When I
was in my student teaching, I was working with a teacher who was very straight
forward when it came to English. When I first met him, he introduced me to the
other teachers in the department and said of one of them “This is Debbie. If
you want to do touchy, feely, emotion Language Arts stuff, you better talk to
her. I don’t do that kind of stuff.” Don’t get me wrong, I think the world of
my mentor even to this day, but that was the extent of our professional
learning community. We were a team of two and if there was anything else I
needed it was down the hall and I would have to seek it out myself.
As DuFour (2004) states, “Despite compelling
evidence indicating that working collaboratively represents best practice … the
staff's willingness to collaborate often stops at the classroom door” (pg. 3). My
first experiences in the classroom were reflective of this mentality. What
happened in your classroom was your business and did not pertain to your peers
next door as long as they covered what needed to be covered. When I got my
first teaching job, however, I was greeted with what Wilson (2005) refers to as
the “village mentality.” No longer were my students just English 10 students.
They were social studies, math, music, and art students as well. They were former
English 9 students who were bound for English 11. What happened in my classroom
touched each of their subjects and if the “village” did not come together, how
were we expected to raise an effective student. When Wilson (2005) says “The
synchronization of adults and youth is key to young people’s involvement at any
level. If adults fail to affirm the significance of youth by providing access, support,
and safe opportunities for honest participation, they miss the chance to be
part of a ‘joint rhythm’ and youth contributions will be no more than an
appearance” (pg. 98). This is where PLCs become important.
I have been lucky in my current school to have
common collaborative time with my entire department. As a result, we meet once
a week as 10th grade teachers, once a week as 12th grade
teachers, once a week with my mentor, and once a week as a department. We are
lucky enough that this planning time is in addition to our personal planning
period. Through this PLC, we have grown leaps and bounds. We are able to
develop comment assessments and look at the data. If my students don’t do as well
as Teacher A, Teacher A and I can look at how she approached teaching it and I can
reflect and adjust accordingly. These periods also allow time for me to work
with my department regarding district wide initiatives. As Niesz (2007) argues,
these moments are both rewarding and beneficial to all involved because they
allow for fluency of instruction.
My district also has a first year teacher program
that brings teachers who are new to the district together once a month to
discuss common issues to those new to the district and new to teaching. This
mentor based program also allows for the new teachers to meet alone to share
experiences they may be too embarrassed to discuss with a more experienced
faculty member for fear of sounding wrong. These discussions have made me feel
like I am not alone in the occasional question or concern. This personal interaction
has been an important one.
The best thing about blogging has been that
connection to PLCs outside of my school. My blog (www.mrwagnersbigquestion.blogspot.com)
has been a way to express and share my ideas as an educator with people that I
may never have had the chance to interact with. In fact, I’ll be sharing this
discussion post on my blog as well under the question, “Why are PLCs important?”
Through feedback from peers both at my school and in other states, I can create
a PLC that doesn’t have boundaries, perhaps one of the most valuable things in
the world. Having these connections allows me to learn from others, even if we
may be worlds apart. I hope to continue the blog as a way of both self-reflecting
and connecting with others.
PLCs are able to do more than one person can
accomplish. They bring together like minded and unlike minded people and ask them
to work together. The interactions, questions and reflections are key to making
a functioning educational community (DuFour, 2004).
References:
DuFour, R. (2004). Schools as learning communities. Educational Leadership,
61(8), 6–11. Retrieved
Niesz, T. (2007). Why teacher networks (can) work. Phi Delta Kappan, 88,
605–610. Retrieved May 24,
2007,
from http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k_v88/k0704.htm
Used
by permission of Phi Delta Kappan and Tricia Niesz, PhD
Wilson, H. (2005). If it takes a village to raise a
child, how many children does it take to raise a village?
U.S.
Department of Health & Human Services. Retrieved from ttp://cydjournal.org/2005Fall/pdf/
Wilson_Article.pdf
