Heather Foster-Mann
The William A Butler School PS 133
375 Butler Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217
How do I help teachers to become more academically rigorous by building a Professional Learning Community to improve the teaching and learning at our school?
Process
· Establish an environment of trust. Through an informal survey and using information gathered from one-to-one conversation, I asked three questions: what are you most passionate about, what do you love about the school, what areas can I support you in? From those conversations, many echoed the same thought -it was a small school and many of the staff agreed they were a close knit community. However, I sensed that there was a lack of trust and teamwork among them. I had to take a few steps back and work on the building the culture. The school did not have a current CEP, so I began by involving everyone in the writing of the new CEP. The staff signed up in teams to write the aspect that they had the most interest in or wanted to see a change.
· Changing the learning environment. I began talking to the staff about make some room changes so that grade teams would be physically closer. I would also change grade assignments. I established a hiring team that selected new teachers and current teachers were a part of conversations hiring their new team teacher. I offered student enrichment clubs, using our budget and resources to infuse the arts into the curriculum and providing after-school care for families. This drew some much needed attention to our physical plant and we began the new school year, with a freshly painted building and the preparation schedule set so that grade teams could meet every day. Lower grades had common preps at the same time as did upper grades. Friday clubs were also established as a part of the schedule. This was a major feat. Each staff member selected a club they wanted to teach for the pure enjoyment of it to create “Club Fridays.” Individuals were encouraged to brainstorm how to bring programs into the school and I invited our local council member to graduation and again to visit and tour the building with me during the school year.
· Creating a system of communication. For each initiative I communicated to staff in a variety of ways- through the Principal’s Message, the Daily Buzz, various sign up sheets, and grade meetings. Every effort was made to involve the staff on all issues or concerns of the school community. To find out what they wanted to learn themselves we put out a professional development survey. This was also keeping me informed with what resources I needed to support the staff and implement the plans.
Obstacles
· Some people were moving at a slower pace than I expected. I felt as if I were giving a lot of autonomy to the staff but they were not responding in ways that I had imagined.
· Another obstacle came in the form of the UFT representative who sent out conflicting messages that were creating division between the staff. To assess if I was accomplishing my original goal and to keep the lines of communication open I bravely had the staff share by writing on chart paper, what was going well and what wasn’t and what were some things that needed to happen to change things. This opened up dialogue because they were able to write anonymously without fear of retribution or judgment. During that same session, I incorporated team building activities to chip away at the line that was dividing us. I also incorporated activities from my own study group to assist with community building and building a professional learning community. One that really seemed to help was defining the term team as “a group of people working interdependently to achieve a common goal for which members are held mutually accountable” (Richard DuFour, 2006).
Outcomes
· One of the things the entire school finally rallied around was preparing for our School Quality Review by deepening our assessments of what students know and how we as a staff check this learning. We had been working on our school goal of improving literacy.
· Second and 3rd grade teams were particularly working well in terms of the challenge both in forming a PLC and increasing the level of academic rigor. They met at intervals to discuss the growth and plan for their students. They also looked at the benchmarks needed at each grade level and planned backward to make sure that grade 2 students will be successful by the time they reach grade 3.
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HFM Cahn Challenge