Virtual Professional Learning Communities

Overview

A PLC or professional learning community is a group of teaching professionals who meet regularly to improve teaching skill or academic performance of students. The goals of these sessions will center around a selected theme or topic that could be content focused, pedagogy focused, or justice centered. The PLC will use active learning and support collaboration, typically in job-embedded context. We will also use modeling of effect practice, provide expert coaching, and support, and offer opportunities for feedback and reflection.

Groups will be around six members and the focus of each PLC will vary depending on interest. In general, PLC groups will meet for six two-hour sessions with some work expected between sessions. Start times for sessions are staggered, the earliest starting in October of this year. Each PLC will be facilitated by a member of the Northeast Noyce Teacher Leader Cadre.

Participant Stipend

Members of the Northeast Noyce Professional Learning Network are eligible for a $450 stipend upon completion of the PLC sessions. Those wishing to receive the stipend must complete a W-9 when registering for the PLC.

We strongly encourage you to invite a STEM colleague or teaching partner in your school/district to attend this PLC with you. Context matters, so having someone with you that also shares similar contexts can be an integral component of the professional learning community and what can be taken back and applied to your practice.

Choose from a variety of Professional Learning Communities facilitated by one of our Teacher Leader Cadre members

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Elementary Science

Science and Engineering Practices in the K-6 Science Classroom

PLC Description:

Bringing NGSS to Life in Your Classroom

Are you interested in learning more about how to bring science to life in your K-6 elementary science classroom by utilizing both phenomena and the science and engineering practices? In this PLC we will use excerpts from Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices by Schwarz to explore each of the eight SEPs and how they help students engage in sense-making of the world around them. We will dive deep into the standards and focus on helping students understand phenomena in the real world. By shifting the focus of our science instruction from “receive and repeat information” to “working together to generate and revise knowledge”, the students’ learning will shift from learning about a topic to figuring out why or how something happens.

Session Details

Facilitator: Marie Rice
Audience: K-6 Educators
Frequency: Once per Month (December – May)
- Specific Dates & Times will be determined as a PLC group to ensure that the most suitable dates and times are identified for the whole group
- Duration: 2 hours

Register Here

Secondary Science

Ambitious Science Teaching in the K-12 Classroom: Dare to be Different

PLC Description:

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Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) requires teachers to develop a strong commitment to student learning and understand the inequities in science and schools. Participants will gain the skills necessary to support students in tackling real and meaningful science phenomena with attention to each student’s background, social interactions, and local and global communities. Through this work, the teacher will allow students to maintain their wonder of the natural world around them.

Throughout six two-hour sessions that meet every month starting in November and ending in April, we will work to understand what it means to be ambitious in the science classroom.

Session Details

Facilitator: Jason McMurray
Audience: Grades 5-12 Science Educators
Frequency: Once per Month
- Specific Dates & Times will be determined as a PLC group to ensure that the most suitable dates and times are identified for the whole group
- Duration: 2 hours

Register Here

Orchestrating productive classroom discourse

PLC Description:

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Ever find yourself trying to steer a student’s response into the day’s learning target, like fitting a square peg into a round hole? Join this PLC series, specifically designed for math and science teachers of grades 5-12, to master the art of orchestrating content-based discussions that naturally align with your learning goals. Drawing from the work of Smith & Stein (2011), you’ll discover practical protocols and procedures that keep conversations on track and drive meaningful learning forward.

This PLC will meet once per month for 2 hrs each session through the months of December – May.

Session Details

Facilitator: Orlando Marrero
Audience: Grades 5-12 Science Educators
Frequency: Once per Month
- Specific Dates & Times will be determined as a PLC group to ensure that the most suitable dates and times are identified for the whole group
- Duration: 2 hours

Register Here

Thinking Classrooms in MS and HS Science

PLC Description:

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How can we get 6-12 students thinking more in science classrooms? In this PLC series, learn from Peter Liljedahl’s book, Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics Grades 6-12. Don’t be alarmed; there are direct transferable and actionable steps in science! Throughout the PLC series, teachers will practice the techniques to build a thinking classroom. Structures will be modeled to establish student centered learning spaces. We will meet on zoom once a month for two hours starting in January.

