Profile - Faculty: Above the Treetops

Teacher’s ‘think tank’ lets BSS educators get above the fray.
By Rachel Yeager

Over the past few years, BSS had been looking for a way to incorporate time for formal group discussion into Senior School teachers’ busy schedules. Monthly staff meetings, where the entire faculty was present, were not proving to be effective mediums for in-depth examination of issues across the curriculum.

“In these large, group meetings, teachers weren’t able to have substantive conversations about real issues in the Senior School,” says Angela Terpstra, Assistant Head, Senior School.

“Some of my colleagues and I attended a conference in the U.S. called Best Practices for 21st Century Learning, and heard about schools who had abandoned afterschool meetings and moved to daytime meetings,” says Sian Jones, Vice Principal, Academic Program.

The result was the formation of Professional Learning Communities, or PLCs, implemented in the Senior School this year. PLCS are heterogeneous groups of ten to fifteen teachers across departments and grades. PLC groups meet bi-weekly to discuss curriculum, exchange ideas on assignments and evaluation, and even visit one another’s classrooms to share methodologies and best practices.

“It’s a good way to hear varying viewpoints on issues around the School,” says Rita Gravina, Head of the Learning Commons and Canada/World Studies teacher. “We can bring a topic of discussion that we feel is useful. It’s a good way to discuss educational issues that are hot at the moment. And I like hearing how various departments are responding to the issues that the School is dealing with.”

The end goal is to build a tightly-knit group of teachers who can be open and honest, and can grow together to build a common understanding of each other’s teaching practice. Says Ms Jones, “one of the struggles with education is that teachers are in the classrooms, behind doors, working alone. That’s how school life is scheduled. Having time to converse with colleagues, and to work with colleagues, is not a natural part of a high school system.”

According to Jan Sullivan, Vice Principal of Student Life, “a lot more can be accomplished in a meeting with a small group, and curriculum issues can be examined much more in-depth.”

Adds Ms Jones, “there is a huge difference between the conversations we would have had in our staff meetings versus the conversations we have in the PLC. I hope that people feel that’s valuable.”

Students also benefit from the PLC model because, as Ms Jones puts it, “the more their teachers are talking to each other, the more streamlined their learning experience will be.”

In a high school where everyone is divided up by subject and discipline, the structure is not built for teachers to collaborate. Says Ms Jones, “that’s just how education has been for such a long time at the high school level—and at the university level. So it’s really a shift for those people to think about putting together the skills and the knowledge that’s common and enables the kids to come together to build something even bigger.”


Posted May 02, 2009 at 05:24pm






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