Professional Learning Communities - a Process

Just yesterday during our in-service, we had our eighth PLC meetings of this first semester .  All of the team members had been given an eight-question survey about the first semester of this PLC process.  They were to bring it to their meetings for a discussion with their team, and then the leaders were supposed to bring them to our leader meeting at 3:10.  Since this group of thirteen leaders and three administrators had not met in a couple of months, we admins thought it would be good to get together again to discuss the first semester.  We had a very interesting discussion, to say the least.  Some teams are off and running, digging into data, being very cohesive, and are ready to write smart goals.  Then there are some teams that almost feel like the process is just now moving along but are not ready for smart goals because they are not sure of their team's focus, let alone goals.  Some secondary teams discussed how it is not always easy when your team is made up of not only different curricular areas, but also different grade levels.  Also, PLCs are intended for teams to collaborate about data.  Some teams have not gotten to a point to be able to do that yet, and they admit their meetings have been more like Building Assistance Team meetings.

So, what's the answer - or is there an answer?  It is important for all of us to keep coming back to the fact that this is a process, and a work in action.  We have thirteen different teams.  It is unreasonable to think all the teams should be the same or even on the same page.  Some teams will need more time to build a trust and cohesiveness, and that's all right.  Some teams may not have to right mix, and team members may ultimately have to be switched, and that is all right, too.  The important thing to remember is that collaboration can be a very valuable tool for any staff or team, but it takes time; it is a process. 

Staff Websites

Did you realize many staff members in our district have their own websites or blogs like I have?  It is very easy to find them if you log onto our West Marshall website www.w-marshall.k12.ia.us and click on the Contact Us link.  There you will find a listing of all the district staff members starting with the high school.  To the right of many of the names is website listed.  All you have to do is click on that link, and you will be instantly taken to that person's website.  It is really pretty amazing how many of us have our own site.  I know there are way more this year than last, me included.  I took some time this Wednesday morning while drinking some coffee on the day before Thanksgiving, our day off, to peruse some staff members' websites.  Good Stuff!  So, take some time to look through some of these, especially if you have a day off and some good coffee and holiday music playing in the background.

Happy Thanksgiving to You and Yours!
Jeff Barry

Staff In-Service, November 16, '011

Our in-service yesterday was split into two parts for many of the staff members here at West Marshall.  The 6 - 9 teachers met in the middle school lab for a MAP presentation by Dixie Forcht, the K-12 librarian and curriculum director at East Marshall.  Dixie first did a spot check on what staff members already knew about MAP testing and the NWEA website; then she answered questions staff may have.  After that, everyone logged into the MAP website and were shown what links help teachers find the data and then how to look at that data to use it to help students.

While the 6-9 staff were meeting, the elementary staff had their PLC meetings, and the other high school teachers had a meeting with Mr. Henrich.  Then, at 2:45, the 2 - 5 staff had their hour and  fifteen minute session with Dixie while the other staff members had their PLC meetings.  Hopefully, this was a productive afternoon.

Our next 1:00 in-service will be on December 7.  The tentative plans for that afternoon will be to have like-subject teachers of math, reading, and science collaborate on the NWEA website and the MAP data.  We will also have PLC meetings, and we may have teachers take some time to research educational websites.

Until next time, this is Jeff Barry signing off.

Newsletter Piece

 

“HowNice It Is!”

Jeff Barry, Middle School Principal

I wonder about our students, especially our eighth graders. Do they appreciate the honor of being the first eighth grade class to attend our new middle school? They may not now, but I would hope they will one day. I'll bet the ninth graders would like to say they were here first. I still feel bad they missed the new school by one year. Many of them have been over to see it, though, and quite a few come over here to their art class. I wonder about the staff; do they truly appreciate where they are now working? Yes, I think they do. And then there is the office staff – my administrative assistant, Lorrie Riese, our counselor, Patti Edler, and me, the first principal here at WMMS. We all three have to pinch ourselves sometimes, realizing where we used to work for many years and where we work now. We are blessed.

One very good question has been posed by several people, asking if I can tell a difference in the students' behavior and/or school work. My answer: “Kids will be kids, and for some reason, kids will be ornery – not that I ever was!” I have also answered that our students respected the old middle school and are expected to do the same in the new, and they do. As far as school work, they are expected to do their best, and our staff expects our students to work hard and learn. That is happening. We just completed our fall Measurements of Academic Progress tests, and I am proud to say our 200 sixth-eighth graders did well with nearly 90 % meeting the goals for reading and math or showing a year's growth from last fall's tests. Also, we had only four students fail a first quarter core class, the lowest number on record! Soon, we will be preparing our students for the state test for which we are most scrutinized, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. We will expect our students to do just as well as they did last year – and hopefully even a little better.

