Professional Learning Community Weblinks
The resources listed on this page have been broken into four broad categories:
- Expert Advice: Links to articles sharing advice from recognized educational experts such as Rick DuFour, Mike Shmoker, Robert Garmston, Roland Barth and Robert Marzano.
- Seeing it Work: Links to stories about schools that have established highly functioning learning communities.
- Practical Tools: Links to practical tools that can be easily implemented by learning teams.
- Hearing Voices: Links to articles written by teachers sharing their experiences with the work of professional learning communities.
Be sure to share your favorite resource by adding it to the growing lists available here. Also, add commentary to existing resources---collectively reviewing and responding to resources will improve the fundamental knowledge base of this community.
Expert Advice
The articles in this section share advice from recognized educational experts like Rick DuFour, Mike Shmoker, Robert Garmston, Roland Barth and Robert Marzano
Common Formative Assessments
http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=51
One barrier to establishing highly functioning PLCs is the often limited understanding that teachers and school leaders have about the role that common formative assessments should play in the work of learning communities. That question is tackled in this blog entry written by Rick DuFour for his All Things PLC website. Perhaps most importantly, DuFour clearly tackles the tendency of districts to use common assessments as rigid controls over pacing or instructional decisions in the classroom: "Common formative assessments DO NOT and should not require teachers to use lockstep pacing or instruction. Instead, a team of teachers should plan a unit, agree on the skills and concepts to be taught, and the date they will administer the common assessment."
JUST WHAT ARE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES?
http://www.annenberginstitute.org/images/ProfLearning.pdf
Few would argue that the "learning community craze" is sweeping America! It is nearly impossible in today's day and age to attend an educational conference without hearing about the important role that collaborative work can play in reforming schools and improving student achievement. While this excitement for learning communities is real, it can also be dangerous when well-intentioned professionals push for changes without a fundamental understanding of why learning communities matter. Early missteps can lead to stumbling efforts that lose energy. To prevent these mistakes, it is essential to have a strong understanding of the core principles of learning communities---an idea that has been defined over decades. This research report, released in 1998 by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, is "designed to promote a common understanding about what learning communities are (and aren't) and how they can contribute to a well-designed, effective professional development system that advances a district's goals of building human capacity and sustaining systemic improvement."
Participant Reactions to this Article:
GAP THINKING IN A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=30
The phrase "reculturing schools as learning communites" is quickly becoming cliche in a world desperate for educational reform. School leaders rightfully believe that establishing learning communities is the single most important step in improving results for students----but they're often at a loss for how to move their schools in the "right" direction. In this article, Robert Eaker and Janel Keating of Solution Tree argue that walking in the right direction requires focusing on three key "gaps" found in most schools: The Current Reality/Shared Vision gap, the Knowing/Doing gap, and the Expectations/Acceptance gap. "If we are constantly and consistently engaging in collaborative processes to close various gaps that are related to school improvement," they write, "We are going a long way towards creating a culture of continuous improvement based on best practices—which is an important characteristic of a professional learning community."
Participant Responses to this Article:
IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS IN THE SCHOOLHOUSE
http://www.allthingsplc.info/pdf/articles/improvingrelationships.pdf
This article--written by Roland Barth and published in a 2006 issue of Ed Leaderhip--documents the important role that relationships play in the success of a schoolhouse. Detailing four common relationship patterns found in schools and providing suggestions for strengthening relationships in buildings that struggle, Barth tackles a topic critical for successful learning communities.
Participant Reactions to This Article:
LEADERSHIP IS NOT A SOLO ACT
http://www.allthingsplc.info/pdf/articles/DuFourTheSpecialEdgeNewsletter.pdf
America is a hero driven culture. We're all driven by stories of soldiers or citizens who accomplish great things and lead others along the way. Herculean effort impresses us, serving as both an inspiration and a target for our future endeavors. Unfortunately--as Rick and Becky DuFour detail in this 2006 article for the Special EDge newsletter--hero leaders are a myth in most organizations. "The image of the heroic individual who swoops in to save the day is burned into our national psyche," they write, "but all evidence suggests that substantive and sustained improvement of any organization is a collective rather than a solitary endeavor."
Participant Reactions to this Article:
CULTURE AND CONFLICT (PDF file)
http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/dufour254.pdf
This article written by Rick DuFour for the National Staff Development Council details an important reality for principals and teachers working towards implementing PLCs: Conflict is inevitable. It is simply impossible to engage in meaningful collaboration without ever creating sparks! To be successful, principals and teams of teachers must learn that confronting conflict---no matter how painful---is essential to moving forward.
