Module 3 Part 4-5 Hayhurst

How do PDSs/PLCs create opportunities for teachers to become leaders?  What examples of PLCs do you see in you school?  Have teacher leaders emerged?

PDSs/PLCs create opportunities for teachers to become leaders by giving them the chance to collaborate with colleagues, universities, and administration.  PDSs also allow teachers an opportunity to become a mentor to a teacher candidate.  Both of these opportunities involve opening lines of communication between teachers to talk about instruction, strategies, research, and what is best for their students and school.  Being a mentor to a teacher candidate is a great opportunity to guide a new teacher to become the kind of teacher that the schools want.  They have voice in the way their future teachers are trained.

I saw PLCs in my host school through the weekly grade team meetings.  Once a week all the teachers from one grade get together to collaborate; the specialist teachers come into the classroom teachers room and take over instruction for a while so that the teacher can attend the meeting.  At the meetings teachers talk about lesson topics for the next week and ideas for activities.  They would all coordinate projects for their students.  While I was there the students had an ecosystem project they all presented on one day, and later a significant person report they presented.  The entire grade would make the whole day about these projects, which turned out really nice; the students did a great job on them.  At the meetings the teachers also discussed the school's strategic plan and would come up with SMART goals for reading and math; the entire grade would establish a goal for each subject and then come up with a plan of action that each class would implement.

During these PLCs I did see leaders emerge.  There were always one or two teachers who would take charge; putting together the research or coming up with strategies and offering to show the other teachers how to use them.  We had one teacher who was very technology savvy.  She was always finding programs and apps that were very effective in the classroom, and she was always eager to help the other teachers learn how to use them.

What is one strategy you will use to assess the technology needs of your context?  How will you document needs?  What kind of data will you use?

I am starting a long term sub job, so I plan to use that school and grade level for the focus of my context.  My strategy is to survey the other third grade teachers about their thoughts on the technology of the school; what technology are they currently using, what technology they would like to have access to, how do they think that technology would improve student learning, how often would they would use it.  If I have the opportunity after I give the survey I would like to sit down with some of the teachers and discuss their responses in more detail.  I also want to talk to my students about their thoughts on the technology they use in the classroom; what are they using, do they find it interesting/beneficial, what technology would they like to use.