Reflection for 12/6
Happy Snow Day!
I am so grateful for the winter weather. After spending Friday and Saturday at an awesome conference on Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), I just need a couple of days off to rest my brain and get caught up on my work. Let it snow! 
About the conference, it was put on by the Northeast affiliate of the ASCD and was titled “Leading and Learning: Sustaining Learning Communities”. It was really very eye-opening. We learned a great deal about PLCs and how to make them successful and useful in our school environment. This conference was very timely, as we just implemented a district-wide initiative committed to each educator taking part in a community that is focused on achieving one of our district-improvement goals.
Some of the biggest learning I picked up:
1. (Although, I’m not exactly sure how this connects to PLCs…) We should do away with threatening to and giving kids zeros for incomplete work. There has a been a great deal of research on this topic, and it is proven that the threat of failing an assignment does not work as a motivator for students to complete the work to the best of their ability. I have done some incidental research on this in my own class. I have found the exact same conclusion. Recording zeros, in effect, excuses students from the assignment. And, although I would have been mortified by the impact of a zero in my 6th grade teacher’s grade book, many kids are defeated by the idea of a zero and/or are more willing to avoid work than consider the impact of a zero of their “academic record”. I think my new philosophy will be that all students must complete all work. It will be recommended that students do the work when it is most valuable (when it is assigned and pertinent to the following day’s lesson). However, work that is not done will not be a zero – but will be done by every student at a time that is less convenient to students (recess, after school, etc.). I am going to try this for the duration of this year and see if this policy has an impact on how kids approach their assignments, scores on assessments, and their overall comprehension of materials. I think this policy may give more value to the work that students are expected to do.
2. Another eye-opener, PLC topics need to be selected by teachers for the betterment of students’ education and teacher’s ability to teach and learn. This year, my PLCs topic is RTI. This is a topic I was interested in studying; however, our direction and focus has been assigned to us. Thus, members of my group are frustrated with the process and direction that we are currently moving in. We were also assigned to groups, and I think this limited our ability to select group of colleagues that make sense to us on a practical level. For example, working with teachers at my grade level or those who teach the same curriculum would have been a more comfortable and productive fit.
3. Although not implicitly stated, I think there is a logical connection between PLCs and UD. Planning units and lessons with others who have an understanding or interest in UD would make for a very interesting PLC group. I think it is sometimes overwhelming to consider all of the elements of a unit, along with the opportunities to integrate Universal Design. Working with others would give an individual teacher the chance to collaborate and consider elements of lessons that they may not have thought of on their own. I think units created by teams of teachers are ultimately more thoughtful and creative. I believe a PLC that focuses on integrating UD into their units would find that the unit is more universally accessible.
Overall, it was a very enlightening conference. I think that we will be able to improve our PLCs as a result of what we learning. I think that I also have some new strategies to employ with my unit development group – which is a highly functioning PLC in my opinion.
Cynthia – Will you please let me know if there are objectives on your check-off list that I have neglected to write about on the blog. I would love to complete those reflection pieces in the next couple of weeks. Thanks so much!
See you Thursday!
Reflection | Comment (1)One Response to “Reflection for 12/6”
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I’m glad to know that the conference was worthwhile. I’ve been reading what I can about PLCs, but have not had the opportunity to delve deeply. Thanks for sharing what you’ve learned!
Zeros don’t make much sense, do they? It certainly comes down to philosophy – many teachers give zeros based on “principle” and justify it by reminding us how kids have to learn to complete assignments on time if they’re going to be successful adults. I think the more critical point is knowing whether or not our students understand what it is we want them to know. Our learning objectives should drive assessment. Connect assignments to the objectives and most students will find their completion relevant and worthwhile.
Regarding your RTI PLC – I guess when you’re told what to do and who to do it with, the “professional” is kinda removed from “PLC.”
I agree that curriculum development is more successful and meaningful when conducted collaboratively. The consideration of universal design adds some complexity to unit development, and having teachers with varied backgrounds and expertise can immediately improve the quality of the product.
FYI – the MLTI has set the purpose of the high school teacher MacBooks in the context of PLCs. The goal is to engage high school teachers in statewide, Web-based PLCs through Studywiz and NoteShare. I am hopeful that the MLTI will continue to expand…and reach grade 6 in the not-too-distant future.
Regarding the check-off list, it is only meant to track my observations and conversations during class sessions. Not having something checked off on that list doesn’t mean that you haven’t demonstrated achievement – it likely means that I haven’t gotten around to checking off the box!
The remaining objective that I’d like you to reflect upon is that related to what we are now examining – accessible content media. Your reviews of the articles were excellent and I gleaned lots of insight about what you have learned, but information about how you will be applying that to your unit is the final frontier of the course!
Cynthia