The Road to Collaboration: Setting the Stage for Increased Student Achievement The PLC journey of Wohlwend Elementary School

Presenters O Dave Meschke, Principal O Ellen Geders, Kindergarten Teacher O Jill Skaggs, Reading Specialist O Meagan Ochoa, Third Grade Teacher

Presentation Outline O Overview of Wohlwend O Setting the Stage for PLC O Structures Implemented O Focus on Student Achievment O Question and Answer Session

Essential Question O How can we improve the culture and achievement at our school?

Learning Target O I can design a plan to implement PLC successfully in my school.

Wohlwend Elementary Overview

Current Initiatives O PLC O PBIS O Character Education O RtI O Cooperative Learning O UBD O Transition to Missouri Learning Standards

Setting the Stage O Success of PLC hinges on collaboration O Doesn’t happen overnight O Buy In O Ask everyone for input O Set Common Goal O Establish Trust/Team Builders O Allow Enough Time

Buy In O Teachers buy into change efforts that they feel are important O Teachers buy into changes they believe are doable O Teachers buy into changes they believe will be around for awhile O Collaboration-Not Competition O Allow Enough Time O Broad and Inclusive O Get Outside Help

“You have to go whole heartedly into anything in order to achieve anything worth having.” O Frank Lloyd Wright

Building Consensus O Fist to Five Consensus O Everyone can support decision O Easy way to build consensus among diverse group O Gives everyone opportunity to state their objections O Team addresses concerns

Creating Teams O Teams are fundamental building blocks of PLC…engine that drives continuous movement O PLC Leadership Team O Grade Level Teams O Scheduling Time O Norms O Agendas O Collaboration O Establishing Trust/Team Building O Celebrations

“We need to let go of the idea that heroic individuals will change schools. Instead of looking for superheroes, we need to work collectively to help everyone be successful.” O Dr. Richard DuFour

Vision and Mission O Teachers develop this together with a pledge to ensure success of each student O Share samples of vision and mission statements from other schools O Voice individual visions for school community O Use of Kagan Strategies O Chart Ideas O Allow Enough Time O Fist to Five Consensus O

Collective Commitments O Overlying question-How do we need to behave if we are going to become the kind of school we seek to become? O Teacher Input-Kagan Strategies, Charting, Creating/Writing O Student Input-Kagan Strategies, Charting O Parent Input-Surveys O Allow Enough Time O Fist to Five Consensus

“ A champion is someone who is willing to be uncomfortable.” O Pat Summitt O Former University of Tennessee Women’s Head Basketball Coach

My Plate Runneth Over O Scheduling O Common plan time O Challenges with kindergarten O Specials: Art, Music, P.E., and Library

A.C.E Teams (Academic, Community, Environment) O Meet once a month O Combine with faculty meeting O Agenda, norms, and rules O Report out last 15 minutes to whole staff O Productive groups 6-3

What Makes a PLC Team Productive O Norms O Provided the staff with examples O Developed school-wide norms O Gave each team a week to develop their own norms O Examples

Agendas O Norms O Assign roles: 6-7 O Celebrations O BMW O Establish goals for the meeting O End with a plan of action O Video Clip

Big Ideas: So Far… O Move slowly: small steps and due dates O Acknowledge when people are overwhelmed O Keep in consideration times of the year, i.e. holidays, grades, times when things are most stressful O Collaboration O Celebrate and BMW (it really is okay) O Community

“The kind of commitment we had on our team put all kinds of emotions at stake. When you worked, played, and fought as hard as we did together, we couldn’t help loving one another.” O Pat Summitt O Share stories: Kathy and movement of classrooms

Focusing on Student Achievement

Pre-Post Testing Map Where we’ve been and where we’re going O O Started with reading and math O Revised existing tests O Agreed upon correct answers O Artifacts O O Unwrapped reading standards O Rewrote tests using resource sheet #2 O Artifacts

Pre-Post Testing Map Continues O O Vertical articulation O Common core revisions O Artifacts O O Using test results to guide meaningful differentiated instruction O Artifacts

RtI Where we’ve been and where we’re going O O Begin switch from CARE Teams to RtI O Developed an RTI leadership team O Professional development O Created pyramid

RtI Map Continues O O Benchmarking O Set up 3 dates O Benchmarking done by RTI leadership team and specialists O Created intervention block (Nov.) O Trained staff O Developed SMART teams O A team and B team O Meeting procedure O Case manager duties O Artifacts

RtI Map Continues O O Began training teachers to benchmark O Grade level meetings focus shift O O Teacher’s responsible for their own benchmarking O Revisited RtI procedures

Conference room walls

RtI Map Continues O Achievement team organizes interventions O Achievement team labeling guided reading books

No one of us can do everything… But each one of us can do something to improve student outcomes.

Moving Towards Achievement Tools we picked up along the way… O O GLE’s O Kagan teaching strategies O O Formative assessments O Examples O Student involvement O Examples

Moving Towards Achievement O O Data teams O Slow and steady O artifacts O O Data team revisions O Example

Your School… O Where are you in your journey to achievement? O Where do you want to go? O How will you get there? Think / Pair / Share O Think / Write (3 minutes) O Share with a partner (5 minutes)

Questions?