Professional Learning Communities

Keri Rathbun, EdD, is the director of Coordinated School Health and Career Counseling for Fort Smith Public Schools, Arkansas. She has worked in education for more than 20 years and served as an administrator at the middle and high school levels.

Luke Francois, EdD, is superintendent of Waterford Union High School in Wisconsin. He specializes in the continuous improvement process to support the work of PLCs in small rural and large suburban districts.

Charity Williams, EdD, is a middle school principal in southwest Missouri. She has more than 20 years of education experience and is focused on achieving continuous school improvement through professional learning communities.

Brandon Eighmy, EdD, is recognized for leading highly focused work with leaders and teacher teams through attentive listening and skillful facilitation. Currently a director of school improvement, Dr. Eighmy has spent 25 years developing and sustaining systems that advance student achievement.

Singletons—teachers who are the only ones teaching a specific course or subject—often ask how they can effectively participate on a collaborative team. Additionally, leaders frequently ask what they should be doing to guide and support singletons. This webinar provides participants clear direction to help singletons engage in meaningful collaboration. Teachers and leaders receive templates they can implement immediately.

Scot Curran is an elementary instructional teacher on special assignment who specializes in cultivating a professional learning community culture by supporting collaborative teacher teams, school leadership teams, and district stakeholders.

Nathan Manley serves as the assistant superintendent of instruction in the Neosho School District. During his nearly 20 years of experience, Nathan has also been a classroom teacher and principal, leading the development of five different professional learning community school recognitions.

Angela Veatch, a National Board Certified Teacher with over 25 years in education, serves as an instructional specialist for Fort Smith Public Schools. She is passionate about visible learning, learning by doing, and strengthening teacher efficacy through the PLC process.

Amanda Hathhorn, district math specialist and mentor for the Aspiring Instructional Coaching Academy at Pasadena ISD, has over 20 years of experience in education. Notably, she played a pivotal role in successfully implementing the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) at Work® process and subsequently earning a Model PLC at Work school distinction at V. W. Miller Intermediate.

In this session, we will explore how teams develop effective mathematics instruction using 6 elements of lesson design. The process of designing engaging, targeted, and high quality instruction allows teams to dig deeply into both best practices in mathematics and grow in content knowledge. Participants will leave with a set of tools and discussion protocols to enhance their instructional planning and teaching of mathematics.