Blog
You Are Loved, and We Are So Happy You Are Here!
We know COVID-19 and the global pandemic changed things for everyone in education. But for our youngest learners, who often come to preK with deficits in language and socialization, the pandemic . . . Read more
Creating a Culture of Collaboration After COVID
As Robert John Meehan so eloquently stated, "The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other. Without collaboration, our growth is limited to our own perspectives." . . . Read more
Clarity precedes competence: Remembering the essence of a true PLC
Contributing author: Annie Gagne Have you ever been in a meeting where people were using words, buzzwords, and you quickly understood that your colleagues did not have the same definition or . . . Read more
A Book Review: PLC+ Better Decisions and Greater Impact by Design
I became a champion of the PLC process fifteen years ago, when I started working in a school that opened as a professional learning community. What left me so jazzed about the PLC process was . . . Read more
PLCs: The Path to Educational Equity
At Alisal, we know that being a Professional Learning Community means focusing on efforts on the four crticial questions. We know that we use data, not feelings, to drive what takes place in our . . . Read more
PLCs and Competency Based Learning: Needed Now More Than Ever!
Alert! Alert! I am about to say something very controversial: One day in the future we are going to reflect back on “COVID times” and say that the global pandemic of 2020 was not . . . Read more
Pandemic Proved Importance of PLCs
At the start of the pandemic, our teachers struggled to know what to teach, how to teach, and most importantly, how to ensure high levels of learning for their students in a remote format, despite . . . Read more
Achieving Equity through Teaching PRIDE
As we set off on our PLC journeys, we are often quick to collaborate for the purpose of Essential Standards, Learning Targets, Common Formative Assessments, and Tier 2 Interventions. In doing so, . . . Read more
Social Media Influencers and Student Assessment Pushback
If you spend time scrolling through social media you have most likely seen a teacher or principal who has become a social media influencer, it is the newest “second job” for educators. . . . Read more
Intervention: The Critical Safety Net
I've got to be honest, when I see people engage in recreational hobbies like free-climbing, I get extremely nervous. Perhaps the biggest reason is due to my severe fear of heights. I tend to . . . Read more
The Life-Changing, Life-Saving Work of PLCs
For fifteen of my twenty-eight years in education, I have been an elementary school principal. I have worked with affluent, middle-class, and poverty clientele. The last ten years have been . . . Read more
The Three Big Ideas That Drive the Work for Lead Learners
“The most powerful and effective role the principal assumes is that of lead learner, not expert or ‘all knowing one.’” (Kramer & Schuhl, 2017, p.9) Phew...now . . . Read more
Pandemic Provides New Lens for Clear Mission
Over the past 17 years, I have had the distinct pleasure of working with a wide variety of schools. Some of them were public, others private or charter schools. Some were comprised of students from . . . Read more
PLCs: Super Bowls and Super Systems
Now that football season is officially over and Tom Brady has permanently secured his place as the greatest quarterback of all time, I cannot help but think of the plethora of parallels that exist . . . Read more
Mrs. Gorman Changed My Life
Not in an awe-inspiring, mind-blowing, hoping-Disney-buys-the-movie-rights type of way. But she was a life-changing teacher nonetheless. She was my English teacher in 1985, during my 7th-grade year at Richardson North Jr. High School in Texas. Read more