Professional Learning Communities: Collaborative Brain Power!

1. Professional Learning Communities: Collaborative Brain Power! Presented by: Amanda English and Erin Kanouse

2. What is a Professional Learning Community or PLC? • The professional learning community is seen as a powerful staff development approach and beneficial strategy for school change and improvement. It incorporates collaborative learning among colleagues in similar fields or environments. –SEDL.org • When you walk into a school (or group) that is functioning as a professional learning community, you have a sense that people understand what is important, what the priorities are; and they are working together in a collaborative way to advance the school toward those goals and priorities. -Lunenberg

3. How is this Different than a Staff Meeting? • Staff Meeting: • run by the administrator • Less input and sharing by staff • Usually talking about laws and regulations, deadlines, but less regarding learning new skills • Only the district staff versus regional • Not specific to one field (VI)

4. Why are PLCs Important? • Supportive and Shared Leadership • Collective Creativity • Shared Values and Vision  • Supportive Conditions • Shared Personal Practice Source: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/

5. Supportive and Shared Leadership • In the PLC model, principals and administrators become part of the learning and sharing community for the good of the school or students. They are no longer seen as “all knowing.”-SEDL • Encouragement from our supervisors to participate in this type of structured learning/planning/sharing

6. Collective Creativity • The old phrase “two brains are greater than one” really fits here! • Not reinventing the wheel! Saves time! • Tap into what others are trying • Brainstorm ways to teach a new/difficult skill • Expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire • Reflective Dialogue to allow staff to discuss specific students’ learning and identifying related issues and problems as well as reoccurring issues with students that have been shared over time.

7. Shared Values and Vision • Striving toward a common goal! • Creating Uniformity (Our services should look very similar): • Drop Box Documents/Checklists (Accessible to team) • Evaluations • Team discussions of Best Practice

8. Supportive Conditions • Rules of the Group • Everyone’s opinion is valid: No idea is a bad idea • All In! • NO Tech! • Positive

9. "Instead of looking for superheroes, we need to work collectively to help everyone be successful.“--DuFour

10. Shared Personal Practice • New Techniques • Sharing learned techniques from conferences • Best Practice • Tricks of the trade • Share Difficulties and Successes

11. Create Trust “The formal and informal leaders have to be clear that the goal is collaboration and not competition," says Anne Smith. --Edutopia

12. How Do You Create a PLC? • Team Leaders were chosen by our administrator to guide and organize, but all team members play an equal role. • Determined needs (Brainstorm ideas) • Show First Meeting Ideas (Evernote) • Started establishing a list of what we wanted to accomplish • Share what our list looked like • Rules of our group • Set a date and KEEP THE DATE!

13. PLC Leaders’ Purpose • Develop meeting schedule once a month • Notes/ follow up after meetings • First meeting develop group norms • How do we want to function • Develop vision • Don't take on too much • Keeping the team on track • Focus on solutions not the problems • Give everyone a minute to get things off their chest and then, "I'm all in" • Possible norm- not checking phones and emails • Possibly assign roles (time keeper, someone who keeps you on task, etc.) • Have a set start and end time (maybe 2 hours?)

14. Example from our first meeting:

15. Topics Addressed During a PLC: Maintaining Confidentiality • Using Evernote to keep a record of our PLC • Confidentiality Questions on Note-taking Apps • Glitches in transferring notes over • Full team unable to access One Note • Data Mining Concerns from Tech

16. Topics: Organization Project • Taking time to Organize our staff storage • Sorting through old and unused materials • Grouping like materials for easy retrieval • Labeling shelves • Basic Inventory to save money

17. Topics: Website • Staff updates • Administrator Contact • Overview and What is Visual Impairment • Resources

18. Challenges: Not Completing projects to fruition Ok to have multiple meetings on one topic We try to return back to our list of projects to allot time for it.

19. Team PLC Evolution • 2 leaders to help plan and organize team • Group Brainstorms to determine our focus • Ever Changing to meet the team’s needs • Rotating roles (as presenters of topics) • Example (Latest endeavor will be to take components of our specialties and share them with each other in a 1 hour focused training) • Inviting special guests to help train and present to the group

20. Regional PLC • We developed ours after a Town Hall Meeting with the Bureau (BSBP) after questions were voiced from various ISDs staff. • Need for support: smaller organizations or isolated instructors • Share information from PD • Size of Group (Do not want to have too many, so all voices can be heard and you can accomplish tasks/solutions) • Send out Survey Monkey for Dates • Google Docs to create an agenda (anyone can add information)

21. Example of Regional PLC Topics from March Meeting • https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P5hAGJQvx6OLy26XPGFRsiozg_Ff7K07M9CmuM3Ffsc/edit • VI Professional Learning Community (Word Doc)

22. Benefits versus Sacrifices • Time commitment for learning increases cohesive plans for team and region • Sharing information with each other so all are up to date with current accurate information for when caseloads change • Reminds us we are part of a team and accountable • Helps get everyone on the same page • Problem solving as a team versus on your own • Get more information disseminated in a quicker fashion • Feel empowered and refreshed and ready to take on more when tackling it as a group.

23. Controversial Topics Lead to Learning • When they discuss a topic as potentially controversial as assessments, the team learns from each other. "We're not always on the same page and can have healthy disagreements," she says. "Rather than be defensive, we sit down and discuss." –Edutopia • Topics that one teacher thought to be taught well were discussed and methods for filling in the holes were discussed to create a better lesson.-Edutopia

24. This Says It All! • "Now, my colleagues and I are always going to each other for advice.“--Edutopia

25. How have PLCs impacted our VI team? • Developed • Drop Box for Frequently needed Forms, Checklists • Youth Low Vision, Driving with Bioptics, Tech Checklists, • We’ve Developed many of our own checklists • Quicker development of measurable IEP goals • Periodically reviewing caseloads to make sure people are feeling like their caseloads are manageable • More collaboration on challenging cases

26. One of our Checklists

27. Ready, Set, Jump Start YOUR Collaborative Brain Power! • Start your PLC today!

28. Resources • http://www.ncpublicschools.org/ • http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues61.html • http://www.edutopia.org/professional-learning-communities-collaboration-how-to • CREATING A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY, Fred C. Lunenburg http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Lunenburg,%20Fred%20C%20Creating%20a%20Professional%20Learning%20Community%20NFEASJ%20V27%20N4%202010.pdf

29. Contact Us! • Amanda English-aenglish@kresa.org • Erin Kanouse-ekanouse@kresa.org