I attended a Professional Learning Community (PLC) meeting for the Social Studies department early within the semester. I was eager to attend another PLC meeting, as I have observed multiple other PLC meetings within my past Practicum placements. I was curious to hear new perspectives, key issues, and how the staff planned to address certain issues. The meeting was eventful from beginning to end. It began with a fire drill and ended with one of the Assistant Principals visiting to give some advice and refreshers to the staff. Within the meeting I learned a great deal of new vocabulary, abbreviations, and important due dates. We covered a great deal of new information, reviewed important details, and overall had a positive and soemwhat comical humor. The meeting was held Wednesday, September 15th, 2021, and it ran from 9:15 to 10:05 (which was over the typical required PLC meeting time). At this point in the semester we are slightly over two weeks into the Fall semester. Typically there is a very strict time limitation for the teachers within the PLC meeting to not surpass a specific time, as teachers are required to have 40 minutes of a planning period. My mentor teacher is the head of the department so they led the meeting. There were eleven staff members total, including special education teachers.
Key topics discussed entailed:
We began with an important reminder that security testing is due. Teachers were instructed to go through PDM's (Participation in Decision Making) training, in which they were to complete it outside of school; this could then count towards their PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) which is a tool that can count towards teachers hours. Teachers were reminded that English and Math MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) testing would be next week. With the increase of students the school had also made a new posting for an additional social studies teacher, to which one of the special education teacher's displayed interest. The members of the meeting encouraged the teacher, especially since they were already familiar with the students, school, and subject overall. A major part of the meeting was allocated towards attendance. As we continue to work through this global pandemic due to COVID-19, there was an increased concern towards student attendance. Unfortunately, at this early point in the semester there are several students absent, and the staff discussed the confusion between whether students were absent due to Covid concerns or other matters. Teachers were instructed to email a "No Show" list to the main office secretary, who is also a new employee as of this year. From discussion we learned the office cannot run an official student report through their computer system. Teachers then asked what is the official procedure if students do have Covid. To which teachers were advised from the head of the department they would receive "Covid absent letter" specifically from their identified guidance counselor, and no one else. It was noted that officially students are only permitted to miss thirteen days, to which teachers asked if there was a new policy in place due to Covid. Furthermore, some teachers noted that some students within their class have altogether simply not shown up to a single class. Clearly there was some confusion as to which students were still enrolled in school, or which students were absent due to online learning and/or Covid. This concern was highlighted in the meeting's notes. Collaboratively, we worked through the computer system and learned we could generate a class absence list individually, since it was noted that the front office could not devise an official report. Again, it was emphasized that the only permitted student absence would be notified from the guidance office, which would specifically be through email. However, there was growing concern with new policies, online teaching, and Covid as teachers asked what the new policy was for ZOOM teaching. The head of the department instructed teachers to then create a ZOOM link to the student before the class for those affected by Covid; however it was noted due to privacy teachers cannot mention the students name during class and the ZOOM meeting. To which there was the follow up question "how does one take attendance with ZOOM?" Teachers discussed if they did not join the ZOOM at all if that was an absence.
At this point one of the Assistant Principals joined the PLC meeting. It was noted that PDM's training meetings were due at the end of October, training included topics regarding suicide, bullying, homelessness, child abuse, and more [which was later extended to the end of the year]. It was advised that the PDM's training was a good PIP opportunity to do outside of the class. Teachers were reminded that their professional responsibilities form is due at the end of September. The Assistant Principal addressed that most teachers have identified "Observers" for their class. However one-third of teaching staff within the school still does not have an administrator observing them because the school has not hired nor identified an employee to take on teacher observation. Therefore, three of the eleven staff members within the meeting still did not have an official observation representative. In addition to being observed teachers will be essentially graded and provided feedback, to which teachers asked "What is proficient?" The Assistant Principal suggested discussing with their specific observer as to what they identify as key skills and components when observing. Lastly, the Assistant Principal addressed that teachers should attempt to incorporate more writing skills within their Social Studies lessons. They advised that Social Studies incorporates a great deal of writing and language overall within the subject. Therefore, they advised that teachers ask open-ended questions, which provides students opportunities to write out their thoughts and interpretations. Moreover, they suggested in teaching students "HOW to think, not WHAT to think." They continued by explaining that when writing one has to think, therefore, refining writing skills enhances one's critical thinking skills overall. Lastly, by students proving their argument they defend their thinking while improving their analytical and writing skills.
Notes from the Meeting
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