Last week I went to the district PLC meeting for middle school LA teachers. In a large group (6th, 7th, and 8th grade) we discussed what PLC meant and not too many people were sure. One person said that she didn't know what it meant until she went to a PLC conference. We also discussed the pre-tests that the district has decided the students need to take. After far too long (almost everyone was complaining), we split up into our grade level PLC groups. There was some drama as a teacher from my school was supposed to be a co-leader of the group but another teacher decided that she was going to take complete control leaving our colleague disgruntled. Drama knows no bounds.
I'm still not sure about PLC but I do know that meeting with some sort of team is essential. It's like the tribes we have for seminars. Large groups are formed by schools, and then there are teams by grade level with different subjects. There are also "PLC" groups that are same grade and same subject. When we met with our school's PLC we discussed the district expectations and how we were going to meet them.
One thing I do understand is the "C" in PLC. Community means interaction outside of school. The Principal had a dinner party at his house for staff and families. There I saw how the teachers relaxed with each other and maybe there is a sense of professionalism that they share. I know that I felt I still needed to be professional.
The first day was a half day and it didn't seem like school had started yet. I could barely sleep the night before and I think I'll be running on little ammounts of sleep a lot for the next....twenty years. I'm trying to do as much as I can becasue I'm done observing. I did 90 hours of observations in a semester. This experience is about teaching and I want to do as much of that as I can. Like right now...
Its amazing listening to how many acronyms are used in a single day at school. I was constantly asking my cooperating teacher what they were. It was all PLCs, SLRs, and GRLs. After writing a lot of them down and what they meant I spent some time on the all powerful Google which helped a lot! I believe the PLC are professional learning communities and it seems to be a big district wide movement. They want the faculty to start working together more. I know at my school communication was an issue between grade levels. Once the staff can become more in-sync with each other and on the same page with through their learning community then hopefully they can communicate better and the day flows more smoothly. The community part seems to be really important for our school as well. They want to create that community so the teams work better together and feel more supported in their jobs. I think community is important in many different aspects whether it be for your own actual neighborhood community or work environment.
ReplyDeleteI think that this whole district wide movement for PLC's is awesome. I have been in schools where the teachers aren't professional in front of their students or even to their collegues. What kind of note does that send to the students? Community also needs to be important since we are all working together to do the same job-teach our students. It feels like the faculty at my school are a family. They work together to get things done and are very willing to help each other out. For example, one of the teachers had to leave suddenly this morning because he father took a turn for the worse. There were so many teachers in her classroom trying to help her get her things ready for the day, but guess who she asked to stay. ME! I was able to make copies, pass things out on desks, sharpen pencils. She needed the jobs done that took just a little bit of time to finish. It was a great feeling that she could rely on me to help her out when she really needed it. It is great to see what an entire team who works together can do.
ReplyDeleteZach--
ReplyDeleteWhen you were discussing district expectations in your PLCs, did you have to write goals? I went to a departmental meeting, and it sounded similar to what you were talking about. We received a document explaining SMART goals, and we were to create one, state which CORE curriculum standards it satisfies, an implementation plan, and resources we need to be successful.
The meeting was during early session, which is when teachers are to be available for students, to be able to work on things, etc., so many of them seemed anxious to get through the meeting and move on--it was only scheduled for 15 minutes, anyway. The goal was a little vague ("increase student achievement") and they used some of the answers from the year before on the new document. The whole process seemed a little rushed and not regarded as something especially important.
I'm not trying to accuse the teachers, by any means. Maybe the district doesn't emphasize the importance of the task, or maybe the teachers have learned that they don't always get what they need to implement their plan--why bother writing a great goal when you know it won't be supported and you won't receive necessary resources?
Has anyone else had a similar experience? Have they had to write goals, and were they a greater focus?
I haven't heard them talk about goals. Music people are kind of lazy though. They seem really apathetic about it and everything they do. So I might not be an accurate representation of what is supposed to happen.
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