PLCs at St. Dominic Elementary:

In Lakeland Catholic Schools we are lucky to have 18 early dismissal Wednesdays set aside for Teacher Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). These PLCs focus on the improvement of your child’s instruction. This early dismissal does not detract from the mandated 950 hours of instruction that students in elementary schools in Alberta are required to complete during the year.

What do teachers do during these PLCs?

• They work on improving instruction for your children.

• Wednesday PLC time provide teachers with time to collaborate with colleagues, talk about what is working and implement new professional learning in their classrooms.

• Part of this learning also includes videos of our teachers teaching, so that their practice can be viewed and discussed.

• Peer observations (where from time to time teachers observe colleagues teaching in their classroom) are planned and discussed.

• These videos and observations are used during PLC time to promote improved instructional practice and better learning situations for your children.

• PLCs provide opportunities for all of the above to happen effectively.

I hope that you appreciate that this early dismissal Wednesday time is not about “more time off for teachers”, but rather about improving instruction and improving our world by creating good citizens who can learn how to learn.