Professional Learning Communities (PLC’S) Scholars in Action: The 2011 UNI Symposium on Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity

Getting Started Session Facilitators – Mary C. Herring, PhD College of Education - Interim Associate Dean – Kelly Jones, LISW School Improvement Consultant, GWAEA Recorder – Stacey Snyder, Teacher Quality Partnership Project Manager/Instructional Designer

Outcomes Create a shared understanding of the benefits and outcomes of PLC’s Reflect on the current state of PLC’s at UNI and the desired future Identify how the attributes of PLC’s might better support faculty in their teaching, scholarship, and professional development

Developing an Understanding Review Components of PLC’s Figure 1:1 While watching youtube video, what ideas are presented that correspond with the components on Figure 1:1? DuFour: Professional Learning Communities

Self Reflection On your index card do the following: Formulate a “hypothesis” about how the PLC contributes to your learning and teaching practices?

Paired Sharing Find a partner to form a pair Each partner share their “hypothesis”

Text Expert Membership in the Community of Professional Learners and Professional Learning Community Benefits Professional Learning Communities: What Are They and Why Are They Important? Each partner choose a different text to read

Record, Reflect and Share Record on your index card, 3-4 key ideas from your text and share them with your partner Individually reflect on your learning and hypothesis Share with your partner what impact this learning had on your hypothesis

Thinking about UNI Find another pair and form a quad Identify a facilitator, recorder, timekeeper and reporter As a group, respond to the reflective questions and record on poster paper

Reflective Questions What have you observed, heard, experienced at UNI that reflects the attributes of a PLC? If your group could have whatever it wanted (do not consider time or resources); how might UNI embrace the attributes of PLC’s to better support faculty in their teaching, scholarship, and professional development?

Current Reality and Desired Future Reporter for each quad share one item from the first question. Continue till all items from each group are reflected on the public notes Repeat the process for the second question Stacey will record on Google Doc