Participant Reactions to This Article:
RESULTS NOW!
Despite being occasionally misunderstood, professional learning communities as a school reform strategy have caught the attention of dozens of leading experts and authors. One of the most compelling cases for using PLCs as a reform strategy was recently made by Mike Schmoker in his new ASCD book Results Now: How We Can Achieve Unprecedented Improvements in Teaching and Learning. Beginning with an honest---and sometimes painful---look at the current state of education in America, Schmoker lays a foundation for why change is necessary, and then details how professional learning communities can be the engine for change in your school or district. This link connects to ASCD's product information page, which provides free online access to several chapters.
Participant Reactions to This Article:
SUPPORT FOR ADULTS IN A LEARNING COMMUNITY
http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=36
Schools that are restructuring as professional learning communities---recognizing that children develop at different rates---accept the challenge of designing remediation and enrichment programs for all students within their building. Structures are created that ensure that students in need of additional time and attention are supported in their continued growth as students. But what about the adults in a learning community? Should school leaders be prepared to support different learning teams as they move through a continuum of growth or is it safe to assume that all teams will move forward at the same pace and begin from the same place? Those are the critical questions that Robert Eaker and Janel Keating attempt to answer in this interesting article found on the All Things PLC blog.
Participant Reactions to this Article:
SUPPORTING PLCS FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT'S CHAIR
http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=31
As schools work to rethink what "professional learning" looks like, teachers are expected to work in new ways. Data must be analyzed before decisions are made. Enrichment and remediation opportunities must be developed for struggling students. Effective instructional practices must be identified and then amplified across classrooms. While new work for teachers has been widely embraced as critical in the success or failure of a learning community, shouldn't school leaders be asked to work in new and different ways as well? Rick DuFour answers yes in this interesting entry found on his All Things PLC blog. In fact, he argues, school leaders cannot reach their maximum potential until they begin to work in much the same way as their teachers...and superintendents hold the keys for making this happen!
Participant Reactions to this Article:
COLLABORATION LITE
http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/dufour244.cfm
In our push towards restructuring schools as professional learning communities, we emphasize the power that collaboration has to change teaching practices and to improve results for students---but we often fail to define exactly what meaningful collaboration looks like! As a result, we often end up with collegial schools where collaboration lite is common. In this article, written for the Journal of Staff Development, Rick DuFour talks about the differences between schools that are collaboratively succeeding and starving.
Participant Reactions to This Article:
THE THREE Cs OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
http://cnx.org/content/m14270/1.1/
While collaboration between adults in a schoolhouse is essential to improvement, it is often an elusive goal that founders in the face of challenge. "The process of creating a professional learning community can be difficult, lengthy, and incredibly rewarding," writes Parry Graham---school administrator and regular contributor to the High Five Professional Learning Communities Online Forum---n this article endorsed by the National Council of the Professors of Educational Administration. True collaboration requires conversations, contention and commitment. "This article examines those three Cs [and the role they] play in the development of a professional learning community."
Participant Reactions to This Article:
ARE YOU LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW OR IN A MIRROR?
http://www.nsdc.org/publications/getDocument.cfm?articleID=306
What are the top five barriers that you face in improving student achievement in your building? Did you answer things like class sizes, insufficient support staff, and low teaching salaries? If so, Rick DuFour would argue that you're relying on others for school reform rather than looking at essential factors that lie within your personal sphere of influence like setting clear learning targets for students and analyzing formative assessment data gathered at the classroom level. "Schools that resort to the 'if only' strategy spend their time looking out the window for the solutions to their problems," writes DuFour, "Schools that commit to the can-do strategy spend their time looking in the mirror. Which way are you looking?"
Participant Reactions to This Article:
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING TEAMS: ANSWERS FROM ANNE JOLLY
http://www.teacherscount.org/topic/topic.shtml
Anne Jolly, Director of Professional Learning Teams for SERVE and a member of the Teacher Leaders Network, is widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on making professional learning teams approachable for schools new to the process. In this interview at the Teachers Count website, Jolly answers questions common to anyone working through the process of restructuring schools as true communities of learning. “Typically, workshops and presentations focus on the “what to” of establishing PLCs,” she writes, “Consequently educators know what to do but not necessarily how to do it. [My goal] to provide some tools and tips to fill in the “how to” gap.”
