The Only True Wisdom

Socrates is well known for having a quote that goes like this, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” It is with this in mind I have been planning for our second PLC. I believe that after having run through a PLC once already, hearing the teachers feedback through their FlipGrids, teaching the lesson myself, and having students respond to the quiz I am extremely well prepared to review the first lesson and lead this next PLC.

However, I also realize that even the best laid plans sometimes go awry. It is with this knowledge that I have been trying to think up any, and all issues that may arise for this next meeting. I have been thinking of the changes that need to take place from our first PLC to this one. I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I regretted allowing the teachers to mute their cameras and microphones. This allowed them to possibly log into the meeting but then mute us as presenters or not even be present in the room. For this upcoming meeting I will be asking teachers to leave their cameras turned on so that I can read their expressions and take note of who is actively participating. Additionally, this will enhance my request to have as much participation from the group as possible. Teachers will not be able to just hide behind a black screen. I have also prepared an agenda to follow along with, and then an area where I can share notes from teacher feedback. This will allow me to document the teachers’ thoughts as well as stay on track with my allotted time frame. (LINK TO AGENDA)

Through my first PLC I did not take notes because I knew I would be recording the meeting itself and would be able to refer to the recording for anything I needed. The problem with that though was when I wanted to reference the PLC to our tech supervisor I was unable to remember everything I wanted to talk about and it isn’t logical or practical to think I can just sit down pull up a video and watch through 30 minutes of footage to jog my memory. Therefore I wanted to create something that would allow me to remember and reference what was discussed this time in a quicker and more time efficient way. The following article I read also highlights the importance of taking notes from ANY MEETING in order to help with important points, share with individuals who miss the meeting, and to stay on track. (LINK TO ARTICLE)

The next thing I needed to address to avoid issues in our upcoming PLC was the lack of follow through from our first PLC. Earlier this week, I noticed I only had 5 responses from my fifth grade group in the FlipGrids, and four responses from my sixth grade group. Due to this I did a little research on how to get people to follow through with their responsibilities at work. I especially liked the following article. (LINK TO ARTICLE). After reading and thinking about how often to follow up I decided to send an email about 2.5 weeks prior to the expected due date of their assignments. I then decided to send an email yesterday (2 days before our PLC). Interestingly, I ended up getting a ton of responses and FlipGrids between yesterday and today. This seemed to be an effective way to get teachers to follow through with their expectations. You can read the emails that were sent by clicking on the following links. (Mid Nov. Reminder LINK, 2 Days Prior Reminder LINK)

The last two things that I wanted to really cover before leading my PLC was the new lesson they would be teaching, and the timetable for the remainder of the year with our digital citizenship lesson. The teachers are now aware of our remaining PLC schedule and our digital citizenship group no longer has any more dates when we were allowed to present. F

or this reason it is important to review the second lesson and make sure they understand its relevance, and then also ensure they understand the format of the lessons so they can teach the future ones without us leading a meeting prior to the lesson. It is also extremely important that they know we are going to continue putting the quizzes and FlipGrids out there in an email so that we can still communicate and get feedback on the lessons. This feedback will allow us to see if the teachers are still going through with the lessons and how well our students retained the information.

Ultimately, I feel extremely well prepared for my last PLC experience tomorrow. I have had the opportunity to watch the other two members of my group present and that has helped me to see the flow of the meetings and to remember to emphasize the importance of feedback. I am very excited to run this last meeting and see what the teachers’ thoughts on digital citizenship has been to this point.