Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (Book & CD-ROM),   ISBN:9781932127935

Customer Rating: 

If you want to learn an entirely new set of buzz words, this is the book for you! It is not enough that we have RTI's, IEP's, IDEA, SLP's and the beloved NEA. We need PLC's as well! And we also need to (drumroll please) LEARN BY DOING! That's a new one, I always thought that teachers were supposed to learn by not doing!

What was most remarkable about this book was the utter lack of usable content. While it does an excellent imitation of Charlie Brown's teacher (indecipherable blah, blah, blahs), it says absolutely nothing new. It is uncanny, the book is utterly devoid of originality or new information. Just a plodding restatement of old ideas wrapped in new jargon.

Yet when another reviewer pointed out the obvious, that the emperor was in fact stark naked, he was immediately attacked by the true believers. I in no way wish to deny those who love fads and jargons from their periodic "fix" of meaningless initials and empty slogans. But could you please stop forcing it onto your fellow educators?

Customer Rating: 

Learning by Doing should be the consummate staff development guide for all schools. Creating a common language, the right language, about PLC's is what needs to happen to get all of the arrows going in the right direction in any educational environment on any initiative. I look forward to implementing it with my new school!

Customer Rating: 

This book is a must read for any administrator or potential administrator that is looking for new ways to improve their schools. Very practical and flexible with many scenarios and worksheets that can help you to determine where your school is and how to get it where you want it to go.

Customer Rating: 

Excellent Book!! Extremely valuable resource for schools that are working toward a true Professional Learning Community. Easy to read and very practical.

Customer Rating: 

Professional Learning Communities are the big buzz currently. Does your school district have professional learning communities? Have you wondered where to start? Have you wondered how your professional learning communities are doing? If you've wondered about any of those, then this is the book for you.

Learning by Doing is a great handbook for administrators and teachers to use as they implement professional learning communities in their school. This handbook gives an overview of the different components of the professional learning community process. As schools implement the professional learning community process this handbook is also a useful tool to assist in self reflection and evaluation.

As a school is developing professional learning communities, this handbook is a great resource to use through the process. It begins by giving advice on how to clarify the purpose of professional learning communities, how to build collaborative teams, and how to establish team norms. The collaborative foundation is essential to the success of the professional learning communities. The professional learning communities must collaborate in order to increase student achievement.

The handbook also shares information about how to collect data, how to use the data to improve results, and how to implement interventions in order to improve student achievement. These components help the professional learning community develop strategies to help each individual learner in their classroom. Schools must develop and support a pyramid of interventions in order to meet the students' needs.

This handbook includes many useful reproducible handouts and continuums which help analyze the progress of each professional learning community. The continuums are great conversation starters for the professional learning communities to use to evaluate their progress. This handbook can help your school improve the PLC process through self reflection and evaluation.

If you are looking for tools to help your Professional Learning Communities improve, this book is for you.