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It is amazing how all schools are similiar, when it comes to the nuts and bolts. We all have a group that have multi-talents if we could work with each other and benefit the students it would be a good day.

This is a great resource! It goes very deep into the motives of using PLNs and breaks it down into a few ideas and questions so you can reflect on what a successful PLN would look like and how to utilize it for students' engagement and success.

In the article, one district had late starts on Mondays for planning time for their PLCs. Our district plans to have groups meet once a month for 30 minutes. I'd like to hear what other districts are doing.

We are going into our 3rd year of PLC in my district. I think the idea is great and can be incredibly valuable. However, the group is only as powerful as the members in it. If all members buy into the concept, great things can come out of it. If members view it as a waste of time, come unprepared or do not participate then it truly is a waste of time. Getting members to believe is the most difficult part.

We are just starting PLCs at my school. So far we have just had a training session about it. I will be interested to see how it works during the next few years.

The biggest hurdle for some districts may be having enough technology/computers available

This is the first year of PLC's for Charles City. We are following a very 'patient' approach by 'dictating' the direction of the PLC's (everyone studies characteristics of effective instruction) for the first several months. Hopefullly, this will allow everyone to to understand the dynamics of PLC first before we allow individuals to 'breakout' by content or topic.

This is our first year of PLC's in the Dike-New Hartford District. Like Charles City we are also easing into the direction our group wants to go. Right now we have two early dismissal days a month to meet. We are too getting to know the dynamics of PLC's to make them effective in our district.

This is our second year of PLC at GR. I ahve found working in our group this year during the extra 8 hours outside of school time very beneficial. Going 1 : 1 computers, this sharing has given us time to find new sources for ourselves and students to use as we improve learning.

How do you get something like this started in your school? Can you get everyone on board?

Collaboration is key. Cant be a complaint session. Must have input from everyone.

I agree. When we start working on solutions to challenges, rather than complaining, educators can make incredible gains.

Our PLC made little flags with photos of Norm from "Cheers" on wooden sticks. When one of us starts going down a different path with the discussion, any of us can hold up our "Norm" to remind us to stay on track. This works well for us because it is a humorous way to keep organized and doesn't hurt anybody's feelings.

Diane: I love the creativity and team-bldg. by using humor ...and yet being organized and productive.

Just attended a PLC of 4 regional schools last friday where we were trying to develop curriculum alignment amongst school. Develping this network on line will allow us as a gorup to "steal" activities from others, discuss best practices and share our successes and struggles.

It seems as though my school's PLCs have been overshadowed by PD and our mixture of content teachers, while good in theory, has not worked in practice. I am a foreign language teacher, the only one in my school, and I am always paired with art, music, PE and the guidance counselor. Then we are so structured that any type of 'ah-ha moment' cannot be realized, due to the constraints of the itinerary.

My school system has been doing PLC groups for 2 years but I think we need to think about these questions while decided what we want to do in them. I think we jump from one thing to the next and do not think about the students.

I believe that thiese are important questions you must think about when deciding what you are going to discuss. My PLC group really tried to think about what we wanted the students to learn and how we were going to help them!

My school is also in the second year. Getting better at working together rather then just complaining. Will take commitment from everyone.

We are in the first year of our PLC groups, and these are the questions that our groups are focusing on. Our goal is to help every student, no matter if they are in our class or not. I think these are great questions to help us help all of our students!

PLC groups (as defined by DuFour) seem to be easier to implement in a larger school with more than one teacher teaching a specific class. Developing a true PLC will not be an immediate process. After hearing speakers at the PLC conference in St. Louis, it is amazing what some districts have done with these.

These are questions that our administrator has had us ask ourselves for two years now. It keeps us focused on our students and what we need to do for each of them.

I'm hoping that my school will consider a real PLC within the next year or two.  These questions would be a good jump point.

These PLC groups will become ever more important as the dynamic of a teacher's responsibility continues to change. As in, not only are we teaching these children together, but in some cases playing father, mother, role model, confidant, etc.

Julie Crotty from AEA267 explained that there are essentially two terms we are confusing. There are plc's (lower case) that are the more informal learning communities where the community can explore any goals. Then there is the plc (upper case) which represents the definition you describe. As I understand it, in a plc, a group of educators would be analyzing student data, determining goals, and deciding how to attain measurable student achievement.

I think one of the most valuable ways we spend in-service time is by teachers bouncing ideas off each other. I know each time we go this I come away with a good idea or two of what I can do in my own classroom.

I agree that identifying their owns strengths and areas of improvement can be a useful tool

Student self assessment is becoming both more important and more difficult in classrooms. It seems as though students sometimes aren't ready to admit their faults or concerns when it may help the teacher conduct formative assessment tasks. Sadly, teachers often rely heavily on that very self-assessment, which may or may not be entirely accurate.

I have actually found that those students who take their education seriously (and there are more than I think) are almost fault finding rather than confidence building. That is when I take the opportunity to build them up and point out their successes.

