Attribute 1.3
Collaborative Professional Learning Communities
Model: Weekly, STEM teachers share or co-create STEM activities or ideas and plan learning outcomes through professional learning community meetings and common planning time.
Teachers collaborate weekly to plan meaningful curriculum aligned lesson plans. Each grade level has 40 minutes of common planning each day. In our county, we follow the Henderson County Public School's pacing guide, using it as a primary resource. Keeping in alignment with our PBIS curriculum and providing appropriate challenges to the students, we plan with the end goal in mind. Teachers use multiple resources to assist in planning and we have a STEM specialist to provide assistance when needed. Our Math and STEM specialist models lessons and posts plans for teachers to access in our Google Drive.
Every month we have a school wide STEM meeting to share ideas in which teachers are encouraged to expand their understanding of industry standards and directly experience and test challenges and tasks we are considering for use in the classroom. Teachers are challenged through collaborative work while participating in the engineering process. This helps teachers to anticipate challenges and better prepare for using the engineering process in their classrooms.
Below is the master calendar. You will see common planning times highlighted in yellow. Each grade level receives 40 minutes to plan instruction, develop PBLs, and create new STEM activities in the classroom.
Planning teams for each grade level are listed below. We are able to integrate our science and social studies standards into our reading and math lessons. This also allows us to maintain a strong focus on STEM instruction while also planning our other subject areas.
Our teachers at Hendersonville Elementary use the technology available to create and share lesson plans. The picture above shows a lesson that was created on Google Docs. It is a place that teachers create and share their lessons and videos with those on their teams. Lessons are also shared to help with vertical planning throughout the school.
Below is a video clip of our 1st grade teachers meeting and discussing for their weekly grade level planning. During one 30 minute planning block, they strengthen and add to their previous plans.
Above are pictures of teachers collaborating during PLCs and staff meetings as well as co-teaching in the classroom with the STEM Specialist.