Professional Learning Communities

Ryan Searle is the curriculum director for Carbon County School District #2 in Saratoga, Wyoming. He has served in K–12 administration roles for over 15 years at the elementary and secondary levels, most recently as principal of Rawlins Middle School.

Catherine M. Thompson, EdS, is the principal of Marco Forster Middle School, located in San Juan Capistrano, California. She specializes in the implementation of professional learning communities (PLC) and is a passionate advocate for meeting the diverse learning needs of every student.

Heather K. Dillard, EdD, is an associate professor of education at Middle Tennessee State University. She has authored and coauthored book chapters, research articles, and magazine articles, primarily about Professional Learning Communities at Work®.

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.

When school leaders foster a culture of frequent, specific recognition, it creates an environment for collaborative teams to function at high levels. In this edWebinar, Drs. David Chiprany and Phillip Page will discuss how celebrating the “right work” of professional learning communities (PLC) stimulates the culture shift necessary for successful PLC implementation. Using intentional celebrations, K–12 leaders can improve collaborative team performance, resulting in higher student achievement.

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.