MAKING TIME FOR IMPORTANT WORK
As we continue to grow within our Professional Learning Community (PLC) culture that we have developed at Denver Community School District, I am continually impressed by the conversations that I am having on a regular basis with grade level teams at the elementary level in terms of what our professionals are collaborating about. In our district, we reach to find the answers to the following three questions, each time we meet within our PLC: What do we want our students to learn? How do we know if they are learning? And finally, what are we doing if they are or are not learning? These three questions were derived from the work of DuFour and Eaker and many others, although to my knowledge Ralph Taylor introduced these questions in similar context as early as 1949.
Primarily, in my experience, a system that does not support this collaborative nature in terms of time allocation on a regular and consistent (weekly) basis will not reap the benefits of rich, meaningful, and focused conversations based on student achievement. In previous years, we offered sporadic, monthly, and even bi-monthly PLC meeting times, which at the foundational level, was valuable, although it wasn’t until this academic year, in which we MADE time within our schedule, in order to provide for WEEKLY collaboration of our PLC teams that we really are starting to see the true benefits. Ultimately, the focus of this time must always be around making data driven decisions, while also always focusing on our three driving questions.
This culture, over time, was made possible only because we had professionals on board that saw the importance of this quality time for themselves, their students, and their fellow colleagues. For example, our teacher-librarian has gone out of her way this school year to help mold this common time for our teachers. Next year however, we have created a schedule which steps away from tradition and towards innovation, as we modify our related arts schedule in order to create time for continued collaboration. We will also embed time for intervention and enrichment for our students, which will allow for the decisions that we make during our collaborative time to come to fruition with the help of other staff outside of the typical general education grade level team. This again, only happens if the system allows, which comes down to careful and methodical scheduling. For more information, I would encourage you to read the following article: http://www.allthingsplc.info/pdf/articles/make_time_for_collaboration.pdf
Our professionals have always put students first, though they are now at a point in which they understand the importance of consistency across a grade level, collaboration, and data-driven decision-making. For example, our second grade team has been looking at data and making decisions about what effective strategies could be used to raise reading fluency across the grade level. Our kindergarten team, is collaborating about Changing their literacy Checkups (formative assessments) including the rate and timing of introducing the vowel sounds, specifically the short vowel sounds, in order to better meet their students’ needs. They also discussed the explicit nature of the mini-lessons in which they will be teaching across the grade level. Our fourth grade team just discussed the importance of “Intervention and Enrichment” time, and the value in having agreed upon essential outcomes in order to provide a “safety net” for our students.
The bottom line is that these rich, meaningful, student-centered conversations most often, do not happen when passing in the hallway, during a fifteen minute conversation prior to school, in an email, or even during a 25 minute common planning time. These conversations happen within a SYSTEM that allows for a minimum of one hour, in my opinion, of weekly collaborative time. I am so proud of our staff, and the commitment that they have made in making the most of a system that has provided an opportunity for consistency, collaboration, innovation, and data-driven decision-making.
Kim Tierney
Denver Elementary Principal
