Response to "Building Professional Learning Communities"

It seems that professional learning communities are a more effective means of staff development. Although I am not a teacher, many of the teachers I know don't necessarily apply the lessons learned in individual workshops to their classroom. I don't think that this demonstrates a lack of interest or initiative on the part of the teachers. Rather, I think it stems from a lack of support or understanding of how to apply what was learned specifically to their own classroom. PLC's seem to address this problem. I like the idea that the teachers collaborate and support one another. I also think it is helpful that the PLC's address specific needs of the children in that school. I was astounded that the number of teachers implementing new practices in their classroom jumped from 8% to over 90% when those teachers worked together in PLCs. I also think that part of being a teacher is a willingness to collaborate with others in order to problem solve. PLCs seem to support that very well. I also liked what Becky DuFour said about professional development - that "the best PD is job-embedded and social."
As far as implementation, many of the people involved in the chat had good questions about how to effectively introduce PLCs into a field where there are already high demands and major time constraints. I thought that the ideas offered up by the panel were all good ones. I know that the school district I frequently work in has a period of time one Thursday each month where an entire grade will have an extra recess, monitored by aides. During this time, all of the teachers from that grade will hold a meeting. I am not sure if this is a PLC, but that idea would certainly work as well. I also thought that the panelists had many helpful ideas with regard to troubleshooting and establishing and adhering to norms within the collaborative groups.
One thing I would like to learn more about is the difference between PLCs and joint planning of lessons. My impression is that information in PLCs tends to or needs to be more evidence based, but I am not entirely sure about this.