professional learning communities

In this episode, we talk with Brian Stack as he shares challenges schools are currently facing, and how competency-based education, and learning to function as a PLC, can help. With Brian's years of experience, and current work with schools, he has practical advice and tips to share for teachers and administrators. 

This edWeb podcast is sponsored by Solution Tree.
The webinar recording can be accessed here.

If you are serious about high levels of learning for all students throughout your district, look no further than the Professional Learning Communities at Work® process. Evidence shows PLC at Work is more than an improvement process for single schools. When done right, it is a powerful tool for districtwide success. 

In this edWeb podcast, author, education expert, and award-winning superintendent Janel Keating pushes your thinking and inspire you to commit to next-level leadership. Listen to this session to learn strategies for tackling the challenge required of all high-performing districts that function as professional learning communities: a thoughtful alignment of the right work, from school board to district office to individual schools to collaborative teacher teams. This edWeb podcast is the third in a series focused on strategies and practices of successful PLCs. 

This edWeb podcast is of interest to PreK-12 teachers and school and district leaders.

Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.

This edWeb podcast is sponsored by Mastery Manager.
The edLeader Panel recording can be accessed here.

As school districts of every size work to boost student outcomes, teacher capacity, and accountability, the role of assessments and the value of professional learning communities are front and center. In this edWeb podcast, leaders from Lexington School District Two in West Columbia, South Carolina share their approach to grounding the work of their professional learning communities with assessment data. Dr. Dixon Brooks, Chief Instructional Officer, Dr. Rob Burggraaf, Director of Instruction, and Jennifer Wise, Coordinator of Mathematics Instruction, share their approach to answering the four essential questions of instruction:

• What do we expect students to learn? 
• How will we know they’ve learned it? 
• How will we respond when they don’t learn? 
• How will we respond when they already know it? 

They address their data-driven instructional journey and the outcomes they’ve achieved and share their plans for the balance of this school year and the one ahead. Listen to this session, and you’ll leave with impactful ideas and perspectives about managing, supporting, and leveraging your assessment investments to drive results. 

This edWeb podcast is of interest to K-12 school and district leaders, teachers, librarians, directors of curriculum and instruction, directors of assessment, directors of school improvement, Title I directors, and department chairs in math, ELA, science, and social studies. 

Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.

Often, PLC meetings are seen as a time waster. But is a PLC just a meeting? In this episode we talk with Chad Dumas about what a PLC actually is, how it can be effective, and what it does for students. 

Intro track is entitled 'Roughcut' by the artist Tripwire, licensed under Creative Commons.
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/
Track and Artist page: https://sampleswap.org/artist/Tripwire

This edWeb podcast is sponsored by Solution Tree.
The webinar recording can be accessed here. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged schools to question their assessment practices and grading policies. Are students retaining and applying the concepts and skills of the standards? What can be evidence of their learning? How do we motivate students to invest and monitor their own learning? What grading practices make the learning meaningful? Is what we are doing fair and equitable? This edWeb podcast examines how schools can answer these questions and more. 

Listeners connect standards-based principles with effective PLC strategies to enhance and improve assessment and grading practices. This work comes from Making Grades Matter: Standards-Based Grading in a Secondary PLC at Work and features authors Matt Townsley, Ed.D. and Nathan Wear. 

This edWeb podcast is of interest to teachers, instructional coaches, curriculum leaders, and school and district leaders of all middle school, high school, and higher education levels.

Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.

Time can be used a lot of different ways during the school day. Decisions about how time is used have a direct impact on students, for good or for bad. For one Principal at a High School in Florida, it was clear that time was not being spent in a way that helped students. At her school, there was a 35% failure rate. Learn how she and her fellow educators adjusted how they used time -- and were able to reverse this failure rate quickly and give students exactly what they needed.

Intro track is entitled 'Roughcut' by the artist Tripwire, licensed under Creative Commons.
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/
Track and Artist page: https://sampleswap.org/artist/Tripwire

In part 2 of our competency-based education special, Brian Stack and Jonathan Vander Els discuss how they respond to student needs, whether that be when a student is struggling to learn something, or when they already get it. 

Intro track is entitled 'Roughcut' by the artist Tripwire, licensed under Creative Commons.
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/
Track and Artist page: https://sampleswap.org/artist/Tripwire