Learning Targets for Today I can utilize standards to determine with my PLC what Enduring Understandings/Skills students need to learn in my subject or grade level. I can review relevant data and anecdotal evidence with my PLC to identify and rate current student performance of Enduring Understandings/Skills to guide my instruction and to share with next year’s teachers. By completing these steps, I will be starting my journey towards building a quality Student Growth Goal and preparing for TPGES.   Best practice tells us, sharing learning targets with students allows them to assess and monitor their own learning. We hope that you will revisit these targets throughout the day, which is why they will remain posted in your room, to consider your own learning and understanding as information is shared and you take part in activities with your colleagues. With that in mind, here are our targets for today’s professional learning…

Collective Commitments for Today Begin and end meetings on time. Stay fully engaged during each meeting. Limit electronic use out of respect to your colleagues. Maintain a positive attitude at team meetings – no complaining unless offering a better alternative. Listen respectfully to each other. Contribute equally to the workload. Make decisions on the basis of consensus. Fully support each other’s efforts to improve student learning. It is important that we all agree to some collective commitments for the day – agree to uphold these actions ourselves and expect our colleagues to do so as well. This will allow us to work effectively and efficiently during our time together. And since these items are so important, and should be referenced throughout the day, they will also remain posted in the room to serve as reminders.

PLC Tune-up Big Ideas of a PLC 4 Big Questions We accept learning as a fundamental purpose of our school and therefore are willing to examine all practices in light of their impact on learning We are committed to working together to achieve our collective purpose. We cultivate a collaborative culture through development of high-performing teams. We assess our effectiveness on the basis of results rather than intentions. Individuals, teams and schools seek relevant data and information and use that information to promote continuous improvement. What do we want students to learn? How will we know if each student learned it? How will we respond when some students do not learn? How can we extend and enrich learning for students who have demonstrated proficiency? Although professional learning communities have been in use at Campbell County for a number of years, it is time to re-visit the basic tenets of the practice to make sure we are staying true to the big ideas and goals. Professional Learning Communities are educators committed to working collaboratively in an ongoing processes of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. This means it is more than just meeting together in a group and, if done correctly, this practice will help ALL students learn and ALL teachers succeed in our Professional Growth and Effectiveness System.

Think of your PLC Considering the Big Ideas and Big Questions of a PLC – How well is your team doing? Review your results for the “Critical Issues for Team Consideration” survey. How well did your team rate in these more specific measures of a PLC? -Were there areas that were very true of your team? CELEBRATE! -Were there areas that were not true of your team? GROW! Collaboration will be key in preparing for improvement and change due to the new Teacher Professional Growth & Effectiveness System (TPGES). Take a moment to review your current PLC performance…

Thoughts on Collaboration “The era of isolated teachers, working alone to meet the myriad of needs of all their students, is neither educationally effective nor economically viable in the 21st century...” -Carroll, Fulton & Doerr, 2010 “The challenges of schooling are too great for individuals to shut themselves away behind closed classroom doors and try to resolve them alone. A concerted collaborative effort is necessary when teachers and other colleagues work and learn collaboratively with a clear focus on the learning of students as well as themselves.” -Stoll, Bolam, Thomas, Wallace, Greenwood & Hawkey, 2006 “Collaboration is a systematic process in which we work together, interdependently, to analyze and impact professional practice in order to improve our individual and collective results.” -DuFour, DuFour & Eaker, 2002 Collaborative cultures…are indeed powerful, but unless they are focusing on the right things they may end up being powerfully wrong.” -Michael Fullen The following insights on productive collaboration are taken from years of research and helps us better understand the importance of this practice…

Question #1 – What Do We Want Our Students to Learn? Teaching Vs. Learning Let’s start with PLC Question #1 – READ QUESTION. One thought to consider related to this questions is, How is teaching different from learning?

How does this relate to PLC question #1? Look at the following cartoon… How does this relate to PLC Question #1? Could this explain what often happens in classrooms, maybe even your own?

Do you teach OR facilitate learning? https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teacher-practice-growth-reflection *Start at 3:44 DISCUSS Rebecca’s thoughts on… -being a work in progress -the sound and fury of teaching -doing less so kids do more -the chaos and mess of learning Discuss Rebecca’s thoughts on… -Being a work in progress -The sound and fury of teaching -Doing less so kids do more -The chaos and mess of learning

PLCs and the Work of Question #1 What are the PLC groups discussing? How does it relate to PLC Question #1? Are they focused on teaching or learning? How do you know? Compare and Contrast this PLC with your group. Now let’s see what question #1 might look like in high-functioning PLCs. The first example is a group of high school world history teachers, followed by a group of 3rd grade teachers. As you watch the 2 clips consider the following…