Shirley Hord, Learning Forward’s scholar laureate, was recently featured in a blog  titled, “What Is An Authentic Professional Learning Community?” Hord identified six characteristics that indicate an authentic PLC: Structural conditions– Time… place…resources and useable data. Supportive relational conditions– Community members have respect and regard for each other. Shared values and vision– The community’s conversation […]

This is the title of a conference breakout session I have been asked to facilitate this summer. It’s a topic of importance to me as I have met many teachers who hold a confused definition of PLCs because of tasks that they have been asked (told) to complete during scheduled PLC meetings. The following definition […]

I was asked to facilitate 15 elementary coaches’ reflections on their past year’s experiences and gather direction for the next school year. I think that the questions I used can be helpful to others who are leading instructional coaching teams. If you are an instructional coach you can use the questions individually for personal reflection. […]

I am currently taking part in a MOOC, Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills, by Esther Care and Patrick Griffin at The University of Melbourne. One of the major elements in the course is exploring collaborative problem solving. The primary distinction between problem-solving by an individual and collaborative problem solving is its social nature – […]

I often find myself in conversations with teachers, instructional coaches, leadership teams and principals where the discussion of a “problem” rather quickly leads to an acknowledgement of “what needs to happen” which is quickly followed by the list of reasons that “it can’t be done”. Example: Teachers in a PLC are reviewing the results of […]

Often when working in schools with PLC’s, the topic of data and what to do with it and about it emerges. I frequently find that lots of instructional coaches’ time is spent scheduling assessments to gather data, entering the data, interpreting the data, distributing the data, and reviewing the data with teachers who respond with […]