A Professional learning community or PLC is a According to “a professional learning community is an inclusive group of people, motivated by a shared learning vision, who support and work with each other, finding ways, inside and outside their immediate community, to enquire on their practice and together learn new and better approaches that will enhance all pupils’ learning.” (Antinluoma, 2018)
Over my years as a teacher I have experienced two different PLC experiences. Colorado was one of my favorite learning community experiences. “The academy model at Castle View High School is designed to support the three R’s: Relationships, Relevance and Rigor. Each of the four academies — Biotechnology and Health Sciences; Leadership, Global Studies and Communication; Science, Technology, Engineering and Math; Visual and Performing Arts; are designed to provide smaller learning communities where students can develop significant relationships with teachers assigned to that academy. In essence, our academy model reduces a typical high school of 2200 students into one of roughly 400 to 450 students, “A place where everyone knows your name.”(The Academies Explained, 2021)” I was a part of the Visual and Performing arts academy, which was taught by a close unit of teachers who had shared office space within the center of the learning pod. All the students’ classes were within this pod. It created such an incredible “ school Culture” for learning. “School culture describes the character of the school and functions of the organization, and it consists of the norms, values and social interaction in the organization. Culture builds a sense of cohesion within schools and provides a sense of identity; it promotes achievement orientation, helps shape standards and patterns of behaviour, creates distinct ways of doing things, and determines direction for future growth (Antinluoma, 2018)” The teachers within each Academy would meet weekly and discuss cross curricular activities, students success/failures and how we could improve their learnings. It was simply incredible how it created such a powerful collaborative environment with every child’s best interest at the center of everything we did. “Positive school culture is conducive to professional satisfaction, effectiveness, morale, and creates an environment that maximizes student learning and fosters collegiality and collaboration (Antinluoma, 2018).” On top of the teacher learning communities the academy based model created a community of students within the building that had like interests. It allowed the teachers to teach content aligned with those interested and it created such an emended amount of rigor, relevance and relationships in the classroom. There was consistent progress and growth every week for both the students and the teachers.
My environment in NJ is not as diverse or exciting. Throughout the year the four art teachers meet during Professional development days throughout the year during Professional development days. Most times we discuss community events and or arts shows, new courses we would like to offer and or creating stronger pathways within our art program. The biggest struggle to make our PLC successful is time and common goals. “Positive school culture is conducive to professional satisfaction, effectiveness, morale, and creates an environment that maximizes student learning and fosters collegiality and collaboration (Antinluoma, 2018).” our struggles with our PLC and that outside the PD days, we do not as a group have a common prep like the other departments so we can not consistently collaborate to make progress, We do not all teach the same course, some teach photography, others graphics design, others fine art and the fourth ceramics and arts and crafts. So although we all teach art there is not much collaboration for projects , course content discussions and even student discussions. This creates a struggle within me, I think the fact that I have seen it done differently and better is what causes my frustration in NJ. I would like to find a way to make this a more productive and collaborative experience. A way we can help students and make a difference more often in the classroom.
Resources:
Antinluoma, M., Ilomäki, L., Lahti-Nuuttila, P., & Toom, A. (2018). Schools as professional learning communities. Journal of Education and Learning, 7(5), 76–91. https://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v7n5p76
The Academies Explained. (2021) https://dcsdcvhs.ss14.sharpschool.com/cms/One.aspx?portalId=11439592&pageId=11809967