Creating Conditions for Professional Learning Communities

1. Creating Conditions for Professional Learning Communities

2. Everything has changed! Schools are experiencing: • new and highly challenging students • high mobility • poverty Here is a modest list for consideration: • Expectations • Engagement • Toxic Grading Practices The nicest gift we could give to ourselves would be a new way of doing business that builds on our strengths and eliminates the road blocks we have encountered these past few years.

3. Think about it • Our problem is not a lack of expertise, it is a lack of personal growth. • Education is not about what you know but who you become. • No educator can be fragile in self-esteem, or have low or no self-esteem. • One good teacher can make you believe it is possible! Care about your colleagues and the care for the students will come naturally.

4. 7 Power Questions for Educators • Why did you become an educator? • Do you know your population? • Have you found your voice? • Are you happy with your job and are you happy in your life? • Are you fully maximizing your potential in your current position? • Do you understand or have you identified your teaching style? • Has being a teacher caused you to neglect yourself, your health, or your family?

5. What is a PLC? Professional Learning Community

6. What is a PLC? “A Professional Learning Community is a group of educators committed to working collaboratively in ongoing processes of collective inquiry and action research in order to achieve better results for the students they serve. PLC’s operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous, job-embedded learning for educators” DuFour, et. al, 2006

7. The driving engine of a PLC is… …the collaborative team,on which members work interdependentlyto achieve a common goal for which each team member is mutually accountable.

8. Six Characteristics • Shared Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals • Collective Inquiry • Collaborative Culture • Action Orientation and Experimentation • Continuous Improvement • Focus on Results

10. Professional Learning Community Community means different things to different people. To some it is a safe haven where survival is assured through mutual cooperation. To others, it is a place of emotional support, with deep sharing and bonding with close friends. Some see community as an intense test for personal growth. For others, it is simply a place to pioneer their dreams.

11. CONTEXTEstablishing the environment for professional learning • Ongoing process • Cannot wait until the “right” conditions exist to provide professional learning • Attend to context-building strategies • Allows to implement powerful professional learning • Improves capacity for school to function as a learning community • Helps increase student achievement

12. Why should we collaborate When groups, rather than individuals, are seen as the main units for implementing curriculum, instruction, and assessment, they facilitate development of shared purpose for student learning and collective responsibility to achieve it (Newmann & Wehlage, 1995).

13. Two Forms of Change in a PLC • Technical • Collaborative time • Common Assessments • Data • Educational Technology • Support Classes • Cultural • Positive or Negative? • What cultural work needs to be done in order to get to the technical change?

14. Common Misconceptions aboutTechnical Changes • Changing the structure will lead to higher levels of learning • Technical changes make up for poor instruction or unprofessionalism • Technical changes will “fix” kids or “fix” schools which are broken

15. Cultural Changes when Attending to Context • Everyone in the building, including the students, knows and understands the purpose of the school (mission, vision, values). • Professional learning is one of inquiry – questioning and searching for answers is the main mode of professional discourse. • Being in each others’ classrooms and buildings is the norm.

16. No one waits for orders from above. • People are not satisfied with the status quo. • People will grumble about old-style staff development

17. Continuum of Community Function Toxic Laissez-faire Congenial Collaborative Accountable Toxic – All about the teacher, adults not nice to one another or to the students Laissez-faire – Teacher centered, autonomous, individual contractors Congenial – Counterfeit, confuse niceness w/collaborative, focus not on kids Collaborative – Have structures and skills in working together for improved student achievement Accountable – Able to acknowledge and deal with difficult data effectively; Move beyond familiar solutions and approaches; Let go of instructional practices that do not work; Call one another on unmet expectations or violated norms. Source: Skillful Leader II, Warnock presentation

18. What is process?Selecting the design that works with context and content • Selecting the professional learning strategies – that help adults learn. • Once you have the context for learning, adults will collect and analyze data from various sources. The data help identify student needs and what the adults need to learn to help their students

19. Bruce Tuckman's 'Forming Storming' Team Development Stages Model (1965)

20. Norms/Working Agreements The standards of behavior by which we agree to operate while we are learning together.

21. Establishing Norms No Blame, No Shame Participate fully Actively listen No interrupting Seek application Press for clarification Honor time agreements and confidentiality Silence cell phones

22. Why PLCs? • You cannot have students as continuous learners and effective collaborators, without teachers having the same characteristics. -Fullan

23. Steps for Deciding Content Connecting data, professional learning, and student achievement • Start at the end • What should students know and be able to do? • What are the GLCEs or HSCEs really asking? • How well do they know and are they able to do what is expected? • How will you respond if they don’t meet expectations? • How will you respond if they already meet the expecations? • Keeping in mind what students need to know and be able to do, consider what teachers should know and be able to do.

24. Look at the current professional learning program (if there is one) and determine if it works to support needed content • Design your own professional learning program • Determine indicators of success for students and their teachers • Determine indicators of success for others in the system

25. Data Leadership Teams: Why? “Schools that explore data and take action collaboratively provide the most fertile soil in which a culture of improvement can take root and flourish.” "The Collaborative Advantage." Educational Leadership Dec/Jan (2009)

26. What do Data Teams Do? Typical responsibilities for Data Team members might include (not limited to): • Collecting and analyzing a variety of types of school data • Developing or adapting common assessment instruments • Committing to norms of collaboration and to examining data from an equity perspective • Using the processes and tools to identify student learning problems, verify causes, generate solutions, and monitor and achieve results for students • Consulting research to investigate problems, causes and best practices

27. What do Data Teams Do? - con’t • Developing data-supported action plans • Communicating with staff and key stakeholders about the findings and the plans • Overseeing the implementation of the plan and/or implementing instructional improvement in classrooms • Sharing successes and challenges from their own classrooms and/or at the school level • Engaging a broader group of stakeholders to gain their input, involvement, and commitment • Coordinating with other school/district initiatives leaders • Developing their knowledge and skills in data literacy and collaborative inquiry, leadership and facilitation

28. Steps to Data-driven Decision Making • Share meatloaf recipes • Discuss last year’s data • Build calendar • Create pre-assessments • Administer assessments • Analyze data (assessment results) • Teach, teach, teach • Administer post-assessment • Score post assessment • Begin process again

30. Not the beginning and end for your School Improvement Plan

31. The success of the PLC concept depends not on the merits of the concept itself, but on the most important element in the improvement of any school-the commitment and persistence of the educators within it. -Richard DuFour