During the 22-23 school year, teams of teachers, curriculum/professional development teacher leaders, instructional coaches, and principals will meet most Fridays to answer the four critical questions that drive  Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) :

  1. What do we want students to know and be able to do?

  2. How will we know students have learned?

  2a. What instructional practices will produce our best results? 

  3. What do we do if students have not learned?

  4. What do we do when students have already shown mastery?

During this collaborative time, teams look at essential standards and create pathways to effectively ensure students master the standards. Teams create assessments to monitor learning and use the data to guide instruction and determine next steps, such as re-engagement, to help when they have not mastered the learning, or extension when they have mastered the content.

The district has embraced this process and will continue to actively support staff in this important work. Our students deserve our best. PLCs provide the framework for all staff to work collaboratively for the success of ALL.

DVUSD is a Model PLC (Professional Learning Community) District! As 1 of 25 globally recognized model districts, DVUSD shows commitment to the PLC @ Work process, implemented PLC concepts for at least 3 years & presents clear evidence of student learning!

Desert Sage Team continuing on the PLC  Journey

Throughout the 2022-2023 school year,  Desert Sage has continued on their  PLC journey using the 4 Critical Questions to help guide them. Recently Desert Sage grade-level teams spent time enhancing and refreshing the understanding of the unwrapping process and creating clarity amongst teachers. During a half-day release, they applied the process outlined in the Teacher Clarity Playbook and built capacity as a campus to effectively use team-created Learning Progression, Intentions, and Success Criteria to drive instruction and create clear understanding for teachers, students, and parents.  

Here are some quotes shared by  Desert Sage Teachers about the impact of being a part of the collaboration day:

“Breaking apart the standard and sharing success criteria with students will make what is expected much clearer for students.”-6th Grade Teacher

“We are more unanimous as a team when teaching the same standard. Our students get more similar teaching with similar progression, intentions, success criteria, and assessment criteria.” -2nd Grade Teacher

“The more we know about the standards and the clearer we are, as teachers in our own minds, the more able we are to communicate what the student's goals are. When we are clear the students are able to learn concepts and not just fumble along blindly, unsure of their focus at school.” -4th Grade Teacher 

“It helps me understand in more simple steps how to break down complex standards into small bites that the kids can understand and we can easily assess.” -1st Grade Teacher

 “We can use more exact verbiage with the students when going over objectives and help them to truly understand the why of their learning.” - Kinder Teacher

Thank you to the Desert Sage Team who made it possible for the staff to have this collaboration time and to the teacher teams for sharing your experiences!  #inspiring #extraordinary

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“In my entire career, the single best professional development I have ever witnessed is that of the power of PLCs. Together, teachers are the key to moving our students forward. Dedicated time for collaboration sets it apart."

                                                                                                                                                      - Dr. Curtis Finch

“Our team has come a long way but we didn’t get there alone. Our school leaders and district trainers were with us every step of the way. We accomplished what we have because they didn’t give up on us. They believed in us before we learned to believe in ourselves.”

                                                                                                                                                     -Model PLC Teacher Leader

"Let me start by saying that this year’s new PLC implementation by Aspire’s High School teachers has been challenging.  It is the first year we will be implementing true PLC with common assessments and it got off to a rocky start.  However, I attended the first meeting for the MTL year 1 and chose to make some adjustments to how we ran meetings and truly considered the meeting in my agenda, and may I just say, I was blown away by the focused, student-centered conversations and work in our PLC this afternoon.  There are no words to describe what a night and day difference having roles, norms, and taking into communication into account did for our PLC team.  This is for the whole PLC team that ran the first training.  It was engaging and applicable.  I have never had something that worked so effectively and so quickly and I am looking forward to continuing to be a part of this year’s MTL team. "

                                                                                                                                                      - Social Studies Teacher

"My teachers told me that they are so excited to start the school year because there is a strong focus.  This week has done amazing things to help teachers understand the standards and the CFA cycle.  Also, there is great relationship building with our teachers and our partnering schools!”

                                                                                                                                                       - K-6 Principal

“In my entire career, the single best professional development I have ever witnessed is that of the power of PLCs. Together, teachers are the key to moving our students forward. Dedicated time for collaboration sets it apart."

                                                                                                                                                        - Kindergarten Teacher

"I am so blessed to have the BEST Math PLC Team. We all work so well together, we are on the same page, and we share out ideas and strategies. We challenge each other to push out of our comfort zone and try new things. The data of our students show that GROWTH is occurring and it is because of our PLC commitments. YAHOO!"

                                                                                                                                                         - 5th Grade Teacher

Learning By Doing, Solution Tree Press, Solutiontree.com