Florin High School Professional Learning Communities

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Florin High SchoolProfessional Learning
Communities

• Rationale
• Flexibility
• Effectiveness
• Sustainability

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FHS Core ValuesInspiring and Educating Our
Diverse Community to Achieve Excellence

• PROFESSIONALISM
• Florin High School Staff Values
• Professional behaviors and qualities we instill
  in our students.
• Autonomy and innovation while encouraging and
  supporting collaboration.
• STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
• Florin High School Staff Values
• High expectations for academic achievement and
  personal growth.
• Meeting individual student needs and offering
  varied paths for student success.
• FLORIN HIGH COMMUNITY
• Florin High School Staff Values
• Parents, community members and local businesses
  as partners in the education of their children.
• A safe and inviting campus.
• INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE
• Florin High School Staff Values
• Critical thinking and problem solving as the
  focus of instruction.
• The use of engaging instructional practices.

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A focus on the essential teaching and learning
questions

• What are we supposed to teach?
• How do we prioritize, sequence and deliver our
  instruction?
• How do we know theyre learning?
• What do we do when theyre not learning?

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Key Characteristics of Professional Learning
Communities

• A focus on student learning
• A collaborative culture
• Collective inquiry into research-based best
  practice
• Action orientation professional learning by
  doing
• All members mutually accountable for targeted
  results

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Why Professional Learning Communities?

• Abundant research indicates they work
• Collective intelligence is more powerful than any
  individual
• Do we believe in this?
• We have addressed this question and reached a
  strong affirmative consensus.

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SUSTAINABILITY

• How can we work to create learning communities
  that support enduring change that results in
• Improved teaching and services to all students?
• Improved student achievement for all students?

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ENSURING FLEXIBILITY

• Having the freedom to pursue important tasks for
  a long period of time (staying the course)
• Being nimble enough to confront new challenges,
  to take on new members with alacrity
• Expanding focus when the need arises

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ENSURING FLEXIBILITY

• How do we balance
• Depth and Breadth?
• Stability and Change?
• Diversity and Focus?
• Networking and Integration?
• These are often times opposing forces.

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PLC EFFECTIVENESS

• Not all PLCs are equally effective
• We need to ensure there is clarity, precision,
  rigor, discipline and clear purpose to the work
  of PLCs so that it successfully raises both staff
  and students higher levels of performance.

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Professional Learning Community
Core Values
How do we prioritize and order our instruction?
What are we supposed to teach?
How do we know theyre learning?
What do we do when theyre not learning?

• Training in district standards and expectations
  for learning
• Strategies for enhancing awareness of the
  standards
• Examining research-based practices

• Examining of student work (protocols)
• Determining exemplars of proficiency
• Guiding the development of common formative and
  summative assessments, and rubrics

• Developing essential questions
• Grade-level and course specific collaboration
• Curriculum planning and mapping

• Pyramid of Interventions
• Student study team process
• Academic literacy
• Data analysis of intervention programs

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Florin High School Commitment to Continuous
Improvement
Elements of a PLC
Site Support Contibutions
Site PLCs
Leadership Professional development Courageous
conversations Meeting facilitation Project
management Action research Data analysis Team
building inc norms and agreements

• Departments
• Grade-level or Course-pecific Teams
• Academies
• Action teams
• Professional Development PLCs

• A focus on student learning
• A collaborative culture
• All members mutually accountable for targeted
  results
• Collective Inquiry into research-based practices
• Action orientation