Please take a look at the previous post for how you will structure your learning today. We are glad to have the staff from East Bend joining us on our blog. Remember, the entire day is devoted to learning about the concept of PLC's and how we can implement them in our schools. There is no "one right way"; it will be a unique create based on our learning. Feel free to take time for lunch at that time. Remember, let your conversations be reflected in your blog responses so you can share your thoughts with others outside your teams. I will be walking around some, but will spend most of my day reading your posts. Let me know if you have questions.
I thought I had all books in, but am missing some. Let me check my Amazon order. I will fix it.
Have a great days and share your learning, Jas
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After reading the first chapter of our selected text, which was based on teacher empowerment and community, 2nd grade and PE think that having teachers participate in the interview process for future team members would be both empowering and beneficial to ensuring the team works well together.
The seventh grade team has our books and are on our way to becoming informed. We have divided the book into chapters and are meeting and discussing each chapter after reading. We meet weekly for our formal team meeting but attempt to discuss some aspect of the PLC daily. Tentatively, our formative assessment will focus on reading comprehension using class scape.
Seventh grade would like to pose questions from our second chapter. We would like for the educational leaders at the local and county level as well as teachers to respond to the following:
1. What does effective teaching look like?
2. What does a learning community school look like in practice? May we visit one locally?
The EC PLC has begun developing a formative assessment on Objective 1.01 (Developing Number Sense for Whole Numbers). We are going to include items for Kindergarten through 4th grade. We would be glad to share this with anyone who is interested.
Kindergarten/Speech team has set up a reading schedule. We have debated and decided on our goal and objective for our formative assessment. We have planned how to assess and analyze our students. We intend to use this data to gear our instruction to teach to the individual needs.
Our team would like to meet at an off campus location during our double planning time on Monday between 10:00 and 11:20 to discuss the text. Seriously, we will meet weekly to help each other through this learning experience.
From 4th grade: LEARNING BY DOING book has prompted discussion on the following questions which come from PLC studies.
1. What do students need to learn?
2. How will they learn it?
3. How will we know they have learned it?
4. What will we do if they don't learn it?
5. What will we do if they already know it?
Without countywide formal assessments, we are not going to be able to keep up with these questions for individual students. Is this in the works for our system?
I like Aaron's thoughts on the interview process. Now that our BoE policy has changed, there might be a way of doing something like that.
Hiring teachers is one of the most important things I do. It makes sense to get good feedback before making a personnel decision that will affect students for a year (at least).
Baity and 7th grade Do Wops -
1. Hard to answer, because it looks like so many things...student engagement, student self assessment, motivation, student achievement of goals (learning), beyond the SCS and EOG's.
2. A learning community is a place where all teachers take ownership of all student learning and work collaboratively creating the best learning environment for students.
I am hesitant to say go look at another school, because the context is subjective. I don't want to create a school that looks like another school. I want to see us create something that is uniquely tailored to the needs of OUR students and OUR school community.
EC folks - good. Remember, Common Formative Assessment does not mean original. Teachers are the best borrowers. Borrow away, especially if it is good material and will help kids learn. Jas
Yes, fourth grade. We agree that county wide assessment is a great tool. This would ensure that the students are being taught the objectives from the Standard Course of Study. Students moving between schools would not have gaps and overlaps ensuring smoother transitions. Also, would anyone like to respond to our questions? Especially, the county leadership....
Dana - talk about how you guys have used common formative assessments to improve student achievement. You guys have already started the process without realizing it. Jas
7th grade - I think the county leadership is there. The idea that is that whatever we do should be of quality. That is why I want you guys to have a voice in the process. If we use a good assessment that does not align with what or how we teach, what information do we can? Jas
From fourth grade: For formal assessment purposes, we would like to see a "county-wide" pacing guide that is followed by each school/grade/content. Therefore, quarterly asssessments can be effective and provide the information for individual student achievement.
First grade is responding to Baity's comment. We expect Beginning teachers to visit veteran teachers to gain ideas and insight: should we not visit a school that is experienced in PLC and CFA in order to gain insight and understanding? We realize that we should create PLC and CFA for our specific student needs, population and diversity. However, would it not be helpful to see this process in action in a similar school so that we can work smarter instead of harder?
In math, Megan and I took the released state test items from DPI and created a first nine week assessment for the objectives that we had covered. From that data, we were able to see how individual students succeeded at specific objectives. This also allows us to reteach an objective if necessary. We are planning on doing these assessments quarterly adding additional objectives as well as those previously covered. We hope to see growth on the objectives for those students that were unclear in previous assessments.
If we can borrow ideas and share with each other in our own school, why could we not borrow ideas from successful schools and modify them to meet the needs of our school population?? We just think that we do not need to invent the wheel, but use our time more efficiently by observing a successful model. For many, seeing is believing!!!!
In our book it states "a fundamental challenge a school must face as it becomes a learning community-eliminating inessential curriculum" How can we eliminate curriculum that is mandated by the state?
Melinda, I suppose it depends upon which school of thought you ascribe. Do you create a process that is based on your own best learning or use what someone else has created (even if there are flaws in that process). The idea is that many places say they are doing PLC's, but not using as the research indicates.
I think visiting someone to gain insight is a good thing, but visiting to replicate a program that is not of quality or will not adequately meet the learning needs of your students is problematic.
