I thought that this might be a good time of year to reflect on what your expectations are for the time that is invested in teachers being members of professional learning communities. What are your assessments of the return on the time invested? Do your PLC leaders and members need explanation, training, and coaching for your desired results to be achieved? What actions might you need to take to increase the benefits of PLC time for both staff and students?
Here are some resources to spark your reflection, and perhaps provide ideas for your actions.
The word team is frequently used in schools to describe various groupings of people that are working under different understandings of what their relationships with each other are and what is required by their membership within a group. I often ask staff at a school that I’m working with to describe the degree to which they function as a team. I commonly get a response that they have rather strong teams. I then usually ask for indicators or evidence that illustrate the strength of their teams. On one occasion, a teacher responded that an indicator of their strength as a team was that they shared everything. That led me to write a blog about sharing versus teaming.
How are your PLCs progressing through developmental stages. In the early stages, teachers are seeking directions working from an agenda often established by others. Hopefully, they will begin collaborating to accomplish assigned tasks. As the PLC develops, teachers are driving the agenda, setting goals, and holding themselves accountable for outcomes. Protocols may assist a PLC in earlier stages and then not be necessary as the PLC becomes more independent. When PLCs function at the independent collaborator stage, they are promoting improvement and change across the school. Developmental Stages or Leaders and PLCs
When PLCs have established a goal for the year and developed a hypothesis for gaining the desired student learning outcome, they need to gather evidence of implementation and progress. Reflecting on that evidence supports learning for the PLC members. Peer coaching is a process for gathering that evidence and can deepen teacher learning and student success. Peer Coaching Extending the Depth of PLC Learning
Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss your next steps for building your PLCs.
