Human+Potential

School improvement happens when teachers collaborate. This process must be led by the instructional leader who should be called “learning leader”. The leader’s function is to provide opportunities for teachers to work together in self-managing teams to improve their own instruction, always with the expectation for improved learning. The principal’s job is to monitor, discuss and support teachers’ progress in achieving higher levels of student learning on both short-term and annual assessments.
 * __[[image:Flower.jpg align="right"]]Belief Statement on Maximizing Human Potential: __**

When we have all the skills, tools, and training we need, working together in teams to apply what we know makes it easy to support each other. I believe that professional learning communities are the most professionally rewarding way to improve schools using collaborative teams of teachers who take responsibility for their results.

**//Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. //** – Helen Keller media type="youtube" key="5tnCVMAtf9E?version=3" height="390" width="640" We're All in This Together!

**__Statement of Problem Being Addressed: __** As school district professional development budgets are currently being slashed, it is essential for principals to find ways to embed differentiated professional development into the workplace. Research shows that stand alone workshops are not effective (Mullen & Hutinger, 2008).

**//When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality. //** -Joe Paterno

**__Relation to ISLLC Standard 2 ~ The Culture of Teaching and Learning __**

A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.

**__Initiative:__** Suburban Brogan School District will implement professional learning communities as an embedded professional development model. PLCs are timely, based on intervention not remediation, and are directive. Teachers will analyze, synthesize, and prioritize the standards as they collaborate to improve instructional strategies and focus on raising all student achievement. Professional learning communities are a strategy used to build collaborative teams. They provide a means for job-embedded professional development. Principals serve in the role to create conditions that cultivate teacher development and student learning. Mullen & Huntinger found that the principal is the crucial factor in the success of faculty study groups (2008). **//<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">None of us is as smart as all of us. //**<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';"> -Ken Blanchard

media type="youtube" key="vEgmHHeCl4U?version=3" height="390" width="640" ** Solution Tree: The Power of PLCs at Work **

**__<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Purpose of Initiative: __** 

//<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Dig deeply into learning to raise the bar of student achievement. //

<span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT Condensed Extra Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Ensuring that all students learn <span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT Condensed Extra Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Fostering a culture of collaboration <span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT Condensed Extra Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Focusing on results

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">(DuFour, Eaker, DuFour, 2005)

**//<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. //**    **//<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">- //**<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Yogi Bera

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">**__Steps to Be Taken:__**

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Simple concept: a group of teachers meet regularly as a team to identify essential and valued student learning, develop common formative assessments, analyze current levels of achievement, set achievement goals, share strategies, then create lessons to improve upon those levels. (Improves the quality of teaching)

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">PLCs fundamental purpose is to see to it that all students learn at high levels.


 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; tabstops: list .5in;">What is it we want all students to learn?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; tabstops: list .5in;">How will we know when each student has mastered the essential learning?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; tabstops: list .5in;">How will we respond when a student experiences initial difficulty in learning?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; tabstops: list .5in;">How will we deepen the learning for students who have already mastered essential knowledge and skills?

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">(DuFour, Eaker, DuFour, 2005)

media type="youtube" key="C9QD6xMnshA?version=3" height="390" width="640"
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: -0.4pt; line-height: 115%;">Solution Tree: Leadership in Professional Learning Communities at Work™ Learning by Doing **



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**__<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Resources for Implementation: __**













**//<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. //**<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';"> -Henry Ford



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