The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom

http://www.edutopia.org/asking-questions

PLC Update

Hello Team:
Just an update.....Info is forthcoming for PLC selection. We will ask that you confirm your intentions no later than June 30th. As always, THANKS for all you do!

What Are Professional Learning Communities?

Click over link:
Attribute 1: Supportive and Shared Leadership.
Attribute 2: Collective Creativity.
Attribute 3: Shared Values and Vision .
Attribute 4: Supportive Conditions.
Attribute 5: Shared Personal Practice.

REFERENCE1. Hord, S. M. (1997). Professional learning communities: What are they and why are they important? [Online]. Available: http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues61.html .

Music Department PLC

NAMM Foundation Survey Reveals Loyalsock Township School District

A ‘Best Community For Music Education’ In The United States

-179 Communities Nationwide Achieve Prestigious Designation;

2011 Marks the First Year That Individual Schools Earn Honor -

Collaboration Cartoon

Targets For Staff

lShared responsibility for the total development of students and collective responsibility for students' success.

lReduction of isolation of teachers.

lPowerful learning that defines good teaching and classroom practice and that creates new knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learners.

lIncreased meaning and understanding of the content that teachers teach and the roles they play in helping all students achieve expectations.

lHigher likelihood that teachers will be well informed, professionally renewed, and inspired to inspire students. 

If you don't know where you're going, you probably won't get there.

-Yogi Berra

Examples of PLC Projects

- Lesson/Core/Diary Map Study

- Differentiating Instruction

- Developing Interdisciplinary Units

- Integrating Community Resources

- Using Data to Drive Instruction

- Incorporating Instructional Technology/Motivating Students

- Using Formative Assessments

What are Key Characteristics of PLCS?

- Shared Norms and Values

  (Vision/Mental Image)

- Collective Responsibility for Shared Norms and Values

- Focus on Student Learning

- De-Privatization of Practice

- Collaboration/Collective Creativity

DuFour- April 2011 on PLC's

How Do PLCS Impact Students?

• By modeling collegiality, intellectual inquiry, critical discourse, and continuous improvement, professional learning communities raise the expectation and standard for students' level of engagement, development, and achievement.

• Studies indicate that students tend to be engaged in learning at high intellectual levels when the adults are engaged with one another and with their students at high intellectual levels around a shared vision for student success.

Suggested Reading:

PLC's- SMART Goals

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Tangible

Culture

They [PLCs] function as an effective strategy for building school capacity around core issues of teaching and learning (Darling-Hammond, 1995); They foster the democratic practices required to undertake and sustain fundamental, systematic change (Bryk, 1994); and, They can serve as a mechanism for transforming school culture.

What are PLC's?

   A professional learning community is characterized by the collaborative work of educators to continuously seek, share, and act on their learning in order to improve their practice for the purpose of improved student outcomes (Astuto, 1993).

History of PLC's

Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) is not a new idea.  In fact, the concept has been around since the 1960s when educators realized they needed to address the issues of teachers beginning to work in isolation. 

   While it was relatively dormant for quite some time, it made its way to the surface again in the early 80’s. By the end of the 80’s, as noted by Susan Rosenholtz, a study of 78 schools indicated "learning-enriched schools" were characterized by "collective commitments to student learning in collaborative settings," ... "where it is assumed improvement of teaching is a collective rather than individual enterprise, and that analysis, evaluation, and experimentation in concert with colleagues are conditions under which teachers improve."

   Teacher collaboration linked to shared goals focused on student achievement led to improved teacher learning, greater certainty about what was effective, higher levels of teacher commitment and ultimately, greater gains in student achievement.

   In 1993 Judith Warren Little and Milbrey McLaughlin reported their research that concluded the most effective schools and the most effective departments within schools operated as strong professional communities characterized by:

-Shared norms and beliefs

-Collegial relations

-Collaborative cultures

-Reflective practice

-Ongoing technical inquiry regarding effective practice

-Professional growth

-Mutual support and mutual obligation

What Is a "Professional Learning Community"?

To create a professional learning community, focus on learning rather than teaching, work collaboratively, and hold yourself accountable for results.

-Richard DuFour