Professional Learning Development Plan

EDU 687 Building a Learning-Centered Culture

Professional Learning Development Plan

Plan

School/Organization Vision

• Introduction
  • As we grow our school, we will become the needed and expected Military academy with links to the Air Force Academy. In this venture the Colorado Military Academy will be the STEM school connected with the 21st Century skills needed to prepare the students for tomorrow. Our educators and students will have a learning environment to help develop critical thinking and problem solving. The Professional Learning Community (PLC) will be needed to ensure the efforts of the team are focused and driven by the designed instruction and evaluated through the assessments show the students skills.

  leaders through intense STEM and 21stcentury skills. Preparing students to be leaders who are honorable, disciplined contributors to the community.

  • The Premier Military Academy dedicated to developing future

  Professional Development/Goal

  School/Organization Guiding Principles

  • Ensure teachers are able to integrate technology, incorporate mindfulness (Restorative justice), develop strong instructional practices within the 21st century skills and STEM framework.

  Implementation of Professional Learning Community Learning Communities

  • Connection with the community is essential to growing a strong relationship with all stakeholders
  • Collaboration between teachers to develop a culture of learning
  • Resolve conflicts in the best manner possible without causing more conflict
  • Support student critical thinking and problem solving
  • Always try to connect lessons to STEM
  • Let students see teachers are human through caring and listening
  • Teachers must display qualities of being disciplined and honorable to guide students to become leaders
  • 21st Century Skills are the foundation of all lessons and actions by the teachers

  Professional Learning Communities is essential to the development of the administration and educators. These PLC help teachers and administrators to set the guidelines and develop a plan for the upcoming year. PLC must strive to focus on the vision and mission statements and use the guiding principles to develop a plan that is sustainable throughout the year. This will help build capacity for the educators to help build the skills needed to give effective instruction.

  Leaders will advocate for teachers to build and design a model that is achievable and in line with state standards. While it is true that public school teachers enter the profession with a license from their states, many school systems recognize that new teachers need to further develop their teaching skills (Ash & D’Auria, 2013, p. 96).

  Leadership

  As we look at Leadership it is expected that the leaders are able to act on their core values, inspire confidence, build and inclusive network, build a positive school culture, demonstrate sincere inquiry, and support risk taking in the curriculum. Leaders must have the ability and intent to also develop new leaders. In order to build future leadership capacity, we recommend that school systems offer leadership courses and experiences as part of the district’s professional development program (Ash & D’Auria, 2013, p. 134).

  Resources

  The PLC will establish the route the school will take to ensure students are learning 21st century skills and STEM. This will require the right resources to help reach the goals. We must understand what type of resources we will need from technology and its support and manipulatives that teachers need to enhance their instruction. Being a STEM school and having a strong emphasis with the military it is essential to understand what resources are available through our partners in the Air Force to help design the students experience in the classroom.

  Data

  With the DATA from last year we can efficiently find what worked and what did not work. It must be clear that all DATA is linked to the state standards so that we can continue to align the curriculum with effective tools for the teachers and the students. this Data must be available for all teachers to effectively adjust their instruction throughout the year. During the PLC we must ensure we have multiple Data points from multiple sources. Data from multiple sources enrich decisions about professional learning that leads to increased results for every student. Multiple sources include both quantitative and qualitative data, such as common

  formative and summative assessments, performance assessments, observations, work samples, performance metrics, portfolios, and self-reports (“PLC,” N.d., expression Data).

  Learning Designs

  In the environment we are building in the school and the military connection the learning design must include critical thinking and problem solving linking the instruction to the 21st century skills and the desired military outcome through the leadership examples through teacher interaction with students. We will engage students to help them lead their learning and collaborate between each other. In addition, the teachers have the ability to adjust the lessons and how they teach in order to reach all children. Accommodations can be made to help the students become successful.

  Implementation

  As the PLC takes form, we will use different types of meetings to develop a complete plan conducive to everyone involved. As we establish the PLC we must think of some questions to guide us to where we want to go. We must decide what type of technology we want the students to use. We must find out how we want the students to learn. There must be a plan to assess the student’s knowledge. One of the most important questions is how all of this supports the vision of the school.

  PLC can be executed in many different ways we will be using the jig saw method and this will help us establish teams who work together and return to a central location to combine ideas thought and outcomes from their group sessions.

  Additionally, the PLC will develop a plan for professional learning for the educators in the school. The focus is on STEM and using technology to its fullest. Being a school, whose goal

  is to prepare students to be leaders and be technology smart we need to ensure our educators can also provide the right instruction to challenge the students.

  Getting started in the PLC the administration must set the stage for teachers to reflect on. Next we need to make our groups and invite teachers to group with other teachers with similar interests. Sharing will become essential in the success of our PLC and being able to honestly collaborate is one of the most important things we can do. Teachers need to feel they can share anything they think of without the thought of being ignored and understand everyone is important to the collective.

