Summary of Literature Relevant to the Operation of PLCs.
Professional Learning Communities, PLCs are the most powerful strategy for improving growth in teaching and learning. It is through establishing a collaborative culture and creating collective responsibility in the staff. Many schools claim to utilize a PLC model, but when you truly observe within a PLC meeting you may find a planning meeting. A true PLC model ensures that students are learning through a culture of collaboration that focuses on results. This requires a hard work, commitment and persistence of all building staff.
At the beginning of most school years, you hear school leadership and staff in discussion about their building mission and vision. Unfortunately, schools
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This foundation starts with a clear and consistent mission, vision, collective commitments, and goals (p. 10). All aspects of the foundation must be understood and have staff buy in.
School leaders must know and clearly articulate the mission which is why the school exists (p.10). Next, the staff must develop a shared vision that describes what staff is working to create and what the school will look like when this shared vision comes to life. The shared vision must be followed up with collective commitments that align with the vision and describe individual behaviors that staff agree to follow to make a contribution to achieve the shared vision (p. 11).
Once the foundation of the PLC is in place school leadership must move staff from status quo to a whatever it takes attitude for student achievement. This occurs by organizing people into meaningful teams focus on learning, providing time to collaborate, and ensuring that the campus layout supports ongoing collaboration and shared responsibility for student learning (p. 15). Student and staff growth cannot happen unless teams have time to meet and collaborate. It is imperative for school leaders to create schedules that provide time for collaboration (p. 19). This time must be structured and follow team initiated norms and protocols that focus on growth of all students. Teams should share strategies and learn from each other
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22). Teams have a potential for success and for dysfunction because we are all human (p. 23) It is so important that all PLC members are prepared, contribute and are held accountable for the collaborative work. One way to ensure this happens is to continually monitor the groups dynamics. Marzano et al., (2016)suggest using three elements: group norms, trust and relationships, and productive collaboration(p. 23) The three elements can be used to validate team purpose, create joint efforts,and ensure active
As a leader candidate, I can understand the challenges and multiplicity of complications that administrators must face each day. However, I will not accept any remote possibility that the students must be affected by some flaws of the school organization. We all as leaders, must be strategic with people, time, and money to guide our students towards an academic success.
After many discussions with peers, I have found that for a team to work collaboratively there are some key qualities that are needed, which include:
“The team is faced with creating cohesion and unity, differentiating roles, identifying expectations for members, and enhancing commitment. Providing supportive feedback and fostering commitment to a vision are needed from the team leaders (Developing Management Skills).” ... ... middle of paper ... ...
In a world of darkness, misunderstanding, and confusion, there was a light of hope. Ray Charles was able to stand up and face this world, and he set out to pursue the impossible. Ray Charles overcame his disabilities by becoming a musician despite his blindness, stopping the use of heroin, and performing even though there were segregated audiences and unfair treatment.
The school provides a safe environment for students to accomplish academic, social and emotional development. The leadership of a building will include effective decision making, human resource management, mission or purpose, understanding of change, relationship buildi...
In conclusion, we feel as if we built trust in our team. Seeing as how we’re leaders in our own way, we each created a culture of trust among ourselves. Once we got to know each other personally and shared some personal information about ourselves, our families, hobbies, and other interests, that’s when we started to develop a bond and all the trust built up between us. And this paper assessed our group’s 3-5 major strengths and weaknesses and what successful strategies we hope to add to our team to build a more effective team in the future. Thank you for reading.
When a shared decision is made, all members take ownership of the processes. An effective educational leader should have an understanding of a shared decision as it relates to school improvement and improved student learning. When a district is writing its school improvement plan, they should have a committee of various stakeholders. The stakeholders are the ones that represent the overall community. Within various committees, there should be a shared decision as each member will be more inclined to complete and succeed at the task at hand.
The PD program does increase the capacity of faculty because we learn new strategies for learning and engaging learners. By looking at data, faculty is able to align their instruction to the school’s vision and mission. Twice a month (at least) all faculty attend the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) training workshops. These are geared towards instruction, district initiatives, and student achievement. Professional Development is provided for teachers to assist them with the required materials to guarantee all students obtain highly quality instruction.
Overall findings reveal that the participants share the same view as it relates to the PLC attributes observed within the school. Based on the data collected, the area of PLC that is best practiced in my school is Supportive Conditions with an emphasis on Relationships and Supportive Conditions with an emphasis on Structures. Table 1:1, illustrates that 11 out of 11 participants selected the highest score, strongly agree on survey statements 33 through 43. The results revealed that participants observed attributes that support relationships within the school. Participants also found that loving relationships existed among the staff and were built on trust and respect.
Richard DuFour (2004) commented, “The idea of improving schools by developing professional learning communities is currently in vogue. People use the term to describe every imaginable combination of individuals with an interest in education-a grade level teaching team, a school committee, a high school department, an entire school
Principals, teachers, parents, and students are the key players in the work of schooling. When working together, they form a concentration of leadership that is a powerful force in a school. If led by a skillful principal, teachers will often band together to form a team of professionals that invites parents and students into the work of leadership. Anytime an individual work together in reflective terms, they make the most out of their combination of talents. For instance, faculty meetings are occasions for educators to learn to collaboratively, action research teams elicit inquisitiveness and a regard for evidence, and study groups test the assumptions of their members by introducing them to new ideas.
We were a group of people with a vision working towards a common goal. The building of our team was complicated. We negotiated roles and tasks according to our strengths and interests. We worked well together, but far from perfect. Through varies conflicts ideas were exchanged and meaningful productivity resulted (Porter, 2003). Good communication resulted from trust and respect. All members shared an equal participation which made it easier for each individual to contribute to the success of Week 3.
In the book Introduction to Teaching: Becoming a Professional, Kauchak and Eggen (2014) identified schools as social systems and wrote, “Social systems work effectively when their components work together to meet their goals” (p. 181). The components listed were the staff and faculty members of a school, the physical building of the school itself and surrounding areas, and the curriculum. The characteristics of an effective school such as its optimal size, good leadership, high collective efficacy in teachers, teachers involving students in learning activities and lessons, frequent assessment of students by teachers and continual feedback from teachers to students, safe and orderly environment, and positive parental and community involvement may all be grouped with these components. For instance, the staff and faculty members of a school include teachers and the leader. The physical building itself and its surroundings include the size of the school as well as the parents and community surrounding it. The two previous components can both be associated with a safe and orderly environment. Plus, the curriculum is related to interactive instruction and the monitoring of student progress.
Leave it to a physical education teacher to say this, but, being a school administrator is based on teamwork, no one individual can run an entire school. To me, the idea of creating a collaborative culture simply means getting your staff, students, parents and community on board with your philosophy. Since the buck stops with the principal, it is important for his/her staff to be on the same page. In order for a principal to foster this kind of environment, they would have to utilize a variety of supervisory styles and techniques. The most important leadership characteristics designed to achieve this goal are:
Another important aspect in towards positive group dynamics is to make all members feel accepted in spite of any diversity. Trust is an important trait for the survival of a group. More importantly, the likelihood of accomplishing goals increases with maximum trust and confidence. However, numerous personalities with different backgrounds may cause friction while attempting to resolve conflicts or reaching a consensus. These challenging situations can lead to stress and tension amongst the group members, but when successfully resolved they lead to further strengthening of the bonds and the emergence of a more cohesive group. Also certain measures can be taken to avoid certain petty discrepancies right from the beginning. Specific ground rules; code of ethics and conduct should be established that would encourage smooth functioning and efficient target