Teacher Learning Center

Over the past week, I've spent a good deal of time reviewing goals generated by teachers which they'll be working on during their Teacher Learning Center (TLC) time over the course of this year. TLC is the second form of teacher common planning time we have at SKHS. It is different than the common planning time that occurs on Wednesday mornings which is organized departmentally in that it is composed of teachers from different disciplines. The purpose of TLC is for teachers to pursue common school-wide goals during the time in the school day when many teachers in other districts are required to perform duties such as cafeteria supervision or hall monitoring. There are seven different TLC groups (one that meets for each period of the day) that are run by two teacher-facilitators that are trained and supported throughout the year. These facilitators are truly teacher-leaders at SKHS.

This is our third year of TLC; we altered the structure this year to provide teachers more opportunities to pursue personal professional growth with the common theme being that goals needed to be connected to their classroom and supporting student learning. Each teacher - or a small group of teachers who were working together - submitted their goals to me last week. It's been a real pleasure to read the goals which range from identifying and implementing instructional strategies to improve expository writing for ninth grade students to creating specific lessons to increase students’ ability to discuss, create and evaluate artwork to incorporating effective strategies for engaging families and students in order to improve home/school communication. We’ve posted many of the goals on our internal communication system to provide faculty an opportunity to see the variety of goals their colleagues are pursuing.

All teachers submit a detailed plan of action as well as a methodology for data collection and analysis. Each TLC meets a few times a week collectively to report out on progress and engage in a variety of structured activities designed to elicit feedback from colleagues to provide critical feedback and perspective on the goal. They use their remaining TLC time during the week to pursue their identified goals. While the goals and group protocols vary, they all are one more way we try to structure supporting SKHS students.