Session Details

Facilitator: Kirsten Abbott
Audience: Grades 5-12 Science Educators
Frequency: Once per Month
- Specific Dates & Times will be determined as a PLC group to ensure that the most suitable dates and times are identified for the whole group
- Duration: 2 hours

Register Here

Inquiry-Based STEM Integration with a CER Focus

PLC Description:

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This PLC will delve into the effective integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) through the lens of inquiry-based learning. With a particular emphasis on the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) model, participants will develop the skills and knowledge to create engaging, student-centered learning experiences that foster critical thinking, problem-solving, and scientific argumentation.

This PLC is appropriate for secondary science teachers. We will meet on Zoom for a two hour session once a month, from November to April.

Session Details

Facilitator: Frank Straub
Audience: Grades 5-12 Science Educators
Frequency: Once per Month
- Specific Dates & Times will be determined as a PLC group to ensure that the most suitable dates and times are identified for the whole group
- Duration: 2 hours

Register Here

Community Partnerships/Ecosystem Capital

PLC Description:

Community Partnerships/Ecosystem Capital

There are many resources available to science teachers to connect to local experts, grants, and flora/fauna to help make science lessons more applicable to students in their local ecosystem. This PLC series will focus on helping secondary science teachers recognize the ecosystem capital their district has to use in the science classroom. We will connect you with local community experts who can help us create relevant, engaging science lessons, and connect with local partners to connect science lessons to their community. This will be completed over six two hour sessions from October-April 2024

Session Details

Facilitator: Jonathan Pragle
Audience: Grades 6-12 Science Educators
Frequency: Once per Month
- Specific Dates & Times will be determined as a PLC group to ensure that the most suitable dates and times are identified for the whole group
- Duration: 2 hours

Register Here

Motivating Students and Supporting Their Learning with Formative Assessment and Wise Feedback

PLC Description:

Motivating Students and Supporting their Learning with Formative Assessment and Wise Feedback

This PLC will work through a series of teacher inquiry cycles (investigating our own practice) to analyze how students currently respond to feedback, then research and develop potential action plans and investigate outcomes of changes to planning and instruction. We will use the wise feedback framework, the text Formative Assessment for 3D Science Learning: Supporting Ambitious and Equitable Instruction by Erin Marie Furtak, and excerpts from Rough Draft Math by Amanda Jansen to adjust our approach to providing affirming, actionable feedback that furthers student engagement and learning.

Session Details

Facilitator: Andi Polanski
Audience: Secondary Science Teachers
Frequency: One Tuesday afternoon per month (November – June)
- Specific Dates & Times will be determined as a PLC group to ensure that the most suitable dates and times are identified for the whole group
- Duration: 2 hours

Register Here

Elementary Math

Increasing Mathematical Discourse through Math Routines in the Primary Grades

PLC Description:

Increasing Mathematical Discourse through Math Routines in the Primary Grades

Get students talking!! Effective discourse is vital to deeper understanding, transfer of learning and will assist students who have difficulty finding their errors and revising their responses. Through math routines and number talks, we can increase student understanding, build stamina, attend to precision, and use math tools, strategies, procedures effectively and efficiently. Providing opportunities for discourse, even with our youngest students, increases content vocabulary, solidifies their reasoning, and gives teachers a window into student thinking. Geared towards grades K-2, we will use Jessica Shumway’s book, Number Sense Routines, to help focus some of our work and look for ways to adapt traditional math problems into quick, rigorous math routines. Bring your morning cup of coffee to our monthly meetings, 7:00am to 8:30 am on the first Tuesday of the month from October to March. In addition to our hour and half meetings, there will be half an hour of asynchronous work to be completed between sessions.

Session Details

Facilitator: Maria Frey
Audience: Grades K-2 Educators
Frequency: Every 1st Tuesday per Month (October – March)
- Dates: Tuesdays – 11/5, 12/3, 1/7, 2/4, 3/4, and 4/1
- Time: 7:00 AM – 8:30 AM
Asynchronous Work: 30 minutes between each session

Register Here

Equity-Based Practices in Mathematics

Do you want to learn how to design instruction so that all of your students can learn at high levels? Using Zaretta Hammond’s book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain as a foundational text, participants will explore equity-based practices and consider ways to apply them within a mathematics context. This PLC is ideal for any k-12 mathematics teacher. Over six sessions we will read and discuss the text, as well as engage in some lesson design and analysis work.

