Professional Learning Communities: Three Big Ideas
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
Our district is beginning its journey with professional learning communities. Each school is sending a handful of teachers who will then return to their buildings to integrate the ideas. As I sat in Day 1 of training today, I heard about three big ideas that are essential to make this model work:
1. Ensure that all students can learn.
2. Build a culture of collaboration.
3. Focus on results.
Wait a minute … did they really say, “Build a culture of collaboration?” Get out of town.
I’ve been saying for some time that truly collaborative school library media programs must occur within a larger building and district culture of collaboration. If a district has an evaluation system that does not promote collaborative teaching, or at an extreme, promotes autonomous teaching (as in one district I know of that mandates that non-tenured elementary teachers must teach all subjects, whereas more experienced ones might partner with one another, with one teaching science to both sections, and one teaching social studies to both), or if a district has a competitive culture, it will be very difficult for a single school library media specialist to step in and establish a culture of collaboration.
And now … someone else is singing the same song. What an opportunity!
We know that our district is a bit late coming to the PLC dance. I’m curious to know how PLCs are working in your district and what the role of the school library media specialist is. No need to name names, but I’m really curious to know how this plays out in “real life.”
(A gentle reminder that our corporate policy requires moderated comments, so it may be a few hours before yours shows up. Thanks for being patient!)
Our district is beginning its journey with professional learning communities. Each school is sending a handful of teachers who will then return to their buildings to integrate the ideas. As I sat in Day 1 of training today, I heard about three big ideas that are essential to make this model work:
1. Ensure that all students can learn.
2. Build a culture of collaboration.
3. Focus on results.
Wait a minute … did they really say, “Build a culture of collaboration?” Get out of town.
I’ve been saying for some time that truly collaborative school library media programs must occur within a larger building and district culture of collaboration. If a district has an evaluation system that does not promote collaborative teaching, or at an extreme, promotes autonomous teaching (as in one district I know of that mandates that non-tenured elementary teachers must teach all subjects, whereas more experienced ones might partner with one another, with one teaching science to both sections, and one teaching social studies to both), or if a district has a competitive culture, it will be very difficult for a single school library media specialist to step in and establish a culture of collaboration.
And now … someone else is singing the same song. What an opportunity!
We know that our district is a bit late coming to the PLC dance. I’m curious to know how PLCs are working in your district and what the role of the school library media specialist is. No need to name names, but I’m really curious to know how this plays out in “real life.”
(A gentle reminder that our corporate policy requires moderated comments, so it may be a few hours before yours shows up. Thanks for being patient!)