I have been honored and humbled to be the first principal of such an awesome new building in such a progressive school district. Over the past few months, it has been fun and rewarding to give many tours. Talk about feeling proud! If you have not been in to see our school, or you have kids and/or grandkids who have moved away and and are back and want to see it, just give me a call at 483-2165, and we will set something up. This is “our” school, and we should all be proud.

NICL In-Service

This past Friday, October 14, an all-day, all-conference in-service was held.  This was our district's second year to be involved in this endeavor.  All of our PK - 8 certified staff went to Grundy Center, and all of the 9 - 12 certified staff went to Waterloo.  The PrK - 8 staff were fortunate to have Jason Glass, the Director of Education in Iowa, speak about the new educational Blueprint that recently became public.  It was good to hear from the "Top Dog" and have him answer some questions from the crowd.

After Mr. Glass's address, the large group of 600 educators was organized into many smaller groups to be presented material on Characteristics of Effective Instruction for the Iowa Core curriculum.  This session lasted for about an hour and a half before lunch.

After lunch, the same small groups met to discuss classroom management - rules and procedures.  Then, after that hour or so session, various technology sessions were held.

My opinion of this day, you might ask?  Well, it was good to get out of our district for a day and hear our state's educational leader, as well as collaborate with educators from other schools in our conference.  This day was not too long and tedious, either, with he first session starting at 9:00 and the last being over at 2:30.  One thing I would change for next year would be to not have such a large group of educators meet in one location.  That is quite an event to plan, and although the Grundy Center superintendent, Cass Murra, and her staff did a super job hosting, I feel it would be a more productive day if just a few districts got together.  That way, more time could be given for more collaboration on topics such as our often used acronyms, PLCs, IPIs, and DLTs.  It would also be good for like subject areas and levels to collaborate on curriculum and teaching practices and special projects and activities.  I know I would have appreciated time with other curriculum directors and/or principals, too.

Now that the dust has settled from this big day, we administrators from the many conference schools will get some feedback from our teachers, and the in-service evaluations will be tabulated.  Hopefully, positive changes will be made for next fall.

Yearly Assessments Given at West Marshall Schools

TEST   *   TESTING PERIOD   *   GRADES   *   DATA

MAP    *  Fall & Spring  *  2nd-9th   *  Teachers use data to determine academic grouping, student growth, & skills taught; test aligns with WM curriculum

ITBS/ITED  *  Winter  *  3rd-11th  *  Data used for reporting purposes

DIBELS  *  Fall, Winter, & Spring *   K-5th  *  Reading test to determine fluency

COMPASS  *  Spring  *  10th  *   Test given to anyone entering community colleges; use data for scheduling classes & identifying areas of strength/interest

ACT  *  Given throughout the year  *  11th  *  Predictor of 4-year college success; approximately 30-40 WM students take the ACT each year.

In-service on September 27

Tomorrow, the West Marshall School District will be having its second in-service since school has started.  There will be technology discussions with Randy Baker, our technology coordinator.  There will also be time for PLC teams to meet.  Now that we are past our midterm point of the first quarter, data can be contemplated.  The MAP tests will be starting this week for Grades 2 - 9, so discussions will center around that preparation and data collection, too. 

I am also going to have my first Curricular Team meeting.  This committee consists of Natalie Burroughs, Tara Pfantz, Aaron Burdorf, Peggy Hotopp, Denise Coberly, Troy Clark, Dana Craven, Matt Jacobs, and Me.  This team has been developed to take a close look at the status of our current curriculum and how it compares to the Common Core curriculum.  There is a cross-section of curricular experts who will not only inspect their own subject area but also others that are taught in our district.  The hope is for this team to meet a minimum of once a month and then share out to PLC groups in between our meetings.

September 13 In-Service

This Tuesday was a 1:00 out here at West Marshall.  Our entire staff of 72 teachers met in the h.s. library at 1:15.  Our first presenter was Lara Steward, who is a health specialist.  Lara showed a video with some interesting, and kind of scary, facts about the health of our general population today.  She also shared a hand-out that showed how much sugar is in certain daily foods most of us eat.  There is no doubt the average "Joe" and "Jill" are not as healthy as they should be, mainly because of eating the wrong foods or too much food, as well as not getting enough exercise.  I hope Lara's 45 minute presentation opened some eyes and prompts some of us, me included, to live healthier lives.

