Plc's Essay

Schools strive for student learning, student growth and high performing students. A common theme generating improvement in these three areas has been the development, implementation and productive use of professional learning communities, also known as PLC’s. Student learning is the focus of all schools. An important factor contributing to improved student learning is teaching quality. Teaching quality is improved through continuous professional learning. A supportive process of the learning of professionals is the use professional learning communities. (Hord, 2009, p. 40). A professional learning community “is an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve

When teachers feel isolated, or actually are isolated, they have to deal with stressors and difficulties alone. Sometimes that leads teachers to get stuck in their ways and perhaps even burn out. Students suffer and their success is halted when teachers are burnt out and alone. The use of professional learning communities has provided an opportunity for teachers to collaborate. Working as a team will increase the likelihood that the learning going on during the collaboration will transfer to practice. New ideas will be shared which will strengthen the collaboration and teacher will continue to grow, learn and develop more effective teaching strategies thus improving student learning and success (Pacchiano et al., 2016, p. 9). PLC’s are made up of collaborative teams that have common goals directly linked to learning for all. These teams are what drive the effort and success of the organization and are critical in the improvement process. “In a PLC, collaboration represents a systematic process in which teachers work together interdependently in order to impact their classroom practice in ways that will lead to better results for their students, for their team, and for their school” (DuFour et al., 2010, p. 13-14). Teachers have a great deal of knowledge and experience. When that is shared with their peers great things happen, students succeed and schoolwide improvement takes place.