Session Details

Facilitator: Nicole Charles
Audience: K-12 Math Educators
Frequency: Every 2nd Tuesday per Month (October – March)
- Dates: Tuesdays – 11/12, 12/10, 1/14, 2/11, 3/11, and 4/8
- Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Register Here

The Power of Building a Learning Community with Mathematical Discourse (Grades PK - 5)

PLC Description:

The Power of Building a Learning Community with Mathematical Discourse (Grades PK - 5)

Tired of hearing yourself talk? Get your primary and elementary-aged students talking!! Throughout six two-hour PLC sessions, learn how increasing class discussion in the mathematics (and beyond) classroom can unveil what students are thinking, understanding, struggling with, or misunderstanding. This can be done through the creation of a strong learning community where the Standards of Mathematical Practices are a guiding force to developing a positive math identity, questioning techniques expose student thinking, and talk moves help students go deeper into learning. You (the teacher) can become the facilitator of the learning environment as the students engage and lead meaningful learning discussions. This PLC will incorporate resources which include: Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Classroom Discussion; Using math talk to help students learn, Talk Moves, Social Emotional Learning (SEL) connections/building, Culturally Responsive Teaching, and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy.

Session Details

Facilitator: Jenn Davison
Audience: Grades PK – 5 Educators
Frequency: Once approximately every 3 weeks on Wednesdays (January – April)
- Specific Dates & Times: Wednesdays – 1/8, 1/29, 2/26, 3/19, 4/9, 4/30
- Duration: 2 hours

Register Here

Secondary Math

Understanding by Design: Anchoring Activities

PLC Description:

UbD Anchoring Activities

Students love to see their own growth, and we want to be able to track that growth as well.  Let’s design something that does that! Anchoring activities are a type of performance task that focuses on big ideas and essential questions. Through unit-long revisions, each student provides an answer that demonstrates a better understanding of those big ideas and a snapshot of their learning along the way. Over the course of six two-hour sessions we will work together to understand what an anchoring activity is, how to use it in your classroom, and how you can create your own to discover and track what your students have learned.

Session Details

Facilitator: Fred Young
Audience: Grades 7-12 Mathematics Educators
Frequency: Once per Month
- Specific Dates & Times will be determined as a PLC group to ensure that the most suitable dates and times are identified for the whole group
- Duration: 2 hours

Register Here

Fostering Collaboration and Student Discourse in the 9-12 Math Classroom

PLC Description:

Fostering Collaboration and Student Discourse in the 9-12 Math Classroom

Collaboration and student discourse are essential in order to help students make meaning and develop a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts and practices. But how can we get students to do this in our own classrooms? Through the intentional selection of math tasks and the use of protocols, we can engage students in learning experiences in which they are actively constructing their knowledge and making meaning of the concepts by engaging in mathematical practices. Throughout our six two-hour sessions, we will explore a variety of rich tasks and protocols and think about how we can adapt these to work in our own contexts. We will try implementing these in our own classrooms and reflect on our experiences together. This PLC is designed for math teachers in grades 9-12 but can be adapted for other levels of mathematics.

Session Details

Facilitator: Brittany Smithgall
Audience: Grades 9-12 Mathematics Educators
Frequency: Once per Month
- Specific Dates & Times will be determined as a PLC group to ensure that the most suitable dates and times are identified for the whole group
- Duration: 2 hours

Register Here

Developing Equitable Math Practices

PLC Description:

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Would you like your math classroom to be more equitable?

Learn strategies presented in Pamela Seda and Kyndall Brown’s book Choosing to See. The authors describe a classroom framework where students feel known, valued, and encouraged to take ownership of their learning. This framework encourages and supports critically conscious teachers in building on their students prior knowledge while holding high expectations and using culturally relevant curricula.

This PLC will meet for six sessions on Monday evenings from 4:30-6:30 from November to April. The framework presented helps you to better see the assets and strengths that each student brings to your classroom. In each session we will identify strategies that we can try implementing in our classes between sessions.

Session Details

Facilitator: Kevin Westrich
Audience: Grades 5-12 Mathematics Educators
Frequency: Once per Month
- Specific Dates & Times will be determined as a PLC group to ensure that the most suitable dates and times are identified for the whole group
- Duration: 2 hours