***If Jolly’s interview doesn’t appear when you use this link, try the Teachers Count archive at: http://www.teacherscount.org/topic/archives.shtml
Participant Reactions to This Article:
DEALING WITH THE UNREASONABLE AND IRRATIONAL
Teaming is difficult work because personality clashes and conflicts are inevitable. Any combination of passionate professionals working together to face challenges will result in difficult moments. What defines the most accomplished learning teams is their actions in the face of conflict. Do they respect colleagues as equals with different opinions? Or do emotions take over and attacks begin? The answers to these questions can define how successful a learning team will be, writes Ron McMillian---co-author of Crucial Conversations---in this Crucial Skills newsletter, "The 'fundamental attribution error; is the automatic assumption we often make that the other person's motives are bad...when someone says or does something we think is harmful or threatening. We immediately...tell a villain story: "they are evil or selfish; they do bad things because they enjoy it." To keep from making the fundamental attribution error, we recommend challenging your story with questions. One such question is "Why would a reasonable, rational, and decent person act this way?"
Participant Reactions to this Article:
SMALL SCHOOL PLC IMPLEMENTATION
http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=34
Almost everyone realized that effective collaboration is hampered when groups grow beyond 6 or 7 members. Streamlined conversations become impossible and building consensus simply takes forever. But equal challenges are faced by smaller schools with only one or two teachers working in each grade level or content area. Diversity of opinion---critical to creative thought---is difficult to find and personality conflicts become more pronounced. Rick and Becky DuFour offer a collection of recommendations for leaders of smaller learning communities in this article from the All Things PLC blog.
Participant Reactions to this Article:
DUFOUR ON COMMON FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS
http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=46
One of the philosophical struggles that teachers new to professional learning communities often wrestle with is the idea of common formative assessments. Designed to identify effective teaching practices across a building and to provide teachers with valuable data on how their students are performing compared to their peers, common formative assessments can be seen as threatening to teachers who value their professional freedom and who believe that testing dominates the school day. In this July, 2007 entry from his All Things PLC blog, Rick DuFour tackles these fears head on!
Participant Reactions to This Article:
Seeing it Work
The links in this section detail stories about schools that have established highly functioning learning communities.
PROVING THAT PLCS WORK
http://www.allthingsplc.info/evidence/evidence.php
Have you ever wondered if all of your school or district's efforts to restructure as a professional learning community are worth it? Maintaining momentum for 'the long haul' can be difficult because change is never easy. This tool, found on the All Things PLC website, can provide proof that your hard work will impact student achievement in a positive way. Schools of varying demographics and grade configurations that are functioning as PLCs have shared their successes and struggles---as well as their test scores---as evidence that learning communities work.
Participant Reactions to This Article:
COMMUNITIES: REIGNIGHTING PASSION WITH PURPOSE
http://www.allthingsplc.info/pdf/articles/HinmanBuffumPlcReignitingPassionAndPurpose.pdf
San Clemente High School in the Capistrano Unified School District embraced the core principles of learning communities in 2001. Since then, the school has worked to address the unique learning challenges of all of their students by establishing structures for remediation and collaboration within the school day. This article, written for Leadership magazine by Austin Buffman and Charles Hinman, document the work done by San Clemente in the past six years.
Participant Reactions to This Article:
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/results/res3-05rich.cfm
When teachers at suburban Blue Valley High School in Stillwell, Kansas realized that more than 40% of their students were receiving at least one D or F as final course grades, they knew something was wrong. Schools, they decided, were about learning—not teaching. If 40% of their students were failing, then so were they. Together, teachers set about working collaboratively to identify the instructional practices that were most effective with students. Read about their developing professional learning community in this 2005 article by Joan Richardson of the National Staff Development Council.
Participant Reactions to This Article:
THREE SCHOOLS THAT SUCCEED DOING WHATEVER IT TAKES
http://www.bestpracticescenter.org/pdfs/wte6-1.pdf
Doing whatever it takes to ensure student success should be the goal of every professional learning community—but is it really possible? Are teachers and school leaders truly able to ensure that every child succeeds regardless of personal circumstances and challenges? In this news brief from the Alabama Best Practices Center, three schools are spotlighted for doing just that! With a shared commitment to a mission and vision for student success and an effort to focus on data, they are experiencing successes previously unimagined!
