Building My Own Professional Learning Community: Part 1

Most classroom teachers will agree with this statement:

Working together with our colleagues helps students learn better.

But that doesn't mean that collaborating comes easily to us. We are accustomed to the combination of autonomy and isolation that come with being the only adult in a room full of students who have a variety of skills and needs. Learning to work with other teachers to find solution to our challenges and share resources and ideas is critical to our success, but it requires time and energy.

Most teachers who are part of a professional learning community (PLC) collaborate with teachers in their own building, often those who teach the same subject. Those of us who have been in the classroom for some time can all likely share a mix of positive stories and nightmarish ones about the PLCs that we have been a part of. Sometimes the members of our group are unable to overcome personal differences. Other times, the struggle is agreeing about teaching philosophies. It is a rare thing, indeed, when one finds themselves surrounded by a team that shares a common goal and the desire and skillset to work toward it. I am very fortunate to be in just such a situation this year, but sometimes I long for more.

And that's why, a few years ago, I decided to spend some of my track-outs (the 3 week breaks that happen every 9 weeks or so on my year-round school calendar) seeking out teachers all over North Carolina whom I could learn from. I used my position as a member of the Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership Faculty to identify Fellows who would be willing to let me hang out in their learning space for an hour or so. To date, I've never had a teacher say no. #CollaborativeCourage

This year, I've started by visiting three of the current cohort of Kenan Fellows (#TheGreat38) who teach in the eastern part of the state. What I experienced in these three schools has certainly made me a better teacher, but also has made me so much more aware of the huge variation in public classroom environments that exist in North Carolina.

Stop #1: Will Prettyman at the Innovation Campus of Martin County Public Schools

Will's space is as unique—a renovated Rose's department store—as his group of students. The Innovation Campus acts as both a CTE hub for the three high schools in the district and the campus for an Early College. This means that his students come from all over Martin County and get bused to the campus for classes and back to their base schools later in the day. The class I sat in for was all boys, mostly juniors and seniors, and mostly Black and Hispanic.

Will's normal class load includes several courses that give students a chance to earn certifications that can lead to high-paying employment right after school. With our current state budget in limbo for the time-being, he's forced to postpone some of the credentialing work that the kids would normally be doing. He's filled the time with some really awesome lessons about artificial intelligence and machine learning. If you've read any of my recent writing, you may recall that this is a passion point for me, so I was super stoked to be there for one of his lessons.

He got his students thinking and talking (eventually, with much coercing) about what norms might be needed in high school classrooms where generative A.I. tools are a reality. I was pleasantly surprised by the open-minded discussion that he led and the responses from the students. I walked away jazzed about the possibilities for a similar conversation with my middle school students.

Stop #2: DaChelle Gupton, MPH at Wellcome Middle School in Pitt County

DaChelle is the STEM Coordinator at her school, which was recently selected by the state as a STEM School of Distinction. So, she didn't have a classroom full of her own students for me to see. Instead, I got an amazing tour of many of the learning spaces at Wellcome, led by what might be the school's biggest advocate.

I got to see the STEM Lab where DaChelle sometimes hosts students. It was outfitted with all of the cool tools that you would expect, but also with clear signs of the lengths to which she goes to involve the entire school community in the amazing things happening at Wellcome. While she apologized that I wouldn't get to see her teach, it quickly became apparent that her impact is not confined to just a dozen students at a time. She is planning a huge STEM Night at the school next month, marshaling resources from local businesses and writing grants to supply other teachers with the things that they need to engage students in hands-on learning.

Every classroom DaChelle showed me at Wellcome—a STEM school, AVID school, and dual-language school—was unique but they all shared the fingerprint of a STEM Coordinator who makes sure that Problem-Based Learning and the Engineering Design Process are at the heart of everything. I met a young novice teacher who Ms. Gupton has taken under her wing, helping with lessons and advice. Because, of course, helping teachers plan STEM lessons and planning STEM events and being an all-around mayor of her school isn't enough.

What struck me the most about my time at Wellcome Middle School was not the STEM posters or the AVID-inspired college pennants or the engaging teachers (including several visiting faculty from foreign countries). It was the overwhelming sense of momentum and positive change. DaChelle shared with me that the school had been given an "F" grade by the state based solely on its test scores. But, with the same big smile she had worn for the entire tour, she told me that it was a blip and that this year would be very different.

I believe her.

Stop #3: Jason Wade at Ayden Middle School in Pitt County

The similarities and differences between these last two stops on on my BYOPLC tour could not have been more striking.

For one, they are both in the same county and same school district. They were also built around the same time and have the same floor plan. From the outside, one would be hard-pressed to see any differences other than their locations.

Stepping inside, I was initially taken aback by the exact same foyer and main office greeting me. Following directions given to me by the receptionist, I almost walked right into the classroom that was DaChelle's STEM Lab at her school 25 minutes up the highway. It was uncanny to find Jason teaching his STEM class at the end of a hallway that I was sure I had just walked down at Wellcome Middle.

But that's where the similarities ended. Ayden Middle School traded Wellcome's STEM posters, college pennants, and inspirational signs for plain walls and a (alarmingly?) quiet student body. DaChelle had mentioned that the Pitt County schools on the other side of the Tar River had very different resources and that was not super obvious until I entered Jason's classroom and met his students.

Jason uses the Pitsco Expeditions curriculum to give his students opportunities to solve engineering design problems using hands-on construction techniques and lots of trial and error. I watched a class of less than 10 sixth-graders test our their rubber-band-powered car designs and make small changes before testing them again. It was fun to see their thinking process and watch their responses to failure.

These students were mostly white and I wondered about the different demographics at play at Ayden Middle. I felt a kinship to the learning experiences happening in Jason's classroom. He has a teaching style that isn't that different from my own, and I was envious of his teaching space and curriculum (and small class sizes). I couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to teach in his location. But I also worry about the disparities—in funding and outcomes—between two so similar schools in the same school district. Are the kids of Pitt County all getting an equitable education?

Before I left Ayden Middle School, I watched a second group of sixth graders try to get their cars to make it farther down the hallway than they had on their previous attempts. Listening to Jason advise and encourage them, I know that the best that we can do is try to put a Jason or a DaChelle or a Will in every classroom in North Carolina.

Day 1 Reflection

Next week, I will spend another day traveling to classrooms, but this time they will be all around my (extremely large) district. It will be a different experience in a lot of ways, but in other ways I am sure I will learn a lot.

So, in looking back on the three schools I had the good fortune to visit today, here are my three biggest takeaways:

1. There is some AMAZING learning going on in parts of North Carolina that most of us have never seen, and rarely hear about.
2. Lots of schools (even within a single district) vary in their access to resources, but educators step up daily to level the playing field for their kids.
3. I need to work harder to incorporate more hands-on and problem-based learning in my classroom. It can be done... and it needs to be done.

Tune in next week for Part 2: BYOPLC WCPSS