  After breaking into groups and discussing the needs and researching what should be adopted this year we will come back together and combine data into one item we can edit. The teachers voice will be heard and the ideas of student learning along with what is needed for our teachers will be addressed.

  Outcomes

  The desired outcome of the PLC is for all teachers to feel they have a voice and are part of a learning community whether they are a new teacher of a seasoned teacher. With the being involved in the PLC there will be a greater commitment to the goals of the school and the teachers will understand the vision. Teachers will also have a collective responsibility for the students learning outcomes and take a personal interest to student achievement. With teachers who are in a professional community of learning they can have an increased feeling of meaning and being a part of a great team. Teachers will be focused and challenging their students and be committed to make lasting effects on the students.

  As the PLC helps design essential instruction the students will begin to have more attendance in class since they will feel they are there learning relevant information. Students will

  continue to grow and understand their community of learners includes there teachers also and this collective approach will help develop their critical thinking skills and problem-solving skills. 21st Century Professional Development Standards

  NCLB Standards:

  • Everything in our school will follow the 21st Century Guiding’s we will teach students how to think critically, be creative, enjoy collaborating and have open channels of communication.
  • Teachers will facilitate these skills and also model what this looks like for the students in all they do.
  • When teachers and students grasp the concepts of 21st century learning it will become clear we are developing life and career skills, and learning and innovations skills, all while using the media, technology and information gathering skills.
  • Teachers will be able to have the learning environment that is conducive to professional development and with proper curriculum and instruction the assessments will show great results.

  State of Colorado Standards for 21st Century Community Learning Centers

  • As we work through the standards stated above the guide for all standards are aligned with the NCLB act in a way that every child will have an opportunity to show what they know in many different platforms and teachers will have the ability to set up accommodations and the SPED team is available to work with the students in every aspect of learning.

  Learning Systems Reflection

  • Provide opportunities for academic enrichment, including providing tutorial services to help students (particularly students in high-poverty areas and those who attend low-performing schools) meet state and local student performance standards in core academic subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics;(“CDE,” n.d.)
  • Offer students a broad array of additional services, programs, and activities, such as youth development activities, service learning, nutrition and health education, drug and violence prevention programs, counseling programs, arts, music, physical fitness and wellness programs, technology education programs, financial literacy programs, environmental literacy programs, mathematics, science, career and technical programs, internship or apprenticeship programs, and other ties to an in-demand industry sector or occupation for high school students that are designed to reinforce and complement the regular academic program of participating students; and(“CDE,” n.d.)
  • Offer families of students served by community learning centers opportunities for active and meaningful engagement in their children’s education, including opportunities for literacy and related educational development (“CDE,” n.d.).

  Detail of how four drivers of change will be addressed in your plan and how each will enhance teaching and learning 

  • Reflection of benefits of schools/organizations becoming a learning-system
  • Collaboration is key for teachers to know how important teamwork will be for the teachers and administration to succeed.

  Explanation of effect on culture when four drivers are in place

  • Trust: Teachers will begin to trust each other through dialoged and working together to solve the problems. This trust stats on day one of the PLC with clear guiding’s and expectations that bring teacher together to talk and get to know each other.
  • Collaboration: This is the key to all of the actions in the PLC and we will ensure new teachers and seasoned teacher collaborate to learn from each other and communicate effectively.
  • Capacity Building: To build capacity we are going to groom new teachers be ensuring they have a mentor during the PLC and after throughout the year. Continue to have professional learning sessions through the year.
  • Leaders at All Levels: As we go through our PLC and develop initiative to implement and learn how to ensure our instruction is in line with the vision, everyone is a leader and in doing so we build a team of teachers who aspire to communicate and lead in their way.

  As we learn and the four drivers take their shape in the school year, we see changes.

  These changes are essential to a culture of teamwork and the communication is fluid both up and down the chain. We see teachers continue to collaborate with each other. This in turn helps teacher adjust through the year to ensure we are giving the students the best foot forward we can.

  There will be a trust between teacher and the administration, and everyone would be working towards the vision of the school. Finally, there would be a since of pride within the

  school that can be felt everywhere. This pride and the four drivers of change will in turn build a culture that is conducive to learning. This is when teacher, administrator, and student will thrive in their ability to teach and learn.

  References

  A Guide to the Colorado Academic Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cde.state.co.us/standardsandinstruction/rwcguide3

  Ash, P. B., & D’Auria, J. (2013). School Systems THAT LEARN. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781452271972/cfi/6/10!/4/2/6@0:0

  Cox, J. (n.d.). A Teacher’s Professional Development Goals. Retrieved from https://www.teachhub.com/teacher-professional-development-goals

  Hord, S. M., Roussin, J. L., & Sommers, W. A. (2010). Guiding PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781452237015/cfi/6/10[;vnd.vst.idref=cop]!

  Learning Communities. (N.d.). Retrieved from https://learningforward.org/standards/data#.UzspnfldXIu