What were we thinking?

Reflections of our learning journey towards building a PLC community

School District No. 71 (Comox Valley)

Sounded like a good idea at the time . . . (singular?)

Would embedding a PLC structure district wide have a positive impact on student achievement?

OR Could PLC’s help teachers collaborate together to find new ways of teaching assessing and engaging students?

OR

Would a formalized structure that provides PLC time for teachers, EA’s and admin create measurable positive outcomes for students?

OR . . . . .

Sooooo many questions ? ? ?

Where do we begin?Do we:

Invent something new?

Tweak what we already have?

Focus on teacher growth?

Dare to try anything different?

Start with the end in mind? -- which end? -- whose end?Teachers / Students / Parents / ILO’s

OR . . . . . .

Sooooo many questions ? ? ?

HOW ABOUT?We

Just Start

In the beginning there was . . .

a history of collaborative practice in small pockets district wide;

professional partnerships and one middle school experience;

2-3 years of elementary practice of admin creating meeting time;

district supported initiatives on specific topics;

research and familiarity with the Dufour concept of PLC’s;

recommendations from a ‘driving’ committee about achieving significant movement towards 21st C Learning.

Remember . . . Just Start

Who leads:

The Board Senior Leaders PVP’s Teachers / Teacher Union Community / Experts Parents and Students

Summer Institute

Calendar

Contract

Accountability

Communication Plan / Messaging

Maintenance

BCSSA Members (Subtlety and Discretion)

PVP’s are the key!

PVP staff development PVP leadership role PVP modeling and accountability PVP relationships

Teacher driven, administrator supported!

• Sr. leaders leading from the side• Board supporting and resourcing• Community resources and allies

ExamplesAirport Elementary SchoolPart IChildren are more accountable for their time – staying on task for longer periods of time; doing what they are supposed to be doing. Benchmarks in all children have risen by at least 2 levels, even in the lowest students. Oral reading has improved as their fluency levels are improving. Behaviour has improved significantly reducing the time spent disciplining or redirecting students. Children are choosing “good fit’ books from the Library -- books they can read vs just looking at pictures.

There are no behavioural issues when two classes are together, both inside and outdoors. Students with attentional issues are more engaged and want to get outside more. Overall, students are more engaged in their work. Mentorship of the older students – they trying to be good role models for the younger ones.

Part IIIn an effort to improve Language Arts skills, three teachers are implementing this program. At the beginning of each section an “I” chart (Independence) is created so that children know what is expected. The purpose of the program is to make children more independent for longer periods of time. The teacher is free from having to discipline children and can work more one on one with those who are struggling. Children will work on a task starting at short intervals and work up to 20-25 minutes, and are able to choose which task they will be working on each day. If they choose the same task 3 days straight – the teacher will redirect them to another component.

Outdoor learning program purpose: to implement a mentoring partnership between two classes: K/1 and 4/5. Classes get together each week. The program spans the curriculum and incorporates Art, PE, Socials, Math, Language Arts, Science, Drama and even Service for the community. Projects so far: making mandala’s, outdoor patterning, leaf man project, winter solstice, cutting invasive holly and selling it as a fund raiser to purchase a well in India, Bears, and making kites. Outcomes are being met for the curriculum at both levels during the lessons.

Cumberland Elementary School Part ISocial Thinking work has had a positive effect in our school. Students requiring the most intervention have improved greatly in their ability to manage themselves in various social situations. Several of these students have ‘graduated’ from receiving direct intervention allowing new openings for newly identified students receiving this support. Within the general classrooms, consistency among staff using a common language of Social Thinking has improved student behaviours throughout all grades.

Outdoor classroom PLC: students are more engaged at all age levels throughout the school day as a result of outdoor learning being incorporated into their day. There has been increased connectedness to the community through outdoor learning. In terms of student behaviours, office referrals have declined dramatically over the past year – a reflection of both PLC’s: Social Thinking and Outdoor Learning. Office referrals declined in 2013-14 and continue to decline for 2014-15.

Part II:Social Thinking Strategies were to be taught to all grade levels, beginning with primary, through class instruction, small group instruction and individual targeted instruction. PLC Process or Assessment Tools: Staff decided what areas of Social Thinking were required to be taught first and decided to start with the primary grade levels for whole classroom instruction. Students requiring additional support were identified and smaller groups were created – the LST, CST or school counsellor worked with these students. Individual students requiring one on one support were supported by the LST, CST, SLP or school counsellor. One of the assessment tools used to document the effects of this work was to track office referrals (student behaviours).

Outdoor classroom highlights: strengthened buddy system between classrooms—older students teaching younger students about various outdoor topics: identifying tree species, plant species, indigenous ways of knowing, and preservation of forests. Partnerships have been formed between staff and there are deeper conversations about student learning. Parents and students have expressed their support of this new way of learning.

G.P. Vanier Secondary SchoolPart II

The PLC team wanted to increase communication with parents. Their belief is that there are more effective methods of communicating with parents beyond the traditional: report cards, interim reports, parent interviews, meet the teacher nights and phone calls, that will improve student engagement and performance. By having an increase in detailed communication with parents addressing course content/ activities, student performance, missing assignments, effort, attendance and/or other concerns, they believe that parents will become more engaged in the education of their child.