After Lara' presentation, we had our PLC team leaders discuss how the PLC process is going thus far and discussed several more slides from our original power-point.  As some folks pointed out, we at West Marshall are in the infancy stages of this process.  We have really just begun, and now as we near our midterm point of our first quarter, there is data to interpret with goals to be made.  After this whole group meeting, the teams had an opportunity to meet.  PLCs are all about collaboration, and as teachers become more and more busy, it is difficult to find time to meet.  That is exactly why we administrators have provided more in-service days, so time is allotted for PLC teams to meet at least twice a week.

Measurements of Academic Progress (MAP):  This test is the second assessment we do that is reported to the state, and students are tested in the fall and spring.  The other state assessment we do, of course, is the ITBS.  For the MAP test, our 2-9 students are tested in mathematics and reading, and our ninth graders take the science test, too.  The testing window is September 26 to October 15.  This online testing is not timed, and the beauty of it is, students know immediately how they did on the tests.  Speaking for all of our staff and principals, I hope our students do well. 

District Leadership Team

Our West Marshall DLT Members:  Mr. Sellers, Mr. Henrich, Myself, Mrs. deNeui, Mr. Weig, Mrs. Dee, Mrs. Edler, Mrs. Keigan, Ms. Schleihs, Mrs. Barber, Mr. Voss, Miss Ubben, and Heather Gould, an AEA representative.  This committee is mandated by the State Department and is required to meet monthly.  The purpose of this committee, with representation from all four buildings, is to oversee K-12 curriculum and assessments, in-service plans, the Professional Learning process, and to provide input and feedback from other staff members.  At our first meeting on Wednesday, September 7, we discussed PLC teams, MAP testing, upcoming trainings, and the plans for our September 13 in-service.  Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, October 14.

New Middle School

Thanks to Jamie and Aaron Burdorf and the pictures they took of our beautiful school, I have added them to this blog.  They are at the bottom, so scroll down and check them out.  We are so very fortunate to be in this new school - especially on the 90 degree days.  Sorry, high schoolers!

The PLC Process

    Starting Professional Learning Communities this school year will be a process, not an initiative.  Each team will be its own team and will develop its own identity over time. 
    Our team leaders met this morning to discuss how the PLC meetings went on Aug. 25.  Most leaders gave positive reports but not all.  I really do not think it is realistic for all teams to be up and running smoothly yet.  The teams have only met twice, and although the members may know each other, they may not know each other that well yet.  Teams will need time to develop a trust factor with each other in order to feel comfortable and to be able to truly collaborate.  That is really what PLCs are all about; it is a process of collaboration.

The Team Leaders:
Abby Ubben               Natalie Burroughs                Brian Weig
Mindy Jensen              Tammy Keigan                    Julie Gray
Lora Aikin                   Stephen Adams                   Paul deNeui
Rebecca DeWild          Jamie Dee                           Mike Fisher
Melia Thompson

The WM Curriculum Blog Begins!

Hi, I am Jeff Barry, not only the middle school principal at West Marshall, but also the curriculum director, as well.  In all reality, we three principals, and Mr. Sellers, our superintendent, all work together collaboratively on curriculum.  I will just have the new title, taking over for Chris deNeui.  She will be a tough act to follow, but I will do my best.

There are many reasons why this is going to be a very exciting year in education at West Marshall.  For one thing, we have a brand new middle school housing our sixth through eighth graders.  I have the honor of being the first principal in this building.  Another great thing is the old middle school has been renovated and now has fourth graders on the first floor and fifth graders on the second.  The third floor, after being cleaned up, will be used for storage for now, and hopefully one day we will need that floor for students.

One other exciting change for this school year will be the beginning of our Professional Learning Communities.  Twelve of us were fortunate to attend a three-day conference in St. Charles, MO, this past June.  This conference was informative and thought-provoking and really fired us up to begin this process this fall.  As one of the speakers stated, "This educational acronym, PLC, should be called Common Sense because it only makes sense to allow more time for teacher collaboration."  Teachers can never have too much time for collaboration to devise and create and brainstorm ways to help students learn more effectively.

Yes, folks, this is my first blog on the WM Curriculum Blog.  I have never done a blog before, so I admit I feel a little nervous, excited, and anxious to see how it goes.  I have already asked for much help from Aaron Burdorf and Erryn O'Conner and will bug them much more, I am sure.  My hope is this curriculum blog will be a living, breathing document with lots of good stuff about curriculum and collaboration and just plain great educational stuff!  Please read along, make comments when you can, and just come along for the ride.