MAKING YOUR PLC WORK FOR YOU

RIVER RIDGE HS MATH DEPARTMENT

LACEY WASHINGTON

2014 NWMC

IN ONE WORD, DESCRIBE YOUR CURRENT PLC (PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY).

INTRODUCE YOURSELF TO THE PERSON SITTING NEXT TO YOU AND SHARE YOUR DESCRIPTION.

DO TEACHERS WORK IN ISOLATION FOR THEIR ENTIRE CAREER?

WHAT ABOUT OTHER PROFESSIONALS?• Surgeons• Doctors• Engineers• Lawyers• Scientists • Business Professionals

THE STRUCTURE OF OUR PLC• We meet every other week for 1 ½ hours during

an early release for students• We meet as an entire math department. If you

teach a math class at our school you are a part of OUR PLC only.• We use our Math SIP (school improvement plan)

to set our PLC agenda for the year.• We rotate our location so that our PLC is in every

teachers room at least once by the end of the year.

THEN CAME PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES AND THE DATA CYCLEFive years ago, we learned the “data cycle” below. This was the model for how to run a PLC.

At that point 31.4% of our 10th graders met standard on the graduation required state test.

And we chased our own tails for a couple of years.

WHAT WE DID/DO…• Common Unit Assessments in all Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra II classes

• NO time spent during PLCs to develop assessments

• Administration could easily access and analyze right off of Skyward (our grading program)

• Common grading practices

• When we talked about our students we could compare apples to apples

• Classroom locations

• Instead of being spread around the building we are right next door (NO PORTABLES!)

• LUNCH

• We talk about MATH, students, personal lives, everything/everyday

• Learning Walks

• We actually get into each other’s classrooms to see instruction

• Supplies?

• NO business talk during PLC time

THEN THERE WAS HOMEROOM… MOUNTAINS OF DATA AT OUR FINGERTIPS

This isn’t my student. These are OUR students!

DRASTIC SCHEDULE CHANGES AT SEMESTER

SO WHAT DO WE DO DURING PLC TIME?

• Share student work• Share teaching strategies• Discuss mathematical practices (such as problem solving)• Refine lessons• Discuss strategies for INDIVIDUAL students• Work through BIG ideas on how to improve math for our students• In short, we collaborate on how to be better teachers and give our

students the best chance to succeed

HOW DO WE “GET AWAY” WITH IT

• Our administration still wants to see data based decisions.• We use Homeroom to pick the students to focus on. Then

we use Skyward and our common assessments to track these student’s progress. • Progress in state test scores each year is our “proof”.

WHAT HAPPENED• State test scores started to rise. In 2013-2014 we had 70.9% of our

10th graders at standard!Teacher turn over in our department is almost unheard of (one teacher in five years).

We now report out that our PLC is:• Supportive• Productive• Invigorating

WHAT WE ARE DOING THIS YEAR

• Using Homeroom and State testing scores, we are narrowing our remediation effort down to individual students.

• We talk about HOW to teach not what to teach and/or assess.• We are thinking about big ideas. • Teachers rotate through classes each quarter or semester so

that students get to experience more than one teacher in a year and reiterate that these are OUR students

• Japanese lesson study• Development of our laboratory school

WE LOVE OUR DEPARTMENT. IT IS THE BEST MATH DEPARTMENT IN THE

COUNTRY!

JAMI GORE, NBCTJAY JAHNSEN, NBCT

GEORGE CHRISTOPH, NBCT