Dr. Phil Piercy is currently the Principal and Chief Academic Officer at The Highland’s School, a private school for children with reading and learning differences, located in Bel Air, Maryland. At the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year, he accepted the position of part-time social studies teacher along with the position of principal and chief academic officer. Dr. Piercy’s twenty-three years of experience as a social studies teacher, and later assistant principal and then principal, made him a strong candidate to replace outgoing Executive Director. Currently, he is maintaining his Principal/Chief Academic Officer role along with teaching one class of Spanish to the high school. A theoretical understanding of Professional Learning Communities provides the sole basis for Dr. Piercy’s understanding of PLCs. He provided a definition he developed from independent study and his wife’s experience as a local public school teacher.
“An ongoing collaboration of a group of educators who investigate and question to improve student teaching and learning. It is not a program.” In Dr. Piercy’s opinion, a Professional Learning Community is a buzzword. He states that, although the idea of a PLC has merit, the name will disappear in several years but the idea will reappear in a new form, with a new name, as tends to happen in public education. He believes that that when an idea becomes popular, it loses focus, making it difficult to retain the purity of that idea. In his belief, public education dilutes beneficial ideas by turning them into something that must be completed rather than benefitting from the basic ideas. Dr. Piercy had a difficult time recognizing aspects of PLCs within our school. He does recognize that The Highland’s School has naturally developed elements but it is due to the size and unique nature of our school, a tutorial model as opposed to a typical public or private school, rather than intentionality. After I provided an example (informal collaboration between small group instructors) of how I saw elements of a PLC, he recognized two additional examples. The first was the creation and implementation of a behavior program for the upper school. Over the summer teachers met with the specific goal of creating such a behavior program and it has been implemented this year. The second example Dr. Piercy mentioned were organized teacher meetings to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of particular students. He recognizes the benefits of such meetings although he has never attended such a meeting. Dr. Piercy described several benefits to …show more content…
Whether it is through shared leadership, such as a PLC model or through a more typical top-down hierarchy, leadership is needed to provide a structure for the vision of the educational organization. Teaching staff benefits by realizing there is a vision or plan as the organization works with students year after year. As a current staff member, it is my opinion that implementing shared leadership has the potential to improve the low morale among the teaching staff and other leaders within the school. The first step, developing a shared vision at the helm of the leadership, which constitutes three members, is critical for developing needed cohesiveness among the teachers and instructors. As a shared vision is implemented throughout the school, the benefits to the staff and students will be apparent. This vision can provide the basis for structure, even if the Professional Learning Community isn’t implemented within the
“An ongoing collaboration of a group of educators who investigate and question to improve student teaching and learning. It is not a program.” In Dr. Piercy’s opinion, a Professional Learning Community is a buzzword. He states that, although the idea of a PLC has merit, the name will disappear in several years but the idea will reappear in a new form, with a new name, as tends to happen in public education. He believes that that when an idea becomes popular, it loses focus, making it difficult to retain the purity of that idea. In his belief, public education dilutes beneficial ideas by turning them into something that must be completed rather than benefitting from the basic ideas. Dr. Piercy had a difficult time recognizing aspects of PLCs within our school. He does recognize that The Highland’s School has naturally developed elements but it is due to the size and unique nature of our school, a tutorial model as opposed to a typical public or private school, rather than intentionality. After I provided an example (informal collaboration between small group instructors) of how I saw elements of a PLC, he recognized two additional examples. The first was the creation and implementation of a behavior program for the upper school. Over the summer teachers met with the specific goal of creating such a behavior program and it has been implemented this year. The second example Dr. Piercy mentioned were organized teacher meetings to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of particular students. He recognizes the benefits of such meetings although he has never attended such a meeting. Dr. Piercy described several benefits to …show more content…
Whether it is through shared leadership, such as a PLC model or through a more typical top-down hierarchy, leadership is needed to provide a structure for the vision of the educational organization. Teaching staff benefits by realizing there is a vision or plan as the organization works with students year after year. As a current staff member, it is my opinion that implementing shared leadership has the potential to improve the low morale among the teaching staff and other leaders within the school. The first step, developing a shared vision at the helm of the leadership, which constitutes three members, is critical for developing needed cohesiveness among the teachers and instructors. As a shared vision is implemented throughout the school, the benefits to the staff and students will be apparent. This vision can provide the basis for structure, even if the Professional Learning Community isn’t implemented within the