Proposition 5- Teachers are members of learning communities.
Collaborates with others, seeks partnerships, evaluates progress, engaging and collaborating with parents.
Rationale- I have included three artifacts, two papers I wrote while taking my first class with the University of New England. At the time of the class not only had our school recently gone through a change of administration but I just learned the term PLC's. Professional Learning Communities. I am embarrassed to admit until this time I had never heard the phrase or truly understood the importance of it. I came to quickly realize that not only as I was learning about professional learning communities in my class but our new administrator was in the process of shifting the way our school worked and directing us in the direction of becoming a true PLC where every teacher in our building works as a team and leads from where they stand. The following documents outline my thinking at the beginning of this process. The third artifact included is a power point presentation I made this past winter. Part of the assignment was to share it with two coworkers and receive their feedback. The presentation outlines how in our school, led by our administrator we were to come together as a professional learning community and implement a school wide balanced literacy structure.
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Reflection- Reading these articles again has made me realize in such a short amount of time how much change can occur within a building. The two articles were written when our school was just beginning the shift to becoming a Professional Learning Community. What resonates with me is in Growing Teacher Leaders I discuss the importance a buildings "vibe" has on the overall culture of the environment. In the past year we have had many visitors throughout our tiny school and close to everyone who walks in the door comments on the feeling you get when you walk into the building. Not one person is responsible for that, rather it is the team of people that make up the professional learning community within the confines of those walls that give the building the "vibe" it has. I am still of the philosophy that everyone has unique strengths to offer and when everyone puts forth their best effort and work collaboratively great things can be done. The PLC I have the pleasure of working in recognizes peoples strengths, are not afraid to show their weaknesses and value others assistance, guidance, and professionalism.