Season 3 | Episode 5 - Building Asset-Focused Professional Learning Communities - Guests: Summer Pettigrew and Megan Williams

Summer Pettigrew and Megan Williams, Building Asset-Focused Professional Learning Communities

ROUNDING UP: SEASON 3 | EPISODE 5

Professional learning communities have been around for a long time, in many different iterations. But what does it look like to schedule and structure professional learning communities that help educators understand and respond to their students' thinking in meaningful ways? Today we’re talking with Summer Pettigrew and Megan Williams from the Charleston County Public Schools about building asset-focused professional learning communities.

BIOGRAPHIES

Summer Pettigrew serves as an instructional coach at Springfield Elementary School in Charleston, South Carolina. 

Megan Williams serves as principal at Springfield Elementary School in Charleston, South Carolina.

RESOURCES

OGAP website

TRANSCRIPT

Mike Wallus: Professional learning communities have been around for a long time and in many different iterations. But what does it look like to schedule and structure professional learning communities that actually help educators understand and respond to their students’ thinking in meaningful ways? Today we're talking with Summer Pettigrew and Megan Williams from the Charleston Public Schools about building asset-focused professional learning communities. 

Hello, Summer and Megan. Welcome to the podcast. I am excited to be talking with you all today about PLCs.

Megan Williams: Hi!

Summer Pettigrew: Thanks for having us. We're excited to be here.

Mike: I'd like to start this conversation in a very practical place: scheduling. So, Megan, I wonder if you could talk just a bit about when and how you schedule PLCs at your building.

Megan: Sure. I think it's a great place to start too, because I think without the structure of PLCs in place, you can't really have fabulous PLC meetings. And so, we used to do our PLC meetings once a week during teacher planning periods, and the teachers were having to give up their planning period during the day to come to the PLC meeting. And so, we created a master schedule that gives an hour for PLC each morning. So, we meet with one grade level a day, and then the teachers still have their regular planning period throughout the day. 

So, we were able to do that by building a time for clubs in the schedule. So, first thing in the morning, depending on your day, so if it's Monday and that's third grade, then the related arts teachers—and that for us is art, music, P.E., guidance, our special areas—they go to the third-grade teachers’ classrooms. The teachers are released to go to PLC, and then the students choose a club. And so, those range from basketball to gardening to fashion to [STEM]. We've had Spanish Club before. So, they participate with the related arts teacher in their chosen club, and then the teachers go to their PLC meeting. And then once that hour is up, then the teachers come back to class. The related arts teachers are released to go get ready for their day. So, everybody still has their planning period, per se, throughout the day.

Mike: I think that feels really important, and I just want to linger a little bit longer on it. One of the things that stands out is that you're preserving the planning time on a regular basis. They have that, and they have PLC time in addition to it.

Megan: Mm-hmm, correct. And that I think is key because planning time in the middle of the day is critical for making copies, calling parents, calling your doctor to schedule an appointment, using the restroom—those kind of things that people have to do throughout the day. And so, when you have PLC during their planning time, one or the other is not occurring. Either a teacher is not taking care of those things that need to be taken care of on the planning period or they're not engaged in the PLC because they're worried about something else that they've got to do. So, building that time in, it's just like a game changer.

Mike: Summer, as a person who’s playing the role of an instructional coach, what impact do you think this way of scheduling has had on educators who are participating in the PLCs that you're facilitating?

Summer: Well, it's huge. I have experienced going to a PLC on our planning [period] and just not being one-hundred-percent engaged. And so, I think having the opportunity to provide the time and the space for that during the school day allows the teachers to be more present. And I think that the rate at which we're growing as a