© 2009 Optimize: Professional Development, LLC Supporting and Maintaining Professional Learning Communities

Professional Learning Community Establishing a professional learning community requires a systemic shift in both the thinking and action of teachers and administrators. This shift can be complex and the results can be scattered if the community does not commit itself to collaboratively answering the following questions: 1.What do we want our students to learn? 2.How will we know when they learn? 3.How will we respond when they do not learn? 4.How will we respond when they do learn? Successfully building the capacity to answer these questions requires an organized and focused approach.

“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.” – Schmoker (in DuFour, Eaker, & DuFour, 2005, p. xii)

In professional learning communities, teachers work collaboratively to ensure that all students learn at high levels. Teachers are, on some level, responsible for the learning of all students in a school. In a professional learning community, teachers collaboratively bridge student needs and data with teacher inquiry, research, action, and reflection. Therefore, teachers may not only be accountable for their homeroom class, but other students as well. TeamMark provides tools to support teachers in creating class lists and rosters for multiple subjects and with student alert features to help teachers monitor individual student progress.

TeamMark provides scaffolding for the essential elements of professional learning communities, the tabs above are arranged in an order that facilitate a logical development of a team’s collaborative process. The following slides provide information on each of these features. Navigation Tabs

In TeamMark, after collaboratively establishing norms, a team is reminded of these norms each time they open a collaboration log. To realize the effectiveness of collaboration within a professional learning community, teams must commit themselves to working in a professional capacity. Norms are the agreements and expectations of behavior and accountability among a team. Setting meaningful team norms is critical for effective and efficient collaboration. Norms

A successful team is goal driven. SMART goals, goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound provide the specificity needed for a team to work towards actualizing their achievement goals. TeamMark provides a template to help teams develop SMART goals. Goals are then automatically displayed in the collaboration log. Teams complete goal progress reports. Goals

The Subjects tab is used to establish for which subjects teachers will be creating rosters and/or creating essential learning topics. Subjects may be thought of as the multiple subjects or different periods a teacher teaches during the day. Subjects

In a professional learning community, all teachers believe all students can and will learn. To work effectively and efficiently towards high achievement for all learners, teams must clearly identify essential learning that all learners must attain. Common formative assessments are used by teams to ensure student achievement. TeamMark provides tools to support teachers in establishing essential learning calendars for all subjects they teach. These essential learning topics are then integrated throughout the program. Essential Learning

In professional learning communities, teachers use frequent common formative assessments to monitor student learning. The data from these frequent assessments is collaboratively analyzed and used to inform instructional decisions. TeamMark provides a progress monitoring tool that supports teachers in using data to make informed decisions. Data

Ensuring that all students achieve at high levels requires specific instruction aligned with learner needs. Using common formative assessment data, teachers plan instructional groups for re-teaching those who have not learned and extending knowledge for those who have TeamMark’s Groups tool supports teams as they plan specific instruction aligned to student data. Groups

A consistent, predetermined collaboration schedule is a critical aspect of efficient, effective collaboration. TeamMark’s Collaboration Schedule tab allows users to set the dates and times of collaboration meetings. Other teachers and administrators can view all team collaboration schedules. Collaborative Schedule

The heart of professional learning communities is the power of professionals collaborating regularly with a focus on the learning of every student. Effective collaboration requires an organized and focused approach. TeamMark’s Collaboration Log organizes a powerful array of crucial resources into one integrated tool which scaffolds teams through effective collaboration. Collaborative Log

Keeping record of both student and teacher learning is critical in a professional learning community. TeamMark automatically saves all data electronically, allowing users to easily access any past work. Users may also view and print a variety of reports. Reports

Clarity in collaboration requires that teams create and follow a specific collaboration agenda for each meeting. TeamMark allows teams to create, categorize, and distribute agenda notes to their team and any teach school-wide and any time. These agenda notes are automatically distributed to the team’s collaboration log on a specified date. Agenda Notes

TeamMark supports the procedures and components of professional learning communities. TeamMark has been created around the knowledge that sustainable change occurs when the power of a community is utilized. This power is its people, the people who interact daily with student learning. When we bring these people together through meaningful collaboration, committed to high achievement, teaching and learning will improve. “It’s fairly simple. I cannot be better at what I do in isolation from other people.” – Schmoker (in DuFour, Eaker, & DuFour, 2005, p. xii)

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