Professional Learning Community
Final Presentation: Week 6
Laying the Foundation of a PLC
Mission Statement
The North Iredell Middle School community will work together to maintain Reachable goals, Open communication, Constant collaboration, Keys to life-long learning, and provide Support for all students because NIMS ROCKS!
Vision Statement
A school committed to cultivating a love for learning in all students.
Core Values
- · Student and learning focus
- · Motivated faculty and staff
- · Partnerships and teamwork
- · Continuous improvement focus
- · Management by fact
- · Results focus
- · High ethical standards
Next Steps
1. Fidelity checks during Bear Boost
2. Training for teachers that need help with implementing programs in BB
Effective Communication
Next Steps
- Streamline the Google Drive “NIMS Info” folder
- Continue to use multiple communication venues.
Clearly Defined Outcomes
Next Steps
- Use student level PDSAs to allow them the ability to see progress through the standards
- Work with teachers currently using this level of PDSA to train others
- Full scale implementation of student level PDSAs in 15/16 school year
Monitoring Each Student's Learning
Next Steps
- Review rubric creation (differentiated training)
- Meet with PLCs after assignment is complete to model how to apply the criteria consistently
*Use district created Open Ended Questions to practice rubric grading.
Building a Collaborative Culture
Collaboration
Next Steps
- Work with groups who are in the implementing stage more than once a month.
- Provide focus topics when review of minutes shows a gap in communication/norms/commitment.
Using School Improvement Goals to Drive Team Goals
Next Steps
- Review PDSA process with new teachers
- Implement personal PDSAs in more classrooms (student level)
Turning Data Into Information
NIMS has district baselines and benchmarks (created by teacher leaders) as well as PLC created Common Assessments. Our school conducts “Data Days” 3 to 4 times a year, as well as uses data analysis during weekly PLC meetings. Our district and school is very data-driven, as are our classrooms, and every decision is based on a legitimate need shown in the analysis
Next Steps
- Conduct monthly data meetings as a Leadership on effectiveness of PLCs
- Train teachers on effective use of data, how to use data analysis in a meaningful way
Systematic Intervention
Course Offerings
We offer a variety of enrichment classes including:
· Tech Bears
· MATHCOUNTS
· Odyssey of the Mind
· 2 classes of Robotics
· Battle of the Books
· Drama
· Chorus
We also have:
· Student Council
· Fellowship of Christian Students
· Junior Beta Club
· Hunter Safety Team
· Truth Girls Club
For academics, we offer advanced classes as well as Spanish 1 and Integrated Math 1 along with our core curriculum courses.
Remediation Courses:
- Bear Boost: Each day students have a class called Bear Boost, this is either remediation or enrichment/competition teams. We have classes such as basic math and reading remediation, along with programs like Corrective Reading, Core Phonics, and Read180. Groups rotate based on data-driven teacher recommendations at progress reports rather than report cards. This is to be proactive and allow students the opportunity to improve before their grades are final. Each remediation teacher must progress-monitor at least once every two weeks and record the data. We have school wide Data Days 4 times a year where we analyze the correlation between student achievement and their progress in their Boost remediation course.
- Curriculum Assistance: We offer this course in lieu of a Social Studies course. Students are in this course for the year based on data-driven teacher recommendations (much like everything we do). They work in small groups to complete assignments provided by their core teachers, work on IEP goals (for the EC pull out version of the course), as well as work on skills they may be lacking or falling behind. The effectiveness is looked at during Data Days, once again, as well as during biweekly team meetings where our teachers come together to talk about how to help struggling students.
We don't just offer courses to help our students, we also are working towards personalizing learning with our 1:1 initiative, and teachers have more flexibility to have students work at their own pace throughout the course of the year. We have RtI processes in place if teachers feel a more thorough look at student performance is needed. Each teacher, despite their subject area, commits to using a reading strategy in their classroom for the quarter in order to help focus on reading improvement.
Next Steps
- Provide more RtI strategies for Tier 1 interventions
- Guide remediation/enrichment teachers in creating lesson plans for Bear Boost that fit student needs