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Recent Posts
- Will the PLC and Teacher Evaluations Eventually Collide?
- Accountability isn’t a bad word
- Hungry for a JOURNALISM Professional Learning Community?
- It’s time: Moving on to your next SMART goal
- Collaboration – what a concept!
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- Jim Streisel on Accountability isn’t a bad word
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How does this ‘digital’ PLC work?
For PLCs to work effectively, you need to have teachers who teach the exact same subject using the exact same assessment tools. That way, the data you collect is credible and authentic. PLC data collection doesn’t work if, say, a journalism teacher pairs up with an English or industrial technology teacher; your curricula are simply not the same and, therefore, any data you collect cannot be compared accurately.
NJPLC pilot team members Jim Streisel (right) and Susan Benedict (left) work together to write a section of the manual for forming PLC teams. The pilot team met face-to-face in May 2009 to develop a protocol manual to help new groups form. JILL CHITTUM / PHOTO
Crossing time zones
What the NJPLC provides is a way for journalism teachers who teach the same course(s)—for example, an introductory newspaper or photojournalism course—to match up with other teachers who teach the same course. Maybe it’s someone who teaches in your district or state. Or maybe it’s someone from across the country. It doesn’t matter where you live. What matters is that you teach the same subject with the same types of kids.
How do you communicate?
One key component to the PLC model is regular communication with other members of your PLC. In these PLC meetings, you can compare data, discuss teaching strategies and formulate changes to your teaching methodology. Of course, in your own school, those meetings happen face-to-face on a regular basis. (For more on communication, here’s a link to a post by founding NJPLC member Susan Benedict.)
NJPLCs work with the same idea of regular communication in mind; however, that communication looks a little different. Rather than face-to-face meetings, many NJPLC groups have begun to use current technology to stage “virtual” meetings. Whether discussions happen via Skype, Google Groups, Facebook or a wiki, there are a plethora of tools at your disposal to facilitate this communication. Here’s a link to several different digital communication options.