Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)

• Do you or have you worked in a school that implements PLCs?  If so, how are/were they structured? 

My whole school system currently implements PLCs at every school, although it is left up to the administrator at each school to carry out in a way that fits their school. At the high school I am based at, PLCs are scheduled every two weeks during the teachers 90 min planning block. These PLCs have a focused topic and administrators attend every one. After the PLC, teachers are given "assignments" to work on before the next PLC.

• How have PLCs been beneficial to you?  What are/were the drawbacks? 

Since I am in a different position, I do not attend PLC meetings. In the past, as an administrator of an elementary school, PLCs were beneficial in that we were able to look at data as a grade level and target students who needed to fill some learning gaps in order to be successful with grade level content and group students for enrichment purposes. Some of the drawbacks from teachers was having to "give up" planning time in order to meet.

• Please share any strategies or advice that you have for successfully implementing PLCs.  If you have not worked in or with PLCs before, what questions do you have?

One piece of advice I have is to make sure your PLCs are purposeful or they will turn into a complaining gripe session for teachers. That is not productive and it doesn't get us any closer to having students be successful in their classes.