Professional Learning Communities

Kenneth Christian is an assistant principal at Fern Creek High School in Louisville, Kentucky. His work focuses on ensuring a guaranteed and viable curriculum for all students through the professional learning community process and transforming the work of collaborative teacher teams.

When teams commit to collaborating to ensure high levels of learning for ALL students, a key critical step is to examine personal and systemic beliefs, policies, and practices to build a school and district culture where systems align. Focused on closing the gaps for students with identified needs, this session, designed for leaders of both general and special educators, provides an overview of the core concepts and associated practices to collaboratively support all learners and bring this vision to life.

Kara Tidemann has successfully served for over 25 years in education. As a building leader she successfully led an underperforming school to high performance, earning Model PLC at Work® school status for demonstration of exceptional academic achievement over time.

This two-day workshop will highlight what leaders and teams do to improve their professional practice in an effort to help more students learn at higher levels.

Jon-Eric Ziaer is the principal of Reedy High School in Frisco, Texas. Previously, he served as associate principal at Liberty High School in Frisco ISD, which he helped lead to Model PLC status. He was previously a curriculum director and a high school social studies teacher.

Mary Shay, EdD, is a Colorado-based educational leader, practitioner, and researcher with almost 30 years of experience in public education. She specializes in effective leadership to maximize the collaborative capacity of teams, thereby enhancing student achievement and learning.

Rusty Taylor has been a professional educator since 1997, serving as a science teacher, middle school assistant principal, and principal at both the middle and high school levels.

Dr. Amy Williams brings over 25 years of experience in education, specializing in fostering inclusive practices and systems-level change to improve student outcomes.

Mike Suderman has 36 years of experience providing teaching and school leadership at all levels of K–12 education, including district leadership. Mike was a Teacher, Principal and Assistant Superintendent with Edmonton Public Schools and was School Superintendent at a Private School recently.

Amy Gluck is assistant superintendent of teaching and learning in Grayslake CCSD 46 in Illinois. Her work focuses on ensuring all students achieve high levels of learning.