I love the idea of PLC's. As educators, of course we should collaborate, share ideas, compare data, brainstorm together, create common assessments, etc. Let me tell you though, I feel like I am PLCed out right now. Maybe it is because I am split between two schools and I have PLC's at both. It is so hard for my brain to stay focused on which PLC is doing what and keeping track of all of the tasks that I am responsible for completing.
I know that it is cliche for an educator to say that we are not given enough time to get everything done. If only we could get some more time that is set aside solely for PLC work time though. I feel like there are so many things that we are expected to accomplish in our PLC's and trying to meet over lunch or having one meeting a month is not sufficient. There is no way that we can get what we want to get done done in that amount of time.
Speaking with teachers in other districts, it sounds like, overall, the same problem is present in many. However, I have heard of some districts that set days aside and even pay for subs to come in so teachers can create lesson plans and assessments, collaborate and look at data. How nice would that be?
I know it is not likely for this to happen, especially with the budget right now. I will keep my fingers crossed that maybe some day in the future this could happen though.
The English department had a hard time setting up PLCs this year. There are so many teachers who teach English 10, and there were so many different "projects" we wanted to work on, we were not that successful.
ReplyDeleteI was a little stressed with just the hs PLC this year, I can't imagine how it was for you to have two different PLC groups to worry about.
I think in the school day it is so hard to change my focus from students, grading, and planning, to me and my professional development. I think this is part of the reason I have not blogged enough this year:) Kara had suggested to me early on to set an appointment in outlook for "blog/professional development time." I should have listened to her because the school days just fill up and fly by!!
Time set apart for PLCs would be wonderful to have.
I have struggled with the blogging too. It often crossed by mind, but just like you, I never set time aside for it. There was always something else that I had to get done before the next school day.
ReplyDeleteNow having been better about it the past couple of weeks, it has gotten easier to log in and see what everyone is saying. It is just a new habit that needs to be formed so it becomes second nature.
In the first district in which I worked, the administrators decided it was essential to make PLC's part of the work day because, as you said, it is so difficult to schedule it before or after school. (Lunch hour, technically, is your time for a short break and often we don't allow ourselves that time) At the ALC, every other week we had a late start. Administrators or other staff not in a PLC would supervise the commons area. They played movies in the background but it was a time students could use to study or catch up on work. It was a much smaller school than Shakopee but it was great to have that option.
ReplyDeleteWe did a lot of things outside of that time, of course, but knowing we would get a couple hours every two weeks was great.
The other district in which I worked had advisory every day. On Mondays, each PLC would meet and then every other monday we would take an advisory from another department. FACS and Math were partnered up so one week on Monday we met for 30 minutes and I had two advisories and then next week the FACS department would meet for 1 hour and the math department would take our advisories. It was really a nice, consistent system.
I think the time for this valuable activity needs to be validated and reinforced through administration by planning for an alternative schedule as teachers have little time between IEP meetings, staff meetings, prep, etc. for meeting outside of the day or even, during it.