journal of Educational Management, 32
(1), 121-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-05-2017-0104
Smith, S. J. (2020).
Windows into the history and philosophy of Education
. Kendall Hunt.
