Why a National Board Professional Learning School?
In August of 2018, our school opened its doors for the first time in the midst of change at every level. Over the summer, our district reconfigured three elementary schools (K-5 and PreK-5) into two schools. Our school serves PreK-1st district-wide, and another serves 2nd-5th district-wide. We are a community of learning (staff, families, and students) adjusting and getting to know one another with a new superintendent and assistant superintendent
in a temporary location while our permanent location is undergoing renovation.
Rather than thinking that we have too much change and foundational work to do before becoming a National Board Professional Learning School, we believe that studying the National Board resources from the start of our journey as a school will help us to ground our decisions and vision in best practice.
in a temporary location while our permanent location is undergoing renovation.
Rather than thinking that we have too much change and foundational work to do before becoming a National Board Professional Learning School, we believe that studying the National Board resources from the start of our journey as a school will help us to ground our decisions and vision in best practice.
Our Focus
During our consolidation transition, our school was awarded a Striving Readers Consolidated Literacy grant. The timing of this award came right as we started working together as a leadership team and required that we immediately engage with a broad system of stakeholders in our district and community to determine our priorities and develop a school plan. This data was critical in our conversations during the June NBPL School launch where we determined our focus We want to improve our ability to use multiple methods to meet instructional goals using the NBPL School launch process and Problem of Practice document found here.
Our Journey Timeline
June 20, 2018
A teacher, instructional coach, assistant principal and principal attended the NBPL School launch. We also collaborated with a teacher from our high school to improve candidate support by building a district-wide system. |
August 8, 2018
In the week before starting school, we used the Five Core Proposition quote bubbles protocol to introduce the National Board resources to the staff and to build community around our core beliefs. |
August 9, 2018
At our district-wide opening day, we asked teachers to participate in #whyiteach, connecting reasons to the Five Core Propositions. We also began recruiting teachers for candidacy. |
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September 2018
Teachers meet individually with administration to go over self-reflection and refine PGPs. To support the learning of teachers, principals self-reflect using the Accomplished Principal Standards tool. |
September 6, 2018
Our candidate professional learning facilitator team hosted an information session, outlining the process and our new district supports. |
September & October, 2018
Cohorts of candidates began studying certificate area standards and making plans for individualized and cohort learning. |
November 6, 2018
In PLCs, we discussed differentiation using examples from our classrooms, using the Architecture of Accomplished Teaching for grounding and reflection. |
November 14, 2018
Teams viewed ATLAS case #702 during PLCs to discuss practice and applications from a speaking, viewing, and listening kindergarten lesson about community helpers. |
Coming soon...
We will analyze self-reflections for trends, capitalizing on our strengths with teacher-to-teacher learning and strategic leadership. |
Our timeline and resources will be updated as we learn more...