1. PLC Facilitator Training September 12, 2007 Early Release Day
“The most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement is developing the ability for school personnel to function as professional learning communities. (DuFour & Eaker, 1998)

2. Materials Icebreaker Norm Form
PLC Log, SMART Goals, PLC Evaluation, and PD Needs Assessment from 06-07
Unit Plan Template
PLC Plan Sheet
PD Request Form

3. Agenda Sept. 12 Early Out Team Building Activity - PLC Overview
Share District Expectations
Develop Norms
Examine your current reality
PLC Needs
Develop tentative PLC Yearly Plan
To Turn In to the Principal:
Norm Form
Tentative PLC Plan Sheet

4. Team Building Activity
Purpose: Get acquainted, fun, experience the power of collective thoughts--brainstorm, demonstrate their role is to facilitate not know everything. visit what a PLC is

5. Response to Students who aren’t Learning
Big Idea #1 How is a Professional Learning Community different than a traditional school?
PLC
In Regard To
Traditional School
Learning for All
Focus
Teaching
Strategies to back their commitments
Commitments
Haphazard strategies at best
Teachers develop and monitor the indicators frequently
Indicators
Indicators are often developed by outside sources. Monitoring is done at the end of the learning only.
Timely, Required, Systemic Intervention
Response to Students who aren’t Learning
Left up to the individual teacher
Educational Issues
Collaboration
Student behavior, personalities, school politics

6. Big Idea #3 For each term below explain the importance of each word in a PLC
Goals:
PLC teams establish goals, work together to achieve the goals, and provide periodic evidence of progress.
Data:
PLC teams are data driven. They welcome data, use it as a catalyst for improved teacher practice. Data is useful only when the team has a basis of comparison.
Common Assessments:
PLC teams develop common assessments, identify how students perform on specific skills. There is common administration and common scoring of the assessments. The data is used to improve instruction and help individual students meet the learning goals.
Improvement:
Focus on continual improvement which results in change in teaching and learning. Improvement focuses on the classroom not those factors that are outside the classroom and beyond our control.

7. Commitment and Persistence
Sustaining PLC’s requires:
Hard work
Focus on learning rather than teaching
Collaboration on matters related to learning
Accountability for continuous improvement
Even the grandest design eventually translates into hard work. The professional learning community model is a grand design

8. District Commitment 8 Early Outs October 8 PD Day for Data Analysis
January 2 half day for PD
2 half day Learning Teams for Core PLCs
For professional development related to data analysis, curriculum development,
common assessment development and analysis, instructional improvement,
and development of interventions and enrichments.

9. PLC Organization
Configuration of Teams—work with principals to make them meaningful, if across buildings we can help coordinate.
Leadership of Teams—several trained facilitators, share the leadership, identify new facilitators to be trained, decide who will go to principal/facilitator/PD Rep meeting

10. PLC Expectations TIME PRODUCTS After September Early Out Norm Form
Tentative Yearly PLC Plan Sheet
After Each Early Out
Monthly Log
PLC Plan Sheet
Yearly Log
TBA (decided by building)
2 unit plans (Cores)
Non-cores - what makes sense?
TIME
--All PLC members are expected to meet in the building with the PLC group on designated days from 1:15-3:30.
Schedules on early out days should be the same as a regular school day for extra-curricular activities.
--Facilitators and PD Representatives will have follow-up meetings with principals after each early out.
Reason
CP’s sequence—data, smart goal, unit topics, pd needs ( identify resource needs too for req.)
1 that can be taught this year and data gathere Elementary 1 incorporating a math smart goal & 1 incorporating a CA SMART GOAL, may be integrated
Unit Template, Electronic or binders, with assessments—formative & summative, activities, resources

11. Rationale Unit Plan Unit plans answer the questions of a PLC:
What do we want students to know?
Essential Questions
How will we know they learned it?
Assessments, Scoring, Data Analysis
C & C Question: How will we help them learn it?
Instruction & Special Ed Adaptations
What will we do when they didn’t learn?
Interventions
What will we do when they did learn?
Enrichments

12. Unit Plan Template October PD Day Identify the 2 units you will do
Make your unit development plan

13. Norms Why we need them? What they are? Samples/Categories
Publishing the norms
Enforcing them
Periodic evaluation
Overview, all of the things around norms

14. NORMS EXIST WHETHER OR NOT
Why Norms are Needed
Norms are ground rules to identify behaviors that will help us do our work & discourage behaviors that interfere with a group’s effectiveness.
How we act
How we interact
How we conduct business
How we make decisions
How we communicate—to have honest discussions that enable everyone to participate & be heard.
NORMS EXIST WHETHER OR NOT
YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THEM
Parallel to procedures in classrooms.
How many times have you heard teachers say, teachers are the rudest people we know or that teacher would never tolerate that from their class.

15. Categories of Norms Time Confidentiality Decision Making Participation
Leadership
Participation: How to make suggestions
How to state a different opinion vs how to disagree??
Issues: New vs established people
Inexp. Vs. Exp.
PARTICIPATION IS EVERYONE’s RESPONSIBILITY

16. SAMPLE NORMS FOR PLC’s TIME/ATTENDANCE: Start & Stop on time
Stay on task
Attend all meetings
CONFIDENTIALITY
Say what you need to here in the room, not in the parking lot
Individual comments are confidential
DECISION MAKING
Reach decisions by consensus, fist to five
Use data to drive decisions
We will publicly support all decisions made by the group
PARTICIPATION
Stay on task, focus on what we have control over and what moves the PLC forward
Listen and hear one another’s viewpoints—look at pros & cons
It is your responsibility to make sure your idea is put in the room
Speak directly to the person and you have issue with.
Address issues, not personalities
Commit to getting representative views, allow equal airtime for all participants
Focus on being a change agent
Be willing to experiment and make mistakes
Think creatively
Be responsible for the work of the PLC
LEADERSHIP:
Assign and rotate roles of timekeeper, recorder/secretary, leader, etc.