I have said to my staff, and I believe, that we have many needs in our school, but the knowledge we need to meet those challenges is also in our school. I think at times we go looking for solutions outside our school, when we overlook what is right in front of us. Jas
6th grade team
After reading the first chapter we have found the following topics to be of great interest.
1) vertical alignment
2) culture of the school and ingrained cynicism
3) observing other teachers
4) assessment options
5) reflective dialogue
6) teacher/parent relationships
K - I don't think the curriculum is "inessential", but there are some practices in which we engage that do not support higher levels of student learning(read the post regarding Educational Malpractice and share your thoughts).
The identification of essential skills in the revised SCS is a much needed update. It will allow us to prioritize what is taught/learned, and move us toward a deeper level of understanding of a few things, rather than a very shallow level of many. Jas
Mary Poppins - I hope folks have found our vertical meetings this month helpful. I have gotten some good information.
Say more about culture of the school and ingrained cynicism. I want to know more. Jas
Since preschool hasn't received our book yet and our curriculum does not require us to perform formative assessments we have developed our own form of assessments. As a group we have created many activities to implement counting with one to one correspondence. We plan to assess using observation, one on one, and checklists. Since these plans have been administered we have noticed that we need to work on number recognition to inform instruction. If we continue to use these methods for other subjects we feel that our preschool children will be prepared for kindergarten.
6th grade
In thinking about options of assessment we see benefits as well as potential problems with county pacing guides and assessments. As a beginning teacher a pacing guide could be very helpful, but they can limit what you as a teacher needs to do to meet the needs of your students. Sometimes a class moves slower than others therefore a teacher may feel they need to cover an objective at a different time because of where the students' skills have progressed. They may also need to revisit pervious objectives and with a county pacing guide this would make it more difficult to adapt your instructional plans to your student's needs.
Mary Poppins - would a curriculum map be more beneficial. I, too, am suspect of pacing guides. What happens if kids are where the pacing guide indicates they should be? What if they are not in a place, developmentally, to show mastery of that particular skills? Jas
As we participate in the blogging, we are creating a CFA for the 3rd nine week math objectives. The CFA will be used as a pre-assessment to drive our instruction. In response to the CFA, we will utilize research-based strategies to challenge the higher students as well as students who are struggling with various objectives.
Soccer Mom - a good way of using formative assessment based on the needs of students. What have you done to modify instruction based on the assessment? Jas
6th Grade
Culture of the school and ingrained cynicism is like cancer in a school. Resistance to change and negativism by even one member of the school can spread and kill new growth. Members have to be willing to give time and be open-minded to try new approaches in order to achieve growth and improve student learning.
Are we as a school willing to implement the PLC process fully and examine our ways to make changes where needed?
ECPLC feels: YES has an advantage over other school systems I personally have been involved in as a parent, here in NC, as well as, in FL. The overall school culture at YES is more promising to converg with the ideals of PLC than other educational entities around us and within our system. Our culture within itself enable teachers, students and parents to be encouraged by learning. The warmth and empathy that emerge from our school's aura are comforting and can be seen through the accomplishments, however small or large, our students experience daily. YES has brought my child further than I ever I imagined possible, when compared to the school's learning environment he was in previously. AJS
Melinda - what will your assessment look like? How did you develop it? Jas
As we read 7th grades comments/questions and Dr. Sheek's response, combined with our own discussion based on our text, we are forming our own ideas about what a learning community looks like and how it will positively affect student learning. As a learning community, we should focus on all second grade students' learning rather than just the learning of our own students. As we collaborate more frequently about best practices, we will positively affect ALL students' learning. Ten heads are better than one.
Mary Poppins
As a school, we have to be willing to fully commit to PLCs or ALL our students will not benefit. Based on student achievement, we all clearly see that our school needs a different approach to achieve the success in our classrooms we know our students are capable of.
In response to valley rally, first grade has always worked together as a team and realized the benefits for many years. We do not feel like we know all the answers and are open to ideas outside our walls. Education is an evolving process and we should never limit ourselves to the walls of YES!
The CFA is based on the math objectives for the 3rd nine weeks in first grade.Each objective will be pre-assessed using abstract and performance based activities to determine the students level of understanding with each objective.The data from the CFA will drive the instructional activities and diversify instruction. It will also give us an indication of how much time needs to be dedicated to the objective. We will work together to develop activities to enhance learning and allow students to be successful.
JAS - In preschool we have utilized the calendar, singing songs and pointing to written numbers or using props/hand gestures, file folder games, and setting up centers with numbers. They also are trying to learn their lunch numbers in order to tell the cafeteria ladies their numbers when going through the lunch line.
To rephrase my previous post - I definitely do not think we should limit ourselves in our thinking. However, I realize that we all work well together in our teams and I know that we have wonderful teachers here at YES. I guess I would love to see what creations would come forth from within our school BEFORE looking outward.
Tell me about your learning through your books? What thoughts/questions do you have?
Where are you with your quarterly assessment. I need your feedback before I give you your next assignment.
We are half way through our book. We have gleaned some knowledge, however we feel as if it is geared more towards a principal's role in learning teams. We feel like based on what we have read and learned that our learning team fits alot of the characteristics of what a learning team should look like. We are looking forward to the conclusion of our book, so that we can focus all our efforts on working together to develop more quality instruction and common formative assessments.
Preschool/Speech: Collaboration between disciplines and getting our of your "box" is stressed in our book. We feel that in our learning teams we are incorporating collaboration between coworkers to increase student learning.
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