NSDC's Purpose and PLCs
Sue Showers
NSDC Board Member, Coaching for Leadership and Learning

How do Professional Learning Communities facilitate NSDC's purpose that "Every educator engages in professional learning every day so every student achieves?" How do coaches support PLC's in their school? How do we keep learning for staff and students at the core of our work? How do we get all teachers to collaborate? These are examples of essential questions that high school staff ask whenever they meet at a small learning community meeting, principal's meeting, or a coaches meeting.

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NSDC Legislative Action Team
Eugene Norris
SDCO Board Member, A-Team Liaison

The National Staff Development Council has put forth the vision of “Quality Professional Learning for ALL Educators every day!”  A key strategy in making the vision a reality is to affect the national & local policy context whereby professional learning (development) is both defined and funded.
 
The Staff Development Council of Ohio is partnering with our national affiliate (NSDC) in an initiative to achieve the goal and vision of quality professional learning.  This column has been designated as a means to educate you on the initiative, keep you updated and solicit your involvement.  NSDC has established legislative action network called the Advocacy Team (the A-Team). Eugene Norris has been designated by the Board as SDCO’s Liaison to this initiative.

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South-Western City Schools Academies:
Example of Best Practice
by Georgine S. Collette
Coordinator of Staff Development South-Western City Schools
 
South-Western City Schools offers an Academy program for its staff consisting of Fall, Winter/Spring and Summer Academies. The Academies are a critical component of our intensive staff development program.  They offer a large variety of trainings for our teachers, administrators, and support staff.  All offerings are available at little or no cost to participants and are offered for college or CEU credit.

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TAP-ing Into Columbus
By Dr. Edna Thomas
TAP Director, Columbus City Schools
 
In 2004, Dr. Cynthia Yoder, Executive Director for the Teaching Profession at Ohio Department of Education, introduced the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) to Columbus City Schools. Columbus City Schools were the pioneers for Ohio and implemented four TAP schools as a School Improvement Model: South HS, Parkmoor ES, Barrett MS, and Beck ES.  Before Barrett MS and Beck ES closed their buildings at the end of 2005-2006, they conducted a "practice year" for TAP. Seeing the progress of TAP in Columbus, Columbus Public Schools decided to implement the program in two redesigned schools, Easthaven ES and Champion MS. In 2006, the Ohio Department of Education received a $20 million dollar Ohio Teacher Incentive Fund (OTIF). With this grant Columbus City Schools and Cincinnati Public Schools were able to expand TAP. The current Columbus City TAP Schools are South HS, Parkmoor ES, Easthaven, ES, Champion MS, Fifth Avenue ES, Lindberg ES, Starling MS, and Champion MS.  

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Providing MEANINGFUL Professional Learning
By Dr. Jackie Wood-Morton
Professor of Education, Ashland University
 
You know the scenario. The district has a teacher staff development day. We scramble to find an appropriate speaker who will address our needs, keep the teachers attention, and hopefully provide some ideas that can be implemented in the classroom. Yet overall how much impact do these days really have on the classroom?

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Celebrating Success: The Evolution of a PLC
By Rita Glavan
SDCO Board Member
 
Kudos to Powell Elementary! I recently had the opportunity to work with the staff at Powell Elementary in the North Baltimore School District in northern Ohio. Personally and professionally, it was a delightful and rewarding experience. It did not take long to realize that this was not merely a group of teachers coming together to continue their work on unit planning, but it was truly a group of teachers who had an established rapport and working relationships as learners and colleagues.

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D3A2 Facilitator Academy
By Lynn Ochs
SDCO Board Member

The D3A2 Facilitator Academy provides a comprehensive overview of the Professional Development Toolkit, an extensive collection of materials including activity guides, sample agendas, support materials, and insightful video clips.
 
The four modules that make up the Toolkit: 1) Provide background knowledge and skills necessary to effectively use the D3A2 Website; 2) Encourage the development of a culture of inquiry within the school setting; 3) Improve the ability to read and analyze item analysis data through identification of significant patterns and trends and the strengths and limitations of the data; and 4) Promote the use of item analysis data to improve instructional practice.

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Teaching & Learning Center
www.k12tlc.net
Great Quality! Great Value!
Subscriptions Are Only
$117/school/year or less!

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