Monthly+Reflections

__**October 11 Reflection:**__ Prompt: What is a gold standard PLC? How are we doing? What should we do in the future?

//What's a gold standard PLC?// I think the main difference between common planning and "PLC" is the "Learning" part. It reminds me of the KSTF value of an inquiry stance toward teaching. We, as teachers, are not just looking to plan together, but we're looking to improve our curriculum and our teaching to give students better/more opportunities to achieve our learning goals. I wonder if this sort of learning from our teaching needs to be as overt as a formal lesson study cycle, or if it can also be along the lines of reflecting together on how we can improve aspects of our teaching for the next unit.
 * Jen**

//How are we doing?// My experience in this group so far has been very beneficial. I feel like I'm thinking through more of the curriculum, but a little less planned than I would normally be. I think that it's probably a good thing - I'm much more able to lead labs and discussions based on our learning goals compared to last year when I would just go through my lesson plans step by step. I think the 4 heads are better than one theory is definitely in play here. I think that because we're planning together, I have more time to focus on the big ideas and I spend less time agonizing over what to give for homework or do for a lab.

//What should we do?// I think we should definitely continue to meet weekly. I don't think we could be as effective without meeting as often as we do. I also think that it may be beneficial to start spending at least a little time analyzing student work in order to reflect on/assess our curriculum choices. I also think it might be beneficial to do some video work of eachother's teaching of the same unit, and also observations. Video may be an effective way to capture our teaching without having to take off too much time from school during this busy time.

//What’s a gold-standard PLC?// I think a gold-standard PLC is one where the teachers (and admin, and specialists) are working collaboratively to act4ively improve teaching and checking their progress with student work/surveys. A PLC may work on small stuff or large stuff—individual lesson pieces, whole units, the affect of a class, goal setting for a school or teacher camaraderie. I guess the thing that makes a PLC unique to me is that it answers a question. Not only is there a question posed but the group comes to a conclusion in steps to take, things to try, or outcomes achieved. I really think that compared to just planning, where the process goes on and on without a conclusion (except temporal), the PLC should have a point—and should execute it’s actions until it reaches that point, then set a new set of objectives and head off for them.
 * Katey Shirey KSTFIBSL reflection #1 October 11, 2011**

//How are we doing?// We have been planning really well, and that was difficult at first, but we’re in a rhythm, we’re giving equal time to Year 1 and Year 2 groups, we’re keeping track of our discussions and decisions in useful ways. We have been holistic in planning, considering pre-assessments, starting points, lesson routines, and assessments.

//What do we need to do?// We need to set more explicit goals and review our successes. Our goals have been for things like: what should we do for Topic 7? How is this assessment aligned to our standards? But I think we need some bigger questions, like what are the weakest process skills that our students have as evidenced by these IAs? How can we improve them on the next IA? Then measure our success. Or, what are the parts of this topic that our students still don’t get? Why do we think that is based on their assessments? What recommendations can we make for next time? Or for the next unit? Or for a big review?

//What is the PLC gold bar standard?// The “promise of the PLC” is that by collaborating in an intentional, data driven way, teachers will be able to be more responsive to student needs. Students will demonstrate improved mastery when actively engaged in instruction designed in such a way.
 * Heather's Reflection**

//How do we measure up right now?// I believe that we have a great foundation as a common planning team. During the past month we have built a base of trust in each other to design thoughtful instruction, implement in a responsive way and critically reflect. This is not something I have had with any team of teachers before. Not only are we discussing teaching at a theoretical level, but we are aligning all of our instruction towards group objectives, common learning activities and common assessments. The next step will be to make what we do data driven.

//Where do we want to get to?// I would love to see us use the power of our common assessments to design remediation for the unit, and at a minimum, discuss improvements for future years of instruction. Beyond that, if we could use the data from our common assessments to inform bigger aspects of our own teaching and/or harness the reflections to inform future units this year, that would be ideal.

//What is a gold star PLC?// I think that the teachers in a gold star PLC, **their students achieve way more** than they would have if that teacher were not in the PLC. And I think that it has to involve data, and not just looking at how our students did, but asking tough questions about the data which might involve looking at groups of students, boys vs girls for example. I think that the gold star PLC is constantly asking how do we know this from our student achievement data.
 * Charley**

//Where are we?// I think that we are on the road to being a gold star, but I think that we are limited by time and by schedule. Teaching in different schools and in different districts will present significant challenges to being able to look at data in a timely manner. I worry that my students or my teaching will continue to lag behind and I will be the impediment to getting the 5 gold star rating.

//How gold do we want to be?// 5 gold stars, why would we want to be anything less?! But I guess in all seriousness, I only believe that we will be able to partly achieve this because of our schedules. I may not be considering the fact that we may be willing to make decisions in our own classes for the good of the group, I wonder if we do this in light of feeling that it may mean “short changing” our students.

-interest in data-driven analysis. Maybe take advantage of Jen's video idea to tackle Charley's issue of time and availability -we're all happy! yay :) -bigger questions. (including finding misconceptions... a log of misconceptions-exact verbage... bring in three interesting samples of each assessment to discuss on sample discussion days)
 * COMMON CONCLUSIONS**