17. ACTIVITY FOR DEVELOPING NORMS
PURPOSE:
To ensure all members have the opportunity to contribute
To increase productivity & effectiveness
To facilitate the achievement of your goals
PROCESS:
Put the categories for norms on the board, may want to add a miscellaneous
Each person records behavior you consider ideal for a group, one per slip of paper and place it under the appropriate category.
1 or 2 people will work with each category to group those with similar ideas together.
For each group of cards, the group writes a norm, record on chart paper.
Determine support for the norms
Adopt final set of norms
What irritates you about meetings, collaboration?
What do you need to be effective—relate to compass activity
OPTIONAL ACTIVITY

18. Consensus occurs when…
1. All points of view have been heard
2. The will of the group is evident even to those who most oppose it.
Use Fist to Five to get consensus
All participants start with a fist and then put up the number of fingers to indicate their level of support for the topic.
5 = greatest support, fist=no support
Those most opposed have the opportunity to voice their opposition
CP do we need to add to or change this?

19. Publishing Norms How can you keep them visible? Posted in meeting room
Copy for everyone
Review at the beginning of each meeting
Include on the top of each agenda
Decide as a PLC

20. STOP & DEVELOP NORMS Revisit Last Year’s Norms Revise
Start from Scratch
A copy will be turned in at the
Principal/Facilitator/PD Rep meeting following the early out

21. Enforcing Norms WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? ALL GROUP MEMBERS
Norms will be violated so talk about violations & how violations will be dealt with.
If you don’t call attention to violations, you are creating a second set of norms.
Ask: “How would you prefer to be notified you have violated a norm.”
Keep it light hearted , like throwing foam balls at someone who comes in late. Use colored cards, flags, hankies. All members must agree to these methods.
Periodically evaluate the adherence to the norm—How well did we do on this norm.

22. Stop and Develop Ways for Publishing & Enforcing
Put this on your list of norms to turn in

23. 5 Principles of Successful Meetings
Discuss only one topic at a time
Use only one process at a time
Achieve interactive and balanced participation
Respect cognitive conflict by eliciting disagreements and respecting other viewpoints
Have all understand and agree to meeting roles and responsibilities

24. PD Needs Assessment from 06-07
Current Reality—using our data for comparison to continue the improvement cycle.
PLC Yearly Log
SMART Goals
PLC Evaluation
PD Needs Assessment from 06-07
What were our accomplishments last year? (Log, Smart Goals, back of PLC Evaluation)
What needs did we identify? Are there others to add? (PD Needs Assessment)
How did we function as a team last year? (PLC Evaluation)

25. FOCUS ON RESULTS… Where do we want to be? Where are we now?
Questions for PLC Groups
FOCUS ON RESULTS…
Where do we want to be?
Where are we now?
What questions do you have that data might answer?
How will we get where we want to be?
What are we learning?
Where should we focus next?
Looked at vision & how PLC are to function –their business, & behavior
Next data
Plan to get where we want to be
7 determine focus

26. PLC’s Focus on educational issues not school politics not student behavior not personalities
Sign some PLCs posted, Kathy lewis gave you

27. Learning Team # 1 ( Cores)
Take the Smart goals and sequence them throughout the year
Plan for common assessments, doesn’t have to be done in early out time, may have 1 or 2 people do.
Input?/

28. PLC EARLY OUT MONTHLY LOG for _____, 200_
PLC GROUP NAME:___________________________________________
Members Present:____________________________________________
Members Absent:_____________________________________________
QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED
During today’s PLC time Next PLC Time
How will we know if they learned it? (Assessment, Data Analysis)
What do we want students to learn? (Curriculum Objectives, Unit Development)
What will we do if they didn’t learn it? (Instruction, Intervention)
What will we do if they did learn it? (Instruction, Enrichment)
TODAY’s GOAL:
RELATED SMART GOAL:
SUMMARY OF TODAY’s PLC TIME: (Include any data reported)
New facilitators trained in NOve., help you , take over next year
Work together with principals to select.
AGENDA FOR THE NEXT PLC TIME:
Date: Time: Place: Leader:
GOAL:
Materials to Bring:
Individual Responsibilities:

29. PLC Facilitator Training Dates for OCT. 8 PD Day
September 28
8:00 to 11:00: Math
12:00 to 3:00: Comm. Arts
October 1
8:00-11:00: Social Studies
12:00 to 3:00: Science
October 2
8:00 to 11:00 3rd-5th Grade
12:00 to 3:00 K-2nd Grade
Specials—TODAY - after this meeting

30. “A successful face-to face team is more than just collectively intelligence.
It makes everyone work harder, think smarter and reach better conclusions than they would have on their own.”
James Surowiecki
“If there is anything that the research community agrees on, it is this:
The right kind of continuous, structured teacher collaboration improves the quality of teaching and pays, big, often immediate, dividends in student learning and professional morale in virtually any setting.”
Mike Schmoker