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SERVE > Topic Areas > Educator Quality > Professional Learning Communities > Guide to PLT

 
 

Professional Learning Communities

A Facilitator's Guide to Professional Learning Teams: Creating On-the-Job Opportunities for Teachers to Continually Learn and Grow

This guidebook provides a set of tools for implementing Professional Learning Teams with an entire faculty or part of a faculty. The book is organized in ten short chapters, or steps. Each step features a variety of tools to use while establishing, maintaining, and evaluating a specific part of the learning team process.

 
 
 
 
 
PART 1: PREPARING TO DO THE WORK
  • Building a Foundation for Professional Learning
    • Provides a research-based rationale for Professional Learning Teams and tools to assist with faculty motivation and buy-in
  • Previewing Professional Learning Teams – What They Are and Are Not
    • Introduces characteristics of professional learning teams and provides tools to assist in introducing the teaming process to faculties
  • Planning and Organizing for Professional Learning Teams
    • Looks at groundwork and logistics needed to establish successful learning teams and provides tools to assist with this
  •  Getting Teams Off to a Good Start

    • Previews initial activities teams engage in to set the stage for year-long productive meetings, and provides ideas and tools to help teams and facilitators accomplish this

PART 2: FACILITATING TEAM WORK AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Enabling Teams to Have Successful Meetings
    • Provides information and tools for conducting successful and productive team meetings, and for transferring teacher learning into classroom practice
  • Maintaining Team Momentum

    • Introduces tools and ideas for  effectively assisting and supporting  teams
  • Assessing Team Progress
    • Focuses on ways to determine if teams are making adequate progress ,and provides tools for examining progress
The following components are typically included in principal workshops, along with a combination of some components listed above.
  • Leadership to Support Professional Learning
  • Communicating With PLTs for Community-building, Support and Feedback

* Components may be omitted and others added, as needed. Workshops are individualized, interactive, and provide opportunities for participants to question, brainstorm, and apply ideas. 

Workshops use the following book, available through the National Staff Development Council, as a basic training tool for implementing and sustaining Professional Learning Teams.
A Facilitator's Guide to Professional Learning Teams: Creating On-the-Job Opportunities for Teachers to Continually Learn and Grow

For more information, contact Anne Jolly, Senior Program Specialist, 1-800-755-3277.