Foundations of Math 11 is a common last math course for grad credit that also satisfies many post secondary requirements. The PLC team is focused on improving student learning in this course. To date, the PLC team has been working on determining the main obstacles that are limiting student success in Math 11 – in response, an extra practice assignment was designed for the Angles and Lines Unit. In addition, the PLC team has revised the approach to the Statistics lab as well as creating a more hands on approach where students practiced measuring and calculating using concrete objects for the Ratios and Proportions Unit. Students measured physical models and made calculations for real life objects and vice-versa. The PLC team collected materials for the labs, designed questioning and recording sheets for the labs and tested the labs with a class of students.

Highland Secondary SchoolPart IThe School Culture Model employed by our PLC currently involves staff creating opportunities for involvement of students in culture-building activities. Groups of students have emulated these efforts and have begun to engage other students on their own. Some Leadership students have taken it upon themselves to create an online student survey about school culture and have analyzed those results on their own. Our Day of Silence was student run and on our Aboriginal Day many of the sessions were run by student presenters. Initiatives like this take time. We are confident we are on the right track in engaging students and staff in developing a positive culture at Highland.

Teachers involved in the Technology PLC are noticing positive results. Students engage in the hands-on approach to learning iPads (tablets and apps). Students are using them as a quick reference tool, making movie trailers using MovieMaker, creating videos on resilience and other topics, and the apps tool is constantly in use for word usage and meaning.

Part IISchool Culture and Social Responsibility: PLC is exploring a means of creating a positive school culture, based on research that confirms this has a positive impact on student learning. Electronic surveys have been completed by all staff regarding various aspects of school culture, and careful analysis of the results. Actions and results stemmed from the PLC work include: ongoing focus in the Leadership class on building a school-wide culture through activities and theme days; preparation and serving of a full turkey lunch to the whole staff before Christmas break; expansion of GSA from 2 to over 10 students; school celebration days such as Aboriginal Day, FilmFest, the Day of Silence; and over 25 staff signed up to receive a copy of “Mindset” by Carol Dweck and participated in a book-club professional development conversation.

iPads for students and teachers: The PLC is exploring way for both teachers and students to use iPad technology (tablets and apps) to engage students and improve student learning.

Do’s

• Just do it – start small.

• In-service your Board, DPAC and other communities.

• Hold folks accountable for the time.

• Create time and permission to make mistakes.

• Celebrate and communicate.

• Ensure that everyone who can be, is involved, in a PLC – including you!

Don’t

. . . think too much about all the things that can get in the way;

. . . try to lead this yourself;

. . . use a stop watch, overtly take attendance;

. . . skip the work on protocols;

. . . ignore your parent group;

. . . be invisible – be present in the PLC life of your district.

“Sharing connections with your students also helped them choose their learning goals. A young reluctant reader asked me to watch his beginning skating lesson. I took a photo of his risk-taking and I had a huge ‘aha moment.’ I brought the photo to school and challenged him to try the same risk-taking in tackling words and reading…and it worked!”

Colleen Devlin, Grade 1 Teacher

“In the PLC group I am finding my voice and I can express myself more. In my work I know how to support students better because I know the model…I like the way kids are taking ownership of their learning through the Daily 5. They are being more creative because they have more freedom about what they will tackle first.”

Suzanne Prosick, Education Assistant

“The power of collaborating across roles has been especially significant in our PLC experience this year. Never before have we had the opportunity to work alongside our EA’s and Librarian in this way, creating powerful impacts on specific learning needs with the implementation of researched based strategies for reading. This is very exciting!”

Lucinda Wolters, Vice-Principal and Grade 3 Teacher

“PLC members are noting a tangible shift in the school culture, as well as personal changes in their own perspectives as a member on staff. As a group we have firmed up our faith in the ongoing positive aspects of our school, as opposed to reaffirming and residing in the negative domain which can occasionally permeate a staffroom or collective conscience in a school. Students and staff have shown an enthusiastic willingness to engage and participate in activities that promote connectedness and build positive culture at Highland.”

Rob Grantham, Highland Secondary Vice-Principal

“In relation to our Social Thinking PLC group I’ve appreciated the invaluable opportunity to be in community, discuss and jointly collaborate on meaningful, significant work that directly and significantly impacts student success in my classroom. As a result of our work students have a greater toolkit of strategies at their disposal and are beginning to have a common language around social communication.”

Joyce Bystrom, Challenge Program Teacher

“It is such a gift to have the time to work with other teachers and talk about student learning.”Ellen Klassen, Cumberland Elementary Teacher

“PLC has given me the opportunity to connect with the kindergarten teacher and plan for our Thursday afternoons together. We have had time to evaluate and reflect on past practices and activities as well as look closely at play based learning opportunities for our children.”

Carlene Steeves, Strongstart Facilitator

“Having space provided to hold conversations, share concerns, suggest strategies that work and try them out, helps us to make a more solid plan for student success. Educational Assistants have many observations of students that we may have missed during our classes. Hearing their perspectives and suggestions has been very helpful.”

Alissa Pratt, Lake Trail Middle School Vice-Principal

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