Building Professional Learning Communities Mineola High School Building Professional Learning Communities

Schools of Thought… “Schools don’t make a difference - schools have little influence on a child’s achievement that is independent of the background and social context of that student.”

Schools of Thought… “Schools do make a difference – all children can learn and the school controls the factors to assure student mastery of the curriculum.”

What is a PLC? “A Professional Learning Community is an ethos that infuses every single aspect of a school’s operation. When a school becomes a professional learning community, everything in the school looks different than it did before.” ~Andy Hargreaves

What is a PLC? Educators committed to working collaboratively in an ongoing process of collective inquiry and action research in order to achieve better results for the students they serve. PLC’s operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous, job-embedded learning for educators.

Characteristics of a PLC Shared mission, vision, values and goals Collaborative teams FOCUSED ON LEARNING Collective inquiry into “best practice” and “current reality” Action orientation / experimentation Commitment to continuous improvement Results orientation

Three Ideas of Professional Learning Communities Learning is the fundamental guiding principle. Clarify what each student needs to learn. Monitor their progress. Ensure that students receive time and support if they are not learning. 

Three Ideas of Professional Learning Communities 2. Build a Collaborative Culture We can achieve the fundamental purpose of high levels of learning for all students when we work together as a team. Working together interdependently. Improve our individual and collective results.

Three Ideas of Professional Learning Communities 3. Focus on Results  Increase students passing the NY State Regents exams. Reduce failure rate.

Advantages of Collaborative Teams Gains in student achievement Higher quality solutions to problems Increased confidence among staff Teachers able to support one another’s strengths and accommodate weaknesses Ability to test new ideas More support for new teachers Expand pool of ideas, materials, methods

True collaboration is… A systemic process in which we work together, interdependently, to analyze and impact professional practice in order to improve our individual and collective results.

Our Plan Professional development for this year will focus on working in PLC’s. In doing so, we will provide you with 5 direct hours 5 indirect hours Faculty meetings and Department Meetings will also be used to conduct PLC work.

September…Collective Inquiry What is a PLC? As departments, we read and discussed an article by Rick DuFour entitled “What is a Professional Learning Community?” We spent time discussing the different aspects of what a PLC does and how they function in a school setting.

October…Group Norms Working in a group that tackles tough issues is no easy task. Individual personalities, strengths and opinions are just some of the forces that come into play when working with others. By creating group norms together, our PLC’s arrived at an understanding about how our groups should function.

November…Smart Goals With a basic understanding of what PLC’s are all about and a set of norms established to help conduct our work together, we began a discussion about SMART goals. Strategic, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-Based and Time Bound goals were created within our departments.

December…Essential Learning In an attempt to build shared knowledge about the most essential learning for a course or subject, PLC’s discussed state curriculum, district curriculum and student performance on past assessments with the goal of identifying “critical outcomes” for students.

January / February… Common Formative Assessments Having spent time discussing the notion of a set of critical outcomes for students, the PLC will begin to discuss the concept of creating common formative assessments. These assessments help in monitoring each student’s mastery of the essential learning and allow for strategies for students who are experiencing difficulty.

Current Reality / Future Goals Clearly, this has been a “seeding” process for us. A school system is never “done” with being a PLC. PLC’s are an evolution and a way of consistently working towards increased student achievement. We hope to continue to grow as a PLC, regardless of what the future may hold. Increasing student achievement and collaboratively discussing best practice should always be our focus.

Team Building Activity #1 Describe a time when you were part of a team or group that was successful in accomplishing a goal. What were the characteristics of the group that made it successful? What obstacles arose that prevented you from achieving the goal? How did you overcome the obstacles?

Team Building Activity #2 Let’s reconvene in the Gym!