I agree with Kevin's comment that students do not want to admit fault. They are also timid about asking for help. We recently had a student who did not hand in an assignment that was a substantial part of his grade for the term. We asked several times if he wanted/needed help. His response was always no. Finally, after about 3 weeks the teacher made him come into her room during study hall and work on the assignment. He failed to understand one of the key steps and after it was explained, he finished the essay. It was a failure on both our parts. The student should have asked for help, but if we had a better system in place to check for understanding at key points, it would have been less stressful for both parties. We need to consider doing more of these things at my school.

I really like the last question, especially with students I work with. It is most important that the student see their progress, for the sole reason they don't believe anyone. Also, the fact they are to see themselves as learners and what they have discovered. Love it!!!

I think if students are given their expectations a head of time, you will see progress in their work. Their are special cases where this is untrue, but we all like expectations that are obtainable.

I agree with Chrisine. Students are quite honest and critical of themselves and it gives them the oportunity to see growth within themselves.

I agree that if we let the students know from the beginning what the expectaions for the class are, they can follow their progress in the class and see their improvment. Also, giving a norgraded quiz is also a good idea but I'm wondering if they would do their best knowing it isn't graded at the beginning.

'student friendly language' is key... great ideas!

These are all excellent components to learning and helping students move forward with learning. Could there also be a parent component which would allow for more communication opportunities?

I use non-graded quizzes regularly -- the word "quiz" helps them take it seriously -- to assess where students are. I think I will try adding the self assessment of where they are on the learning targets to the end of the quiz. Rather than collecting and going through myself, I will let them assess what they know and what still needs to be worked on. When I collect them, we will both be on track to fill the gaps.

I like having students identify their own strengths and goals...gives them ownership and accountability.

I like the idea of "student-friendly" language and for students to look at their own progress would be very helpful. Using rubrics would be similar but adding it into technology would make it more engaging for students plus it would be paperless.

A big part of DuFour (Solution Tree, PLC) is non-graded formative assessment. The claim is that, once a student sees a grade, the learning stops. No matter what amount of feedback you give, all they are concerned about is the grade.

As a high school teacher, I have found that students generally don't take seriously non-graded assessment. I do though strongly agree that incremental formative assessment is key to developing desirable levels of skill and understanding. Over the years I've developed two different schemes for addressing the need for incremental formative assessment, while avoiding the barriers that "grades" can impose. For Junior and Senior students, it has been useful for the students to allow them retakes, so they may retake any incremental formative assessment whose score is not what they would like it to be. I take the most recent score for better or worse. If they wish to retake a third, forth, or umpteenth time then they may do so (with the same better or worse consequence). Though this scheme is helpful for them, allowing them to see how the prep work leads to assessment items, and thus focusing their instruction to make them more efficient test-takers, it is somewhat burdensome in paperwork (as every incremental formative assessment has multiple versions -- many tailor-made to suit specific learning preferences). As the Freshmen student class sizes are so much greater and as Freshmen are less mature in the ways of the grades, the aforementioned retake scheme has not proven useful with them. Many Freshman consider that a nongraded assignment is "busy work" and don't give it their best effort. More importantly, the results of such nongraded assignments are considered to be unimportant primarily because the students knew they didn't utilize their best effort. The scheme that has proven to be most successful with them is "risk ratcheting". Students are given prep work which is designed to help them with note-taking skills. the answer to all the prep-work material is reviewed in class with the understanding that if the prep work was done poorly, then it is a sign that your notes need to be fixed (corrected, culled, or added to). The next assessment item is small and each ind

I agree with Todd here. We have done it both ways and we went to teach another school about PLC's where they would be assigning groups. I do not think they would find as much joy and success that way as DuFour says in his book having a choice is key! 

Van Meter has given teacher flexibility when doing PLC. Meeting at Early but allowed to leave early of whatever the group works out.

Gladbrook-Reinbeck Elem teachers have been having their PLC's on Wednesday mornings before school. Unfortunately, we didn't have much focus or direction. Some of our teachers are going to a training this summer, so hopefully next year will be better.

In the article, one district had late starts on Mondays. Our district is having teachers meet for 30 minutes once a month. I'd like to hear how other schools are setting up planning time for their PLCs.

At Charles CIty we are have late starts on MOnday. Teachers will have 80-85 minutes to work in PLC's that are being 'dictated' this year with the idea that they will 'breakout' next year.

Sometimes we work better under pressure and get more done in a shorter amount of time if we know where we are going.

This is the big question when working in PLC's.  I hope your second year goes better than ours.  

Being a part of a collaborative culture helped to take my first year from being a complete, disorganized disaster to a year of successful learning for both the children and me.  I felt the mentoring process was a form of collaborative culture.

The time for groups of teachers to work together is key. This can be difficult at the secondary level, districts and administrators are getting more creative about finding ways to make this happen.

Specials teachers also like to be included in these communities. It seems like we get placed in the position of working with students while other collaborate in our building. Not sure how to solve this scheduling issue.

Allysen is right! key is time for teachers to work together and learn the technology available