PLC

Don’t Stop at PLC Lite

Presenter linkMichael Roberts
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Categories: PLC

Not too long ago, I was asked to write a piece about how leaders and teams can determine if they really are working in an accountable professional learning community. This is a real issue, as possibly the biggest roadblock to helping all students learn at higher levels and doing the work of a PLC is when an organization gets caught in “PLC Lite.” PLC Lite is defined by Dr. Richard DuFour and Dr. Douglas Reeves as “when educators rename their traditional faculty or department meetings as PLC meetings, engage in book studies that result in no action, or devote collaborative time to topics that have no effect on student achievement—all in the name of the PLC process” (DuFour and Reeves, 2016, p. 69). Read more

Planning for Your Youngest Learners in an Unprecedented School Year | Pandemic Response and Educational Practices (PREP)

Planning for Your Youngest Learners in an Unprecedented School Year

Presenter linkBrian K. ButlerPresenter linkDiane KerrPresenter linkJacqueline HellerPresenter linkTracey A. Hulen
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Categories: Pandemic Response and Educational Practices, PLC, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Technology

This entry is the 12th in a blog series called Pandemic Response and Educational Practices (PREP), which aims to highlight and further the important work educators are doing amid the worldwide COVID-19 crisis.

Based on What About Us? The PLC at Work® Process for Grades PreK-2 Teams

Several years ago, Becky DuFour, expressing her passion for our youngest learners, helped us launch an idea that is now being released as our new book, What About Us? The PLC at Work Process for Grades PreK-2 Teams.

We four coauthors, from Mason Crest Elementary—the first DuFour Award–winning national Model PLC school—filled the book with resources, tools, action steps, and examples for early childhood educators striving to meet the needs of all students. With the publication of the book this month, coinciding with the launch of a school year full of uncertainty, we thought a sneak peek into a few chapters, while considering ideas for adapting to a remote learning environment, could add some welcome tools to early educators’ toolkits. Read more

Career & Technical Education Teams

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Collaborative Career and Technical Education Teams

Presenter linkPaul C. FarmerPresenter linkWendy Custable
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Categories: 21st Century Skills, PLC

Based on Collaboration for Career & Technical Education

“CTE” and “PLC” are six letters we don’t often see together.

Career and technical education teachers, authentically working interdependently within teams, has not become a common practice in most schools yet. This is not because CTE teachers do not want to work within collaborative teams—we do! We want to share curricula and reflect on data with colleagues. In most cases, we just don’t know how to establish teams that have a clear common purpose. Read more

Spotting Collaborative Teams With High Levels of Collective Efficacy

Presenter linkWilliam M. Ferriter
Post date
Categories: Authors, PLC

Based on The Big Book of Tools for Collaborative Teams in a PLC at Work®.

Researcher John Hattie has shown time and again that nothing has a greater impact on student learning than organizing teachers into collaborative teams and convincing them that if they work together, they can have a positive impact on learning for every student in their classrooms—including those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and those who have traditionally struggled in schools (Hattie, 2017).   Read more