Pre-Assessment Reflection
Cleo Moore
Currently, my professional learning
takes place through a variety of avenues. The most meaningful, productive
professional learning that I partake in happens through the weekly PLC meetings
that I have the privilege of leading. I also receive professional learning and
development through district, or building level trainings or workshops. I also
have the opportunity to lead the in-time trainings for all of the teachers new
to the grade level, which allows me time to improve my practice, and
collaborate with teachers to manage, and improve curricular activities. All of these opportunities my district has provided
are invaluable, but certainly there are improvement that could make this work
even more meaningful and productive, and to reflect social justice ideals.
Currently our school is organized
in a way that greatly supports, and structures quality and effective
grade-level PLCS. There are designated leaders, who work closely with our
principal to create expectations, forms, common protocols and norms to make our
PLC team as productive and meaningful as possible. I can say, without a sliver
of a doubt, that my principal, and our district administrators have a social
justice lens through which all of their decisions are made. This is reflected
in our priorities as a district, and a school. Every data-analysis protocol,
and instructional decisions are centered around providing access to students, with
an emphasis on supporting historically underserved populations. While much of
our professional development is centered around social justice, I would not say
that we have sufficient training opportunities in social justice, or culturally
responsive teaching. I lead my team’s PLC meetings, so I provide my team with opportunities
to reflect, and refine our practice to highlight and celebrate student
differences, and cultures, and to integrate this knowledge into our lessons. As
a team, we are committed to continued growth in this area, however, I wish we
were provided with more formal trainings and opportunities in this area.
I have been stunned and astonished by
what a difference effective professional learning community meetings, can make
on educational outcomes for students. When I was initially asked to be a PLC
leader, while honored, I still figured that the greatest impact I would have on
my students would be directly on the 25 students whom I teach every day. Then,
as a team, we transformed our PLC structure to focus solely on our vision,
setting, goals, planning interventions, and collectively improving our practice
to meet the varying needs of our students. We have found, that through this
work, our lessons, and the success of students have improved dramatically.
Teacher leadership opportunities, even just at grade level, have the incredible
ability to make a significant impact on student achievement. My longer term
goals is to continue to improve our PLC practice at a grade level, and to find
opportunities to affect a broader culture within our school. I am also
constantly looking for ways to improve my new teacher in-time trainings to inspire
teachers to tackle the curriculum with confidence. I am also actively
reflecting, and attempting to improve our PLC practice.
It is critical that as a school, we
are committed to professional development opportunities that promotes social
justice, and equity. As a grade level leader, it is my responsibility to
promote and organize more professional development opportunities to grow this component
of our practice.
