Over the next few days, I’ll be working alongside the super motivated educators at the Solution Tree PLC Institute in Omaha.  The goal for most of the participants will be to find ways to polish their collaborative practices in order to help kids learn.  Together, teams from individual schools will study everything from the core beliefs that support learning communities to the nuts and bolts of making collaboration more efficient and effective.

I’ll be delivering four different breakout sessions at the Institutes.  Here are the materials for each session.  Hope you find them useful:

Digital Tools Can Make Differentiation Doable

Slides for Session  | Annotated Quick Guide to Digital Tools |  Book Connected to Session

If schools are truly working to ensure success for every student, learning experiences must be differentiated to meet the needs of individual students. The challenge, however, rests in making differentiation doable. While few teachers doubt the importance of differentiating, many struggle to make customized learning spaces a reality. In this presentation, Solution Tree author and full-time classroom teacher Bill Ferriter introduces participants to a range of digital tools that can be used to:

• Track progress by student and by standard in a differentiated classroom.

• Provide structure for differentiated classrooms.

• Facilitate initial attempts at remediation and enrichment in a differentiated classroom.

*If you attend this session and decide to sign up for Edpuzzle, use this referral code to increase your storage:  dNYBoz

Small Schools and Singletons: Structuring Meaningful Professional Learning Teams for Every Teacher

Slides for Session | Handouts for Session | Audio Recordings of Session Solutions | Book Connected to Session

The PLC concept resonates with most educators, but making collaborative learning work in small schools or for singleton teachers can be challenging. In this session, participants explore four different models for creating meaningful professional learning teams for singletons and teachers in small schools: 1) the creation of vertical teams studying skills that cross content areas, 2) using interdisciplinary teams to focus on addressing the engagement levels of at-risk students, 3) designing class loads that allow teachers to teach the same subjects, and 4) using electronic tools to pair teachers with peers working in the same subject area.

Participants in this session:

• Discuss common structural barriers that make collaboration more difficult for singleton teachers or teachers in small schools.

• Examine four potential models for creating meaningful professional learning teams for singleton teachers or teachers in small schools.

• Develop the beginnings of an action plan for incorporating singleton teachers or teachers in small schools into the PLC process.

Integrating Opportunities for Student-Self Assessment in Your Classroom

Slides for Session | Handouts for Session | Book Connected to Session

School assessment experts Rick Stiggins and Jan Chappuis once argued that creating opportunities for students—particularly those who struggle academically—to collect evidence that they are making progress toward mastering important outcomes is a moral imperative that we simply cannot ignore. “Are we skilled enough,” they wrote, “to use classroom assessment to either keep all learners from losing hope to begin with or to rebuild that hope once it has been destroyed?” Their point was clear: In grade-driven spaces, many students never have the opportunity to feel successful in school.

That point resonated with Solution Tree author and sixth-grade classroom teacher Bill Ferriter, who had always been dissatisfied with the grade-driven work being done in his classroom. This session introduces participants to the tangible steps Bill has taken to integrate opportunities for self-assessment into his classroom in an attempt to ensure that every student has the chance to see themselves as capable learners.

Participants in this session:

• Discuss the important role self-assessment plays in learning.

• Explore simple self-assessment behaviors that can be integrated into any classroom.

• Learn about common challenges in integrating student self-assessment into the classroom.

We’re Meeting.  Now What?

Slides for Session|  Handouts for Session | Book Connected to Session

For many teachers, professional learning team meetings can be nothing short of overwhelming!  Not used to making collective decisions, teams struggle to organize their work together and begin to question the benefit of a school’s decision to restructure as a professional learning community.  In this session, participants explore the kinds of tangible structures that learning teams must have in place in order to make their meetings successful.

Participants will:

• Learn how personalities influence the success or struggles of learning teams.
• Discuss the role that clear norms and expectations for behavior play in the successful work of a learning team.
• Explore practical tools and handouts designed to structure the work of learning teams over time.

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For more information on structuring high functioning Professional Learning Communities, check out Bill’s books — The Big Book of Tools for Collaborative Teams in a PLC at Work, Building a Professional Learning Community at Work – A Guide to the First Year and Making Teamwork Meaningful.

And don’t forget:  You can read all of my PLC related posts on the Radical by clicking on this link.