Collaborate! Breaking Isolation to Improve Student Learning… and Ourselves.

The research speaks for itself. When teachers engage in effective collaboration centered around student learning outcomes (results), we feel better about ourselves, our teaching improves, and our students learn more. If you are a singleton at your school site, you probably get thrown into forced collaboration with other random teachers (“specials”) and may not feel like you get a lot done, or the time spent is not really effective or applicable to you. This is definitely NOT ideal - I hear you! Just like our students, “Music teachers are better inclined to accept and adopt new teaching practices when they are given a choice over their learning” (p. 18).

For us as Music Educators, it is best that we are working with others that do what we do. Perhaps a group effort to approach your administration and district-level leadership is a good start to negotiate some release time. Keep the conversation centered around improving student learning outcomes, it’s difficult for administrators to ignore that! Research shows that this is how we will collaborate in the most efficient way possible to positively affect student learning. This has to be done carefully, and you may only get one shot at this, so be prudent in your planning and organization for this request. Although physical in-person meetings are ideal, Virtual PLCs are a great option these days!

It is important to establish vision and mission for your PLC - what do you want to accomplish, and how will you do it? This is your compass. Keep in mind that not everyone will be on board as an open and honest contributor. Building the necessary levels of trust and vulnerability takes time. Start slow. Keep the conversation focused on STUDENT OUTCOMES, what do want them to know? How will you know that they know it? What will you do if they don’t know it? This can be a difficult look in the mirror! Do students know what we THINK they know? Why or why not?

Verdi offers these guiding questions to help to guide your vision and mission on page 16:

“Prompting Questions for Shared Vision and Mission Statements

• What is the purpose of our music department?

• Who are our students?

• What are their strengths and needs?

• How can our collective efforts improve the quality of their music education and the

quality of their lives?

• What are we collectively willing to commit to and sacrifice?

• What specific indicators of progress will we track to ensure we are making progress

in meeting the needs of our students?”

Like many of you, I spent WAY too much time in forced meetings that could have been an email. But I became a believer in the PLC process after applying it with fidelity. I felt better about what I was doing as an educator, I saw OBJECTIVE facts/data about what my students knew/didn’t know, and I became a better educator for it. A lot of us have so much past trauma with this stuff, but it can be done right - and your students will benefit. After all, isn’t that what it’s all about?