Teaching And Professional Learning Communities

Safe environments are built and there’s a respect for diversity. Another highly important factor in effective schools is a highly effective leader. Leadership is a key characteristic in a PLC also. The principal acts as an instructional leader building relationships with the staff and developing high moral. These characteristics are all evident in a PLC. “When schools truly begin to align their practices with a commitment to learning for all, the educators within them begin to function as a Professional Learning Community” (DuFour, DuFour & Eaker, 2008, p. 21). The PLC is more of an re-culturing instead of a school reform. It is an ongoing process through which a staff works collaboratively to share learning goals. In order to reach the goals set forth in laws such as NCLB, a school must change it’s culture to maintain an ongoing collaborative process to enhance everyone’s effectiveness to improve student behavior ( Nygard, 2010).

For the Professional Learning Community (PLC) experience, I chose to observe a PLC. For this assignment, I observed an eighth grade English PLC. This PLC was comprised of three English teachers and one student teacher. There was not a written agenda for their PLC, but they seemed to have an order to how their meeting was held. The began by discussing the unit that they were completing which was using Greek Mythology to review and analyze student’s reading comprehension and summary writing abilities. They stated that their students seemed to be really interested in the unit and did well with the reading comprehension. However, they had noticed that some students were forgetting to state the title and author of the text within the summary and most summaries lacked elaboration, but most students were knowledgeable about the basic structure of a summary. As most students understood the basic structure, they decided that they were going to transition onto the next unit which focused on informative essay writing, but modify the unit in order to teach students the importance of including the title and author within a summary and

Roberts, S. & Pruitt, E. (2003). Schools as Professional Learning Communities: Collaborative Activities and Strategies for Professional Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Unfortunately, thorough research on the impact of professional development on student achievement is limited because it is challenging, complex and expensive to study. Nonetheless, Hoaglund, Birkenfeld, and Box, (2015), conducted a study that illustrated that learning communities are viable tools for providing professional development to both pre-service teachers and current teachers. Their study showed how a group of pre-service teachers and their supervisors participated in a professional experience learning community for two terms prior to the pre-service teacher’s junior year at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Questionnaires and interviews were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. The results of the study indicated that all participants valued the experience and consequently were able to gain and identify some benefits of a professional learning community (PLC). Participants specifically reported a greater appreciation of collaboration with more experienced educators as a practical way of solving issues and implementing processes and procedures for increasing student achievement. The activities incorporated within the

During our second Bear Creek visit, I observed the English Language Arts Professional Learning Community also known as ELA. When I first heard about the PLC, I was surprised because it is a brilliant concept. I never knew this existed. The English Language Arts PLC ran smoothly because the teacher that was presenting knew the standard she was going to focus on and how she was going to present the content to the students. All of the ELA teachers also had a schedule about how the meeting was going to flow so that no one was confused. They also used technology to present the standards and the content so that all of the teachers could see and make suggestions and ask questions. One teacher was questioned about why she chose a particular book

Dr. Fremstad has been instrumental in the implementation of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) at West Fargo High School. She understands the power of teacher collaboration and has led the charge to train and monitor the program with fidelity. Jennifer has inspired educators to share student evidence of learning and extend intervention or enrichment learning opportunities based on the data. In addition, she advocates on the importance of frequent classroom visitations with her leadership team and establishes annual visitation goals to support teachers and

Though the idea of working collaboratively is not a new one, the concept of professional learning communities (PLCs) has recently become very popular in education. During the summer of 2012, the Pasco County School District introduced the concept of PLCs into its schools in an effort to improve student learning in this era of increased educational scrutiny and accountability. Department heads suddenly found themselves relabeled PLC facilitators and called to attend two days of summer training meant to prepare them to lead PLCs once the school year began. The other PLC participants, the

