WHATEVER IT TAKES  “It should be clear that schools will never realize the fundamental purpose of helping all students achieve at high levels if the educators within them work in isolation.”

But to be an effective team… “Groups need common tasks – things they do together……Groups lacking a common task are simply involved in parallel play: they do the same thing, not together, but side- by-side.”  Harvey and Drolet, Building Teams, Building People

WHAT IS A PLC? It’s a process, not a program  Shared Vision, Mission, Values, Goals  Collaborative Culture/Focus on learning  Inquiry  Learn by doing-not sit and get  A process of reflection and continuous improvement  Based on shared learning

History of PLCs  History of School Development  History of PLC Development  Systems Theory  Systems Thinking  Organizational Development  Learning Organizations

Big Ideas  Ensure that all students learn at high levels – Commitment to Learning for students and staff  Collaborative Culture-work together and assume responsibility for student learning  Monitor Student Learning – evidence and response

Four collaborative questions  What is it we want each student to learn?  How will we know when each student has learned it?  How will we respond to students having difficulty learning it?  How will we enrich and extend learning for those students who know it?

TIGHTLY HELD--LOOSELY HELD (System-Based) (School-Based)  District Mission, Vision, Values, Goals  STANDARDS  GOALS AND PRIORITIES  PACING GUIDES  STAFFING  BENCHMARK TESTS  COLLABORATION  School Mission, Vision, Values, Goals  INSTRUCTION  STRATEGIES  DAILY/COMMON OBJECTIVES  LEARNING PROCESSES  RESOURCES  COMMON ASSESSMENTS  PROGRAMS

Barriers to PLC  Time/Too many programs  Blame Game Attitudes: Blaming parents, last year’s teachers, the educational system, DO, President, Governor, Hollywood, Mario, Nintendo  Poor leadership  Poor teams  Leadership capacity in staff  Fear of retaliation/Trust issues  Poor district support

GETTING STARTED “For a learning organization (PLC) to sustain after the `fad phase,’ a set of tools is needed so organizations can systematically instigate change.” Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

PERSONAL MASTERY “Personal mastery is the phrase we use for discipline of personal growth and learning. It is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision. “A personal vision is the deepest expression of what we want in life, and that image becomes both a guide for our decisions and a barometer of our sense of satisfaction in life.” Daniel Goldman, Primal Leadership

MENTAL MODELS “Mental Models are described as the way people view and make sense of the world. They determine how we act and respond to events and other people. “How two people can view the exact same event and describe it to others completely differently is a concrete example of mental models. These same two people can interpret the intentions differently as well.” Daniel Goldman, Primal Leadership

EDWARD T. JOYNER, SCHOOLS THAT LEARN “We can change only by holding conversations with colleagues where we openly examine our attitudes about kids (and ourselves) and the influences that put those views in our minds in the first place.”

KENDALL MURPHY, LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS “My observation of conversations in business, political and social settings is that people spend an inordinate amount of energy asserting and debating which position is right or wrong. Such thinking is not only destructive, but flawed, because we always see the world through a particular filter or lens.”

SHARED VISION Building a shared vision is the process of examining individual visions of team members and finding commonalities that can be folded into one. Individuals in an organization must realize individual visions, be able to articulate them and then collectively share and build a shared vision for the organization.

TEAM LEARNING T eam learning is the discipline of collective learning. As staff members learn to work together, the school will develop better solutions to problems, increase staff confidence, expand the availability of ideas, methods and materials, and provide better support structures for new staff members.

SYSTEMS THINKING Systems Thinking is the discipline of seeing the big picture. It is the ability to move beyond individual events to working as part of a system.