Episode 3: Podcast Recap
We wanted to go over our top 5 favorite PLC topics from this school year. First, think about what you and your team need; what are you struggling with, what do you need help with, etc. Maybe you aren’t struggling with that topic, but your team may be. So, in that meeting it may not feel like you are growing, but you are in a different way or you may figure out a different way to do something. Not every PLC will everyone talk. If that person was the one struggling with that topic, they may not have as much to say because they’re trying to absorb the information you have to give. Often times, if one person is struggling, someone else is too.
Going back to a previous episode/post, we have established categories of what we like to discuss as a team. Our team’s categories are professional development, instructional, and differentiation. We often feel like these can overlap and it’s not as clear cut as you would think (which is definitely not a bad thing).
Although we claim they are our top 5, we really don’t have them in a specific order. We both strongly agreed on a favorite though.
- Our favorite topic was talking about ELL/ENL students
We attended a conference our district held and learned SO MUCH about ELL/ENL students that we didn’t have any clue about. During this PLC we discussed WIDA testing (I’m sorry…what was that?) Yeah, if you don’t know what WIDA is…you should look it up. Essentially, it’s a score of how your ELL student is doing learning English. Those scores can then inform you of what that student can do. Your admin should be able to point you in the right direction of locating your students’ WIDA scores. We became VERY interested in this and could talk about it for a whole episode (we probably will). A huge benefit for us art teachers teaching students who speak zero English? Art is visual and those kids usually feel super comfortable in our rooms! Winning!
- Formative Assessments
When comparing with your other art teachers, it can feel like comparing apples to oranges, right? We found some fun ways to do this. Our first formative for the school year was “how do you feel when you are in art class?”. And, man…was that super insightful for us! This is something you could easily do if your PLC doesn’t look the same as ours. Maybe your whole specials team gets together or maybe you meet with secondary art teachers…this would still be super interesting data/information to talk about together.
- Glow and Grow
We’ve done this a handful of ways this year; sometimes very specific, sometimes broad. For example, let’s say the topic is unit 3 for 4thgrade. I would write something down that I am doing well (the glow) and something I’m struggling with (the grow). If you have your team fill this out ahead of time, you can connect someone’s glow with someone’s grow which makes the conversation so much more productive. If there are a lot of people with the same grow, that’s a great place to start the conversation. If you don’t get to everyone, find out who does well with each person’s grow so they can reach out to that person.
- Focus on a specific unit
This one was somewhat accidental but turned out so great. We knew what unit we were talking about; some thought they were supposed to bring lesson ideas that had gone well, and some thought we were researching new ideas of what projects you could do for that unit. It created this amazing meshing of old and new ideas and how to give this unit a fresh take. A way to do this with elementary and secondary would be discussing common units (if they exist) or different mediums.
- Professional Development
We browse art education articles (shout out the Art of Education University always coming through). We have our whole team read the article and then we discuss how we would want to implement these ideas into our rooms. Some articles have helped us figure out different and interesting ways to pull data.
Remember, focus on what you and your team needs. If it doesn’t always fit your categories, that’s okay.
Keep blending,
Laura and Hayley