Participant Reactions to This Article:
HOW WE FORMED OUR COMMUNITY
http://www.nsdc.org/publications/getDocument.cfm?articleID=272
While conversations, contention and commitment are essential to the success of professional learning teams, Becky Burnette, principal and author of this article on how to best introduce a professional learning community initiative to a school, argues that commitment follows competence. "Principals must create situations that lead people to act, helping them do rather than talk about doing. As Perkins says (1992), action precedes understanding. We learn by doing. Once teachers are familiar with and practicing the changes, support will follow."
Participant Reactions to This Article:
THINK OUTSIDE THE CLOCK
http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/tools/tools8-02rich.cfm
One of the barriers that trips up many schools that are restructuring as learning communities is finding time for teacher learning during the course of the school day. While respected organizations such as the National Staff Development Council recommend that no less than 25% of a teacher's time be spent engaged in continous learning, surveys show that most teachers spend less than 5% of their time in professional development. This article---written by Joan Richardson of the National Staff Development Council---documents the importance of creating time for professional learning and outlines several possible plans that schools can pursue as the think outside the clock!
Participant Reactions to this Article:
Practical Tools
The links in this section connect to practical tools that can be easily implemented by learning teams.
TAKING DATA TO NEW DEPTHS
http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/love254.cfm
We live in an era of increased accountability for schools. Teachers and teams are expected to "focus on results," and to "use data to drive decision-making." Tangible observations and analysis drawn from concrete evidence have replaced "judgment" and "gut feel" when assessing students. But many schools face a capacity gap, argues Nancy Love of Research for Better Teaching in this 2004 article for The Journal for Staff Development: "Schools are gathering more and more data, but having data available does not mean the data are used to guide instructional improvement. Many schools lack the process to connect the data they have with the results they must produce." Love goes on to outline a practical four phase process for conducting data driven dialogue that she has used successfully with the faculties of countless schools in several states.
Participant Reactions to This Article:
PEER OBSERVATIONS: A TOOLKIT
http://www.annenberginstitute.org/tools/using_data/peer_observation/index.php
Experienced learning teams that have developed high levels of trust with one another often decide to observe each other teaching. By engaging in peer observations, practitioners can collect valuable information about the kinds of instructional practices that are successful in a school and develop a shared language about teaching and learning. This collection of tools from the Annenberg Institute introduces a process and protocols for peer observations that can support learning teams interested in taking this courageous step!
Participant Reactions to This Article:
WHATEVER IT TAKES: A STUDY GUIDE
http://www.solution-tree.com/Public/GetDoc.aspx?idx=7
Created by Solution Tree, this seventeen-page document is designed as a companion to DuFour and Eaker's Whatever it Takes: How Professional Learning Communities Respond When Kids Don't Learn. Inside you'll find comprehensive reflection questions for each chapter and valuable templates designed to help readers implement essential elements of professional learning communities. (Free registration required).
Participant Reactions to This Article:
THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM
Succeeding on a professional learning team requires far more than an understanding of teaching and learning. It also requires an understanding of team development and dynamics. Unfortunately, teachers rarely bring these skills to their teams---and rarely have the opportunity to learn them! This field guide from the Targeted Learning Corporation highlights the work of Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. It includes an overview of team dynamics and several assessment tools to evaluate the health of your team and the quality of your meetings.
Participant Reactions to This Article:
BUILDING HIGH QUALITY FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS
http://highfive.dpscalendar.net/images/stories/Cassie_Erkens_1.pdf
Before teams and teachers can truly begin to use data to drive their decision making, they must become skilled at developing formative assessments that are accurate reflections of required content. Formative assessments, however, are difficult to develop! This presentation, given at a recent High Five professional development session, introduces high school teachers to the critical elements of high quality formative assessments. Be sure to also investigate the handouts from this session, which include valuable templates that can be used in your work, at:
http://highfive.dpscalendar.net/images/stories/Cassie_Erkens_handouts.pdf
Participant Reactions to This Article:
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY CONTINUUM RUBRIC
When schools begin to evaluate their progress towards PLC implementation, they often slip into either/or thinking: We are a PLC or we aren't. In reality, schools attempting to reculture as learning communities generally fall somewhere along a developmental continuum---and may have made greater progress in some PLC principles than others. This rubric, reprinted with permission from Getting Started: Reculturing Schools to Become Professional Learning Communities will help you to determine the current status of your school's PLC implementation efforts.
