PLC - Jennifer Rivera

A fourth grade teacher named Jennifer Rivera talks about the benefits of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) for educators. She explains that PLCs involve teachers and instructional coaches coming together to analyze data, set goals, and learn from each other. PLCs allow teachers to experiment with different teaching methods and collaborate to find what works best for their students. Jennifer shares her positive experiences with PLCs as a student teacher and emphasizes the importance of teamwork and community in education. She encourages others to join a PLC and see their students thrive and succeed. Welcome, fellow educators. My name is Jennifer Rivera and I am a fourth grade reading and social studies teacher. Woohoo! I know everyone loves reading. It helps us navigate through life and the rest of our subjects. Another thing that helps us be successful as educators are PLCs. What is that, you may ask? Well, imagine a table with teachers and instructional coaches coming together for the common good of their students. Data is analyzed, goals are established, and team members learn both individually and collectively, all while implementing and adjusting practices to best suit the needs of all students on the campus. Teachers can use this procedure to experiment with different methods of instruction and learn what works best. That's right. I call it a win-win for all who are involved. The common interest being the students. On today's podcast, I will speak more on the benefits of being a part of a PLC and the positive impacts. This will be my first year teaching and I remember getting the benefit of joining PLCs not only for kindergarten but first grade and fourth grade as a student teacher. I love them. I knew I would be introduced to new strategies. I knew that I would see great minds coming together for the common good of the students and coming up with new strategies and new ways to teach students and new ways to say, I think we should do this and the team collaborate. The really neat part was that this was three different grades and three different campuses. However, the common thread was the students and their success. The data was analyzed to see the growth of the students but to also see how to help them continue to grow. Again, a win-win. When you think of something we're striving for, you think of a goal. PLCs help with that. The instructional coaches help the teachers navigate ways to introduce the curriculum to the students. It keeps the teacher teaching ways to be innovative. Because a board classroom is not a good thing, we know that this can lead to behavior management issues. As a matter of fact, a podcast that inspired me was by Paula Diaz. It resonated with me and got me excited to create my own podcast. So here I am talking about PLCs. I wanted to be sure to speak of something that I am passionate about, the element of being a team. It takes a village to help the students thrive and prosper. I was raised on the importance of teamwork. So the PLCs had my undivided attention. I knew they would help the teacher succeed in setting up the students for success. The professional learning community reminds us that we are a community on campus. We are all striving to learn and to grow. The PLCs are a great platform for this to happen. The data analyzed isn't to scrutinize the teacher and other students but rather to help them grow and focus on the growth. It is true. Together, everyone accomplishes more. And again, I love the PLCs. With the different campuses, they were on different days of the week, but I knew this was something that would happen weekly. And I always saw the benefit from it. Even getting to practice with my mentors as a student teacher, the strategies, being introduced in the PLCs was really beneficial. So I loved it. So again, I am Jennifer Rivera. I enjoyed sharing with you the benefits of PLC. And I hope that you will be able to enjoy one yourself and see your students grow because of it. Thank you again. And I hope that you will be able to enjoy one yourself and see your students grow because