Using Professional Learning Communities in Your Classroom

In field, the sixth grade teacher I was with had amazing classroom management. He wasn't overly strict with the students and they seemed to really like and respect him. I don't think I have ever seen a sixth grade class behave this way before. I asked him what his secret was, and he told me that he put the responsibility on them and to help them create a community with themselves. Before you can differentiate, you need your students to trust you and to trust each other. Classroom community is the most important thing to establish.

At the beginning of the year, he made four small posters titled: When The Teacher Is At The Front, In Line, Self-Start Time, and Group Work. The students came up with what went on these posters of what it looked like and what it sounded like. The teacher used these posters to hold the students to their own standards and would use them to remind the students that they wrote them. Pure genius! I have always believed that students should have a say in the class rules, but this just takes it to a whole new level. I love that it really puts the responsibility on them to behave the way they think they should.

Another way he creates responsibility in his classroom is by using professional learning communities. The students' desks are grouped into "tables" and each table has a table leader. The table leaders draft who they want at their tables and decide the seating chart for their table. At the beginning of each week, the tables create goals for when they will all get their homework in by, how many books they will read as a table, what service project they will do that week, and any other goals they wish to set. Each day, the teacher gives them about five minutes to see where they are at with their goals. At the end of the week, the teacher would tally up the tables for when their homework was in, how many books they read, behavior, how clean it is around their table, how many table points they received, and how many books they read. These tallies continued throughout the month. The teacher created benchmarks where the table would receive a prize for achieving so many points. They were things like pillows for the whole day, a candy bar, extra reading time, extra recess time, free lunch, free book, lunch with the teacher, etc. Every Friday, the teacher would have lunch with the table leaders and go over how things are going, what could be done better, ways they could show more leadership, and how to unite their table. These meetings were private and neither the students nor the teacher shared what was said in these meetings with anyone else. I was amazed at the leadership and unity this built within the classroom. The students responded very well to it and really strived to reach their goals each week. The students who usually slack off or misbehave, found that their behavior directly effected their table-mates. This changed their outlook on how they act and they worked harder to be a good member of the team. This was such a great example to me of how to create a healthy community in your classroom and that it can be incredibly helpful to release some of the power and responsibility to the students.