Participant Reactions to This Article:
ACTION PLANNING TEMPLATE: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE
Designed as a companion document to the Professional Learning Community Continuum Rubric, this collection of templates guides teachers and teams through a planning process for addressing areas of strengths and weaknesses. Covering topics ranging from SMART goal setting and action research to effective school communication and school-wide interventions, each template uses prompting questions designed to stimulate conversations centered on essential actions taken by high functioning learning communities.
Participant Reactions to This Article:
SURVEY ON TEAM NORMS
http://www.allthingsplc.info/pdf/tools/SurveyOnTeamNorms.pdf
Most experts on teaming would argue that a critical first step for any collaborative group is the establishment of norms that guide behavior and structure meetings. How will teams handle consensus, when will meetings start and end, and what will happen when conflict occurs are all questions that must be answered in advance in order for a team to function efficiently. While many teams work together to create guidelines governing their group, few take the time to revisit what they've created! Instead, norms are set aside, gradually becoming irrelevant. This survey---from the Professional Learning Communities at Work Plan Book---can help teams to gather honest information about the value of their team norms for behavior.
Participant Reactions to this Article:
WORKING ON THE WORK PROTOCOL
http://www.schlechtycenter.org/pdfs/wow_protocol.pdf
Maximizing the work of learning teams requires that teachers begin to identify and then amplify instructional practices that work. These efforts, however, are new to teachers trained to work in isolation. Encouraging collaborative conversations, therefore, requires a structured process that teams can work through together after lessons have been designed and delivered. This protocol---developed by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform---can be used by groups of teachers to guide reflective conversations about instruction.
Participant Reactions to this Article:
Hearing Voices
The links in this section connect to articles written by teachers sharing their experiences with professional learning communities.
LEARNING BY DOING PODCAST
http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=33
Perhaps the best example of a "hearing voices" resource would be this link from the All Things PLC website that includes several short audio recordings captured during the 2007 "Learning by Doing: Bringing PLC to Life in Our Schools and Districts” conference featuring Rick and Becky DuFour, Robert Eaker and Rick Stiggins. Topics covered include clarifying outcomes in a PLC, establishing common assessments across a system, creating parameters for structuring learning teams, hiring productive PLC teachers, and leading in a school where learning communities aren't widely supported. Consider this post an act of "intellectual philanthropy" providing everyone free access to the creative thought of national PLC experts!
Participant Reactions to this Resource:
ON COMMON GROUND PODCAST
http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=42
Much like the Learning by Doing podcast, this link connects to a collection of short audio recordings captured during the 2006 "On Common Ground: The Power of Professional Learning Communities" conference featuring Rick DuFour, Rick Stiggins, Michael Fullan and Lawrence Lezotte. Topics covered include the future of education, initial steps for learning communities, and leadership---both principal and teacher---in a learning community. Be sure to take advantage of this free opportunity to attend a Solution Tree conference virutally!
Participant Reactions to this Resource:
WHAT IS A "PROFESSIONAL TEACHER?"
http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=32
Rick DuFour---learning communities expert and professional development provider---was recently forced to answer this question when a reader argued that learning communities "bullied" teachers, taking away their "professional discretion" and cheapening their abilities. "The respondent defines being a professional as being able to disregard all research, all evidence, and all other points of view than his own," writes DuFour in this entry from his All Things PLC blog, "I could not disagree more. A 'professional' is someone with expertise in a specialized field, an individual who has not only pursued advanced training to enter the field, but who is also expected to remain current in its evolving knowledge base."
Participant Reactions to this Article:
WHAT MIGHT BE: THE DOOR TO A BETTER FUTURE
http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=43
One of the common refrains that is echoed in the education profession is that more time needs to be dedicated to teacher learning. Major organizations like the National Staff Development Council emphasize that no less than 25% of a teacher's day should be spent in professional development opportunities. Rick DuFour---in this column that originally appeared in the Journal for Staff Development---argues that such positions reinforce the incorrect assumption that a teacher's work time and learning time are distinct and unconnected. "We will know a new era has dawned," he writes, "when educators engaged in the deepest and most meaningful learning won’t even recognize they are participating in professional development. Purposeful collaboration, collective inquiry, action research, and seeking evidence of results to inform individual, team, and school practices will be so deeply embedded in the routine work of educators that they will consider these powerful learning experiences as simply “the way we do things around here.”
How close is your district to DuFour's vision of a better future?
