Happy Thanksgiving Crawford County!!!!
Professional Learning Communities (PLC) are the new normal in education. What is a PLC? Well, the website, www.allthingsplc.info, defines PLCs as:
An ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. Professional learning communities operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous job-embedded learning for educators.
I personally feel a more simple definition is: When a group within a school meets to analyse data to create an environment of success for students.
I saw this picture and it made me think of a school in need of a true PLC culture. Student Success is everyone’s purpose.
Student success has got to be the reason for a school, period! Not success in a particular class or a certain grade level, and definitely not only success at one school. A student in Crawford County Schools has got to be able to leave Crawford County Schools with the ability to choose whatever career he or she wants. I realize that is a pretty strong statement. I also realize not everyone may agree with this idea, or at least they may not be able to put the time and effort into ensuring this outcome. Being a part of one or more PLCs will help other teachers and staff members begin to look at students as a whole, not just as someone who is filling a seat in their classroom. PLCs have to be a time where honest conversation can take place, where teachers can hold each other accountable without beating each other up. To become a System of Excellence, we have to be able to have honest conversations and get to true root causes. We have to stop doing things simply because that is the way things have always been done. There has to be research to back our decisions.
The great thing that is happening in Crawford County is that the conversations are starting to happen. I can see the change beginning and that excites me. There is frustration across the spectrum. Some people want the change to happen as quick as a snap, while some don’t want it at all. The challenge now is ownership. Ownership in the processes for the finger snappers and ownership in the outcome for the non changers. It will come, because we have Excellent Teachers and Excellent Administrators that will ensure the student success is the target.
When I was asked a few days ago what I was thankful for, I immediately said, “for being the Superintendent in Crawford County.” Thank you for allowing me to work in the town, in this county, in this Excellent School.
If you have a twitter account please follow #cc1eagle to see what we have going on.
Excellent Teachers - Excellent Leaders - Excellent Schools
