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Let Flexibility Lead To Alignment

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  In my previous school district, I was the only teacher teaching a physics course with set, district-wide learning outcomes. These same outcomes were also taught in physics classrooms at the other high school in our district. But at our school, I was one of the 2 physics teachers. The other teacher taught the AP-level physics courses. So, in many ways, I had opportunities to incorporate strategies I believed were best for learners and that I found worked best for them without being seen as out of alignment with anyone in our building. My amazing friend and one of my teaching philosophy goddesses, Katie Novak, stated the following misconception about alignment: All teachers must deliver instruction in the exact same way. True alignment, she says, is about shared goals, rigor, and outcomes. Thank you, Katie! Katie has taught me to truly believe that learner variability is the rule, not the exception. I encourage you to take 10 minutes to listen to Katie Novak explain it in the ...
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Waves of Innovation in Elmbrook: Data Driven instruction

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I was able to speak to the a PLC of science teachers from a middle school in our district today.  Sheri Gajria, Rebecca Murray, and Julie Wessel teach science at Wisconsin Hills Middle School in Brookfield, WI.  They truly exemplify the power that can be harnessed from a PLC. In our interview, they discussed how they do the following:

1) Assess each student to determine his/her level of proficiency based on a rubric
2) Pool student data across their classes
3) Use data to drive instruction to meet the needs of each learner
4) Use data to determine student grouping for targeted lessons

In addition, Sheri and Julie (Rebecca was out the day of the interview) discuss challenges they've faced and how they know their model is working. The interview goes into more so please watch it.  There is so much to learn about what an effective PLC is and how educators can use formative data to drive instructional practices for each learner.

I was amazed at the level this team is working at.




The team shared these great documents which they speak to in the interview.


Student Goal Setting and Tracking Document






Science Workshop Lesson Planning Template




Sitting down with this PLC only made me realize how much more I could be doing to look at data to drive individual instruction in my classroom.

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