Dedication to updating my professional development to inform my teaching, this includes BRiTE (Building Resistance in Teacher Education) enabling me to build stronger relationships with all stakeholders. Furthermore, gaining knowledge in the Restorative Practices program has assisted me in sustaining healthier relationships with students, improved classroom management and created a positive, overall environment for the school. Lastly, this professional development has enabled me to effectively work in unison with students to create

1). Consequently, teachers need training and support through professional learning communities (PLC) as they “…have proven to be a cornerstone of effective teaching and, in underperforming schools, a catalyst for improvement” (Farbman, Goldberg, & Miller, 2014, p. 10). As a result, my plan proposes following Claudet’s model of a change agent (2011) by inspiring stakeholders to become collaborative partners in remedying academic gaps. It begins with the faculty analyzing student data scores to prioritize topics, designing a timeframe to meet goals, and identifying the stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. Once this is determined, several teachers would attend summer or fall training sessions to develop strategies to address the learning needs of low-achieving students because “…collective leadership has positive effects on student achievement” (Barth, 2001, p. 12). The trained teachers would provide monthly PLC activities to cultivate developmental and cultural instructional strategies, analyze student progress, share successes, and problem-solve concerns. Measurement of the effectiveness of the training occurs through staff participation, observations, and classroom formative and summative assessments, as recorded through the software programs provided to the teachers at the beginning of the

In order to implement an effective Professional Learning Community (PLC) for the development of a Google-Based School, the team must create an environment conducive to their needs and how they best work in a group setting. In order for the Professional Learning Community to be effective in the implementation of a school-wide initiative, the members of the community must have confidence that they are the main group leading to change in the school (Wood, 2007). Creating a functional team involves key factors involving the team characteristic, recognizing positive and negative forces relating to these characteristics, and overcoming the negative forces in a systematic manner (Mealiea, & Baltazar, 2005). Moreover, importance for creating an effective Professional learning community focuses on open sharing, developing skills, identifying and utilizing resources, and forming frames of reference (Spanneut, 2010). Each of these characteristics falls into the overall systematic creation of the learning community that works to increase student learning by creating and achieving specific goals and through setting ground rules, goal setting and analysis, and delegation of tasks in order to prepare to implement the Google-Based School initiative.

To further help the veteran teachers and the new teachers coming in, professional development will require an ongoing commitment from all levels of the school organization. There will need to be resources available to help guide the teachers’ professional development. The adoption of professional learning communities (PLC’s) within the school and district supporting them is paramount. The continued development will help the teachers implement PBL (Rosenblatt, 2012)

LYTLE. “Teacher Learning Communities.” Encyclopedia of Education, edited by James W. Guthrie, 2nd ed., vol. 7, Macmillan Reference USA, New York, 2002, pp. 2461–2469. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, link.galegroup.com.catalog.stisd.net:2048/apps/doc/CX3403200612/OVIC?u=j031916004&xid=f1bfa712. Accessed 2017.

With the shift in professional learning from collecting PLUs to one focused on improving teaching and learning, it is important that teacher leaders play a role in implementing professional learning communities and helping to make sure accountability in professional learning. I am excited about the opportunity to share these changes and new expectations with fellow teachers. A fellow teacher and I have been trained on the upcoming changes and will be redelivering it to other teachers at our school in the near

Traditionally, teacher development typically occurs through trial and error in the isolated confinements of each teacher’s classroom with some periodic whole-group professional development (Goddard & Goddard, 2007). Within the past few decades, many schools and districts, including ours, have considered and experimented with Professional Learning Communities (PLC) as an alternative framework in guiding a more efficient development program for their teachers. PLCs are focused on enhancing student learning through developing teacher practices. The concept of PLC relies on using structured collaborative sessions amongst teachers within the school to build internal capacity. Through PLCs, teachers critically reflect on current

Effective schools are data-driven and embrace professional development that promotes professional learning communities (PLCs). Effective utilization of PLCs addresses the need to frequently monitor student progress and adjust learning accordingly. How might teacher inquiry be used to further the goals of an effective school?