I attended a Social Studies PLC, or Professional Learning Community, meeting on February 13th of 2020. It was a generally a small and relaxed meeting with only five teachers (including my mentor teacher). The main topic of discussion for the meeting was if Cab Calloway should apply to be a 'Democratic School' and in what ways the school may qualify. Red Clay Consolidated Disctict is launching a "Red Clay Democracy Schools initiative," so the Dean of the school, Julie Rumschlag, requested for the Social Studies PLC to lead the way. She requested the social studies staff members to observe the self-assessment rubric, identify, and proceed to fill out the application for the school. The goals of the "Democracy School" Program are: 

1. "To ensure our schools are promoting civic engagement.
2. To help mold civic-minded young people.
3. To celebrate school's participation in civic-minded activities.
4. To embrace and encourage students voice."

Throughout the meeting the teachers discussed how the school filled the various aspects of civic knowledge and organizational culture including: 'Foundations of Civic Knowledge,' 'Informed Action/Service Learning,' 'Extracurricular Activities,' 'Student Voice,' and 'School Community Connection' to name a few. Overall the school has an extensive amount of activities within as well as outside the school. The school participates in: Project Citizen, Project Soapbox, Mock Trials, Model UN, National History Day, Student Diversity Council, etc. The social studies members concluded that the school certainly meets the requirements. They suggested thinking over the various aspects of the questions/topics and at the next meeting making any additions, alterations, and then submitting their final response to the Dean at the conclusion of their next PLC meeting. Within the last 5 minutes my mentor teacher in particular requested that for the next meeting they allot time to discuss which groups of students to send the Project Citizen competition (which was supposed to be in April). My mentor teacher was to send students with the topics 'Delaware Water Pollution' and 'Reducing Waste in School Cafeterias' because of their extensive research, factual data, and well presented boards. However, they have three other contenders, and the school is only permitted to send a total of four groups (each composed of 4-5 students). In addition to discussing the 'Democratic School' application components and the Project Citizen groups, the staff also discussed protocol and potential concerns for parent teacher meetings, which would be going on at the end of the day and the whole of the next day. In addition to the teachers discussing those topics, they also discussed social studies course selection for the next school year.

    Although the meeting was small and overall casual I was amazed with how organized and on task the meeting was. Within the allotted time the teachers had discussed numerous upcoming events and multiple topics. I was most amazed with how many activities, councils, projects, etc. the school either leads or participates in, especially with how small the school and staff are. The school has 937 students enrolled, with a teacher-to-student ratio of 19:1. Once again I was amazed that students balance their schoolwork, chosen art 'pathway,' in addition to participating in other extracurricular activities. I was also impressed with how above and beyond the staff is willing to go for the students. For example, one of the history teachers organizes and leads History Day for the whole of the school, while another history teacher networks with a member of the Delaware Federal Court System and has them come and work with the students. It was extremely interesting to hear the thoughts and potential concerns for students' social studies course selections for next year. I was astounded that the the whole of the social studies staff knew just about every student and genuinely cared about the students. They discussed how they were potentially concerned that some students were being perhaps pushed to take an AP course due to pressure from their parents instead of due to pure interest of the subject. It was enlightening to have the opportunity to sit in on one of the meetings and hear from the perspectives of multiple teachers.