Participant Reactions to this Article:
DIARY ENTRY: THE POWER OF PROFESSIONAL CONVERSATIONS
http://www.teacherleaders.org/diaries04_05/other/BF05_04_05.html
Bill Ferriter, former Wake County Teacher of the Year and current North Carolina Regional Teacher of the Year, had the opportunity of a lifetime a few years back: He was invited to become a part of a school structuring itself as a professional learning community. What he didn't realize is how much joining his new school would change his instructional practices. In this journal entry, written for the Teacher Leaders Network, Ferriter documents the impact that his learning team had on his instruction, giving readers an up-close look at the power of professional conversations.
Participant Reactions to this Article:
DIARY ENTRY: Lessons Learned from One Fat Ox
The infinite wisdom of crowds has long been recognized by scholars—and bookies! Rarely are individuals better equipped to make complex decisions than groups of professionals brainstorming together. The impact that group decision making has on educators is explored in this journal entry written by Bill Ferriter as a member of the Teacher Leaders Network: “The diversity of opinions that we have in our group leads us to some pretty remarkable understandings--"truths" even--about instruction that I could never come to on my own. Like most groups, our decisions/thoughts/conclusions are strong because they are based on the collective wisdom of several professionals working together on common problems."
Participant Reactions to this Article:
DIARY ENTRY: THE DATA DILEMMA
http://theknowingteam.blogspot.com/2006/10/data-dilemma.html
Perhaps the single greatest difference between a professional learning community and a traditional teacher team is a single-minded focus on results. Data on student achievement is collected and reviewed by teachers in an attempt to identify instructional practices that work. So, what do you do when the data paints an unwelcome picture? How do you confront results that aren't expected or appreciated? This diary entry, written by Dr. Parry Graham, a school administrator in a large southern district, reflects on just those questions and has sparked an extensive line of comments! Join in the conversation and share your thoughts on approaching unpleasant results here.
Participant Reactions to this Article:
TLN DIALOGUE: THE TRUTH ABOUT PLCs
http://www.teacherleaders.org/Conversations/PLCtruths.html
The Teacher Leaders Network is a group of almost 200 accomplished educators from across America that engage in daily digital dialogue on issues related to education. In a recent post, one member asked: "I have never fully understood the concept behind professional learning communities. I am interested in your collective wisdom on the topic. Please include the good, the bad and the ugly, sharing your honest thoughts on this "movement" within the educational system." Interested in their answers? Then check out this summary of the conversation posted on the TLN website.
Participant Reactions to this Article:
WHY DO PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES FAIL TO DEVELOP
http://tln.typepad.com/tln_voices/2005/09/why_do_professi.html
In any large-scale school reform effort, success will vary across buildings within the same district. The same holds true when districts begin to implement PLC work within their faculties. Many schools will grab on to the concept and fly to new heights while others will struggle to get off the ground. In this blog post found on the website of the Teacher Leaders Network, several highly accomplished teachers reflect on the challenges of creating learning communities in buildings where top-down decisions were made to implement PLCs.
Participant Reactions to this Article:
DIARY ENTRY: CATCH A FALLING STAR
http://theknowingteam.blogspot.com/2006/09/catch-falling-star.html
PLC Focus: Time
Teachers have always been passionate about the success of their students. This passion and desire to see each child succeed is only amplified by the work of learning teams. No longer is simply teaching material enough. Accomplished learning teams accept responsibility for ensuring that students master critical content. But is mastery for every student really possible? In this diary entry, Emily Swanson of Salem Middle School reflects on the demands that 'ensuring student success' place on members of a true learning community and paints a picture of the challenge of meeting the needs of every learner. Join in the conversation by leaving a comment!
Participant Reactions to this Article:
TLN CONVERSATION: CHANGE, TRUST, FEAR AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES
http://www.teacherleaders.org/old_site/Conversations/comfort_fear.html
The Teacher Leaders Network---an online group of accomplished educators that engage in daily conversations about teaching and learning---has long tackled the topic of change in schools. This conversation---which started as a strand on professional compensation for teachers---"morphed" into a broader conversation about trust, fear and the ability to establish true professional learning communities in schools.
Participant Reactions to this Article:
Eaker and Sparks on the Will to Act
http://files.solution-tree.com/video4.asx
Have you got three minutes to be inspired? If so, then spend it watching this short video spotlighting the thinking of Robert Eaker and Dennis Sparks on the steps school leaders must take to implement PLCs. "We can have significantly better professional learning within the course of one school year," argues Sparks. "The will to act," adds Eaker, "is the fundamental prerequisite."
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