Week+11PLC+Meeting


 * Week 11: Teacher Inquiry: Developing as a Healthy Education Professional **

PLC Group Name: QUEST Divas  PLC Meeting Location: CITE-lab  PLC Meeting Time: 3 hours 

**Hour 1 ** **ENGAGE ** Teachers wear so many hats: counselor, parent, referee, etc. You nurture others all day long, and sometimes, you’re all out of nurturing ability by the time it comes to taking care of yourself! 

We’ve talked about being a better teacher by inquiring into your own practice. Today we are going to talk about teacher well-being. As an anticipatory set for today’s lesson, please begin read the following article. (As with all readings, it is intended to prompt discussion, not intended to be the only authority on the topic.)  <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Teacher Wellness: [] <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">

**<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">EXPLORE **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">[|http://viking.coe.uh.edu/~jrickaway/QUEST_2/PLC_meeting_article.pdf] ** **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">[] ** **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">[|http://viking.coe.uh.edu/~jrickaway/QUEST_2/2nd_resource.pdf] ** **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Hour 2 **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">EXPLAIN **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">[Note to PLC Leaders: You will lead the group in responding to the reading and other resources. Here is where you will post to your group space at least 3 open-ended discussion questions. Each PLC member should have an opportunity to share his or her understanding of the content.] <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What kind of support system do you like? · <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Social work support · <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Physical fitness classes: Yoga · <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Awareness of the effects and instructions on how to fix it  <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What changes did any of these programs make and why were they successful? <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What would it take to implement a program or awareness to your own school or would it even be possible? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">

**<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">ELABORATE **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">[PLC leaders: Here is where you will present a brief activity for the group to test its collective understanding and to push it into new directions. I’m suggesting something like this as a starting point. . . <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Your own well-being—how well you manage the work-life balancing act—impacts the climate in your classroom and even your students’ performance. What else could it impact? Could decades of promised education reform be inadvertently thwarted by teachers’ wellness? Or, is this just a bunch of overinflated nonsense? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Suggested topics: · <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Could decades of promised education reform be inadvertently thwarted by teachers’ wellness? Or, is this just a bunch of overinflated nonsense? <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Of course this is the reason!!! But it’s not the teachers fault. Society needs to take a closer look at the suppression teachers are under that silences their voices from being heard. Education reform needs to happen and the only way to do that is for the teachers to step up and implement the need… WOW how can this happen if we are so stressed and bogged down with work… How can potential teachers (QUEST Students) even be talking about such an important topic, when there is so much work to be done? Next… <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Activity: Having a fun classroom environment will promote laughter as a class. Making appropriate jokes and playful redirection are all ways to bring the class closer together and promotes a stress free environment. Each member teaches us their own personal routine that they do that is funny. Example: joke, questioning, funny faces, etc. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How can humor be used?
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How can you interview your potential jobs to understand the kind of work environment and culture that is at that school, and how that would fit with your own personal needs for success?

**<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Hour 3 **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">EVALUATE **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">1. As a group, reflect on what you have learned today about becoming a healthy educator and maintaining work-life balance. What will it take to keep YOU a healthy, happy professional educator? (Note: what works for your friend in the next classroom may not work for you!). <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">• **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Engaging in personal hobbies? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">• Remaining involved in your church? Jenny Rodriguez: Go to church then ready to work <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">• Planning time to see friends?.... Eboni: Weekend are all mine! <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">• Getting up at 5:30 to run every morning? Jenny Rickaway: Would love to do this, I know that it will not get rid of my stress but it will help me feel better about it. <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">• Continued professional development on areas that spark your curiosity? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">• Making a commitment to getting work done at work and not bringing it home? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What choices will you make? Where will you draw boundaries? How can you beat the odds of 1/3 of teachers leaving the field by the 5-years point? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">2. As a group, draft a brief statement (approx 1-2 paragraphs) of what you learned or new understandings you came to during this discussion. What did you agree with/about, and what did you not agree with/about? How do you KNOW you learned and grew?! <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">School value is important to look if you are going to expect career satisfaction. Learning from experiences that a school district might not be the underlining problem, but the actual school could promote unhealthy appreciation. Interviewing the teachers and principals for a future job and also looking at the teacher turnover rate are good ways to see if you are going to be in a place where you are appreciated. Who are you replacing, how long were they there and why did they leave? <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We agreed that you need to look at your potential school. Some suggestions were to substitute in that school, others disagreed about the substitute process and the amount of work that it entails. <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course we know we are learning because of our experiences. Each of us are arranging our schema to fit in and make sense of all these experiences. Whether good or bad it is important for us to take responsibility of how we want to be treated by modeling it through our actions. <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We know we grew because new ideas are constantly popping up in our brains. Reacting positively to new obstacles, are just one of many examples of growth.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">3. Individually, it is time to register to present at the QUEST Teacher Research Symposium. Registration is simple, and REQUIRED! Just go to this link and enter your name, email, and general presentation topic (your wondering!): [] <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">4. Individually, please send your “PLC Check” as an email to Dr. Pierson and Caroline: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">--What/Who worked well in today’s PLC meeting? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">--What/Who didn’t work so well in today’s PLC meeting?