During the PD day last week, administrators from across the district came together to focus on work around PLCs. PLCs, or Professional Learning Communities is not a new concept, but it is often one that gets misinterpreted. Schools will say, "Oh yes, we do PLCs." But if we are truly incorporating PLCs into our work, then PLCs are not a thing, they are a part of our culture, they are how we operate, how we work together to always do what is best for kids. I love this graphic that I came across in my online reading this weekend. It shows the six essential characteristics of a PLC...
1. A focus on learning - So this might be the time when you are reading and say "duh, we are in the business of education, of course there is a focus on learning." But I will tell you that we often need to check ourselves. I know that when I was a student, the focus was not on learning. I had some really great teachers, and that's what they did - they taught. They focused on teaching, not so much what I was learning. I know that when I was a teacher, there were times where I thought...yes, I rocked it as a teacher just now! And then I had some students who did not get it, even with my awesome teaching, they did not learn it. What?! I had to shift my thinking so that I was always focused on what students were learning. I loved a quote that I heard once from a presenter, "Teaching without learning is not teaching, it's just presenting." It's always good to give yourself a little self check every now and then...am I focused on their learning?
2. Collaborative culture with a focus on learning for all - There's a lot packed in this little characteristic. Collaborative teams working interdependently. Gone are the days of being a teacher on your own island. You can't do it alone and you don't have to. We need to work together as grade level teams, vertical teams, building teams, and any different team combination you can think of. And that part about learning for all...that is the important part, that's what drives our collaborative process. We need to figure out how to reach every single learner, and we need to do this work together.
3. Collective inquiry into best practice and current reality - We want our students to be curious and always questioning so we too need to be inquiring about what we are doing and how we can improve and grow so that all of our students improve and grow. There are 4 key questions that should guide our inquiry process...
- What are our students supposed to know and do?
- How do we know when our students have learned?
- What do we do when our students have not learned?
- What do we do when our students have learned the content?
These questions should be driving our conversations. They should be helping us look at our current practice to ensure that we are utilizing best practice for all of our students and to make sure that in times when we aren't, because that will happen, how are we making adjustments to our practice so that our students are continuing to moving forward.
4. Action orientation - I love this one! I am an action-oriented kind of gal! Too many times as educators, we form teams, committees, planning groups, etc, and we meet and we talk and we meet and we talk and maybe we meet and complain and then we meet some more. And then nothing really gets accomplished. I love nothing more than making checklists and then being able to cross off the item or check it as completed. We need to have the same mindset when we are meeting to discuss teaching and learning and problem solving for students. We can think about things and plan and have ideas and a vision, but at the end of the day, we need to make sure that those all get turned into action.
5. A Commitment to continuous improvement - So this little blurb in the graphic above might just be my favorite..."a persistent disquiet with the status quo." I'm thinking that's bumper stick or t-shirt worthy. In education, we have to be willing to not just do what has always been done. Status quo does not help our various learners. I am all for making some major noise about this, but I'll settle for disquiet. Over 20 years ago, I got into education because I thought there had to be a better way of working with kids. And then 11 years ago, I became a principal because I still thought there had to be a better way of running a school and making a difference for every learner. The idea of building a PLC culture gets me excited because when we all commit to continuous learning, the students always win.
6. Results orientation - I know I talked about being action oriented. If we are action oriented in our process and in our conversations and daily work, then we will certainly see results. We won't just be dreaming about students succeeding, we will be celebrating with them when they do succeed!
Which one of these PLC characteristics are you ready to focus on?
Currently reading:
I am still enjoying reading The Serpent's Secret - lots of action in this book!
Emerson and I go to the library every Saturday and this week she picked out Pinkalicious. I know this book, but it was actually the first time I had read the picture book. Since Emerson and I love cupcakes, we certainly laughed thinking about if we both turned pink!
I am continuing to work on finishing up The Confidence Code, The Other Wes Moore, and Sparks in the Dark: Lessons, Ideas, and Strategies to Illuminate the Reading and Writing Lives in All of Us. There are just too many books to read and never enough time! I want to finish these up because I have many that have been recommended including this one: Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus. Kids and adults have recommended this one, and I have heard the author is great to connect with. It's about a 13 year old girl who was born without arms but that does not stop her from doing anything.
**PTA Thanksgiving Food Collection all week
Monday - Veterans Day, No School
Tuesday - World Kindness Day! Kindergarten team meeting @ 3:45, 1st grade team meeting @ 3:45, School Topics Program for ELL Parents from 5:30-7:00, PTA Meeting @ 7:00 in the library - Liz to speak about school safety
Wednesday - Wellness Wednesday! Grade 2 team meeting @ 8:00, Grade 3 team meeting @ 8:00
Thursday - Liz at Curriculum Meeting 7:45-10:00
Friday - Fire Safety Program in the library, PTA Family BINGO Night @ 5:30
Great things I noticed last week:
- 2nd graders honored Veterans, thanking them in writing and reading all about Veterans Day.
- I also got to see some 2nd graders finding comfortable writing spots around the room.
- Mrs. Tibbetts' 2nd graders were writing about reading, finding text evidence to support their writing about characters.
- 5th graders in Mrs. Olson's class were working on some book talks and some were writing alternate endings.
- Made my day when I was feeling under the weather, and a 1st grader brought me a card and told me she was grateful for me.
- Such an awesome time at our staff meeting on Wednesday with Scholastic! Are you ready to book talk and get our students booktalking?!
Check it out:
Did you know it's World Kindness Day on Tuesday?! Here are the links to Scholastic resources for the day: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/sponsored-content/officedepotholidays/17-18/bringkindnesstoyourclassroom/
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/sponsored-content/officedepotholidays/17-18/whykindnesscounts/
A video clip to go along with kindness:
If anyone wants to borrow any kindness themed books...come take a look in my office!
Check out this link for lots of video clips of book talks: https://www.schooltube.com/channel/scholastic_booktalks/
And another link from Scholastic with more book talks: http://direct.www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/books/booktalk.asp
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