“Don’t try to fix the students, fix ourselves first. The good teacher makes the poor student good and the good student superior.”

~ Marva Collins

Demystifying Teaching and Learning

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:

Demystifying Teaching and Learningthrough intentional Professional Learning Communities

George Washington Community High School Data Room

Professional Learning Communities. Teacher-lead, topic-driven and results-

focused training. Designed to target areas of improvement. Identify student problem areas and focus on

implementing both personal and school-wide solutions.

Share disaggregated testing data, interpret it, then learn from and approve upon it.

PLC: What?

Broken down by day to focus and to link to similar fields of learning:

Monday: Targeted FocusTuesday: Data StudiesWednesday: Rounds and ContentThursday: Reading ApprenticeshipFriday: Lesson Planning, SPED Planning

PLC days remain fluid and flexible to accommodate visiting presenters and for extenuating need.

PLC: When?

PLC: How?

GWCHS Data Room: Data wall

Reflection and Feedback Surveys: influence topics based on the identified needs.

PLCs are often initiated when State, District, and School scores are released.

A teacher who is skilled and knowledgeable in the targeted area will create the PLC.

School Cadre Teachers allow the Content Teachers to meet for the PLC Training sessions.

PLC: How?

PLC: How?

GWCHS Data Room: Disaggregated ISTEP+ Data

PLCs are based on: Scrimmage Data ECA ISTEP+ Teacher Feedback Teacher Observation Student Need Technology

Improvements “Bubble” Student

Needs The Changing School

Culture

PLC: Why?

GWCHS: Reading Apprenticeship Lab

PLC: Why?Observable School Improvement

From the 2009-10 and 2010-11 School Year Data* Overall ELA improvement:

Benchmark 1: +21Benchmark 2: +17

Overall Math improvement:Benchmark 1: +3Benchmark 2: +65

Overall Social Studies improvement:Benchmark 1: +10Benchmark 2: +8

*Data based on: Benchmark Comparison of GWCHS from 2009-2011

Teachers are sharing their knowledge and expertise, strengthening their fellow teacher’s abilities.

They are able to create a unified teaching front and collaborate in their effort to teach, connecting each subject in the minds of students and to improve their learning.

Struggling students can be easily identified, allowing all teachers to focus on providing aid.

PLC: Why?

“We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.”

~Peter Drucker

Demystifying Teaching and Learning