Professional Learning Communities

1. Professional Learning Communities

2. Blackboard Collaborate Communication Tools 3

3. Collaborate Tools Sliders adjust mic and speaker volume Press to Talk and activate Video Participant Tools: Emoticons Step Away Raise Hand Polling Chat Tool 4

4. Participant FeaturesAudio Setup Wizard Audio Setup Wizard Audio & Video Settings 5

5. Testing the Audio Setup Wizard 6

6. Participant FeaturesAudio & Video Keep the Talk and Video off when not speaking. Volume Controls Video Preview Video On and Off Talk On and Off 7

7. Questions? • Please raise your hand. • Wait to be called on. • Turn on Talk (and Video!) button. • Ask your question. • When done, please turn off Talk button. 8

8. 9

9. Connections to Survey Results 10

10. Professional Learning Community: A Definition A community with the capacity to promote and sustain the learning of all professionals in the school community with the collective purpose of enhancing student learning. *Bolam, et al. 2005.

11. Just because they are called “Professional Learning Communities” … doesn‘t mean they are. How can we support teachers not only to be collaborative, but to help build and lead a collaborative culture focused on student learning?

12. What are the four core principles of PLCs?

13. 1) PLCs strive to ensure student learning • What do we want each student to learn? • How will we know when each student has learned it? • How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?

14. 2) PLCs operate in a culture of collaboration • Have a systematic process for teachers to work together to analyze and improve their classroom practice • Engage in ongoing cycle of questions that promote team learning and lead to higher student learning.

15. Collaboration Enablers • Focus on what students learned • Allocate time to collaborate • Less excuses for failing to collaborate • Find a way to make it happen

16. 3) PLCs are led in an inquiry process • Team leadership stimulates members to formulate and share their own perspectives on questions • Differentiated to accommodate the different developmental and experiential levels of the members • Facilitation • Division of labor • Materials • Inquiry process is protected by norms to make the process structured and safe for members

17. 4) PLCs focus on results and data • Identify current level of student achievement • Set goal to improve • Work together to achieve that goal • Gather evidence of progress • Must embrace data, even if it is brutal

18. Applied Learning • Observe the short video of a PLC in action • Use the PLC Video Note Taking Guide to capture evidence of these core principals

19. What did you observe?

20. What are the developmental levels of a high functioning PLC?

21. Four Levels

22. Forming • High expectations • Anxiety of fitting in • Dependent on a leader or facilitator to create structure • Members are polite but guarded

23. Storming • Members rebel against each other and the structures, the group, and the assigned tasks • Jockey for power • People tempted to opt out at this point or mentally check out

24. Norming • Overcome resistance • Develop cohesion • Emerging trust and support • Building skills and procedures for doing the work • Confronting issues and not teammates

25. Performing • Work interdependently • Share leadership • Flexible, adaptive • Close • High support

26. A Quick Assessment • Consider the current state of PLCs in your school • Use the graphic below to plot where PLC groups reside • If you do not know, take the time to consider what steps you might take to assess your PLCs Example

27. How Can I Promote PLC Development?

28. Enable Trust to Develop • Analyses from previous surveys suggests that there are a couple of important components to building trust • Model consistency in your actions • Include the entire team in decision making processes • Commit to a clear, shared vision

29. Consider Your Words • How you speak can have a powerful impact on PLC development • Framing questions • Active listening • Acknowledging and Clarifying what you are hearing • Summarizing and organizing ideas • Ability to move between Instructive, Collaborative, and Facilitative postures

30. Develop Norms • Agreements generated by the team • Intended for all team members to uphold • Aligned with the function and context of the team • Subject to change as the team’s development or task changes

31. Develop an Effective Agenda • Sent out ahead of the meeting • Posted or distributed during meeting • Have clear outcomes • Communicate norms • Assign roles of participants if needed • Allot times for each intended activity • Include next steps, timeframe and responsibilities • Include all team members in providing feedback and input on next agenda

32. For Additional Resources http://teachingconditions.org/