BY REBECCAH HAINES
Computer software that can decode human emotions by listening to speech? Antimicrobial coatings to prevent nosocomial infection? Nanoparticles designed for drug delivery and space craft navigation systems? These all sound like innovations worthy of Nobel-Prize-winning scientists, right? Nope! All of them were developed within the past year by high-school students under the guidance, inspiration, and encouragement of their science teachers. Now, each of these amazing accomplishments has a great chance of being integrated into future technologies that will improve the quality of life for many people. For example, in this interview on NPR’s Science Friday, the two students who developed the emotion-detection software discuss its possible application with autistic individuals — giving them a “mood watch” that will help them read and understand the emotions of those around them so that they can interact appropriately. While we can’t expect that every student in a class will come up with world-changing innovations, we can expect students to benefit from the guidance, inspiration, encouragement, and opportunity to create and innovate just as these students did.
In science especially, it is critical that students get the opportunity to engage in innovation and creativity. In its very nature, science is a discipline of questioning, experimenting, and thinking outside the box. Being able to engage in inquiry, innovation, and creativity within the science classroom in particular is important for your students both now and in the future. Students learn best by doing. So as they study a particular content objective, students will retain more if they have done something with it. Perhaps more importantly, innovation and creativity will be necessary in today’s students’ future careers. According to the US Department of Labor, the top two fastest-growing occupations are biomedical engineering, with projected growth of 72 percent by 2018, and network systems and data communications analysts, with projected growth 53 percent by 2018. Both of these careers are heavily based in science, and both require professionals who can innovate and think creatively.
In light of these facts (and innumerable others), fostering creativity and innovation in your science classroom is certainly a worthy task. But how does a busy and data-driven teacher achieve that goal? What are some opportunities and ideas that will allow students to innovate and problem-solve while at the same time learning essential core content? In the remainder of this article, I will present several competitions and classroom project ideas that will help you achieve the dual goals of providing an opportunity for students to innovate and problem-solve, and enabling you to present essential core content. The ideas in this article do not constitute a comprehensive list, but they do offer some effective jumping-off points to get you started.
Competitions
In many cases, if you want to get your students to memorize a particular boring set of facts — a portion of the periodic table for example — the easiest way to get them to do it is to stage a competition: Who can name the most in a minute? Who can name all of them in order? Most students love a good old-fashioned competition and will rise to the occasion beyond your expectations.
A competition may have the same effect when attempting to foster creativity: If you want students to produce some of their most inspired work, the prospect of being recognized for excellent results can spur even the most reluctant student to go above and beyond his everyday performance.
There are likely several factors involved in the motivating effects of competition. For one, some students are simply motivated by the prospect of a reward, whether it’s prize money, a scholarship, or something more intangible like public recognition. But even students who are not inclined to show off their academic prowess may be inspired by a competition. Competitions represent a significant change from the academic norm, particularly in the realm of assessment. Many students enjoy the opportunity to be assessed relative to their peers or against national standards, rather than on a flat A-to-F grading scale determined by their teacher.
Additionally, students may simply like responding to an authentic challenge. In my experience, when students have a meaningful reason to do something, such as develop a solution to the school’s recycling problems, they are intrinsically motivated to complete the challenge. The competitions listed here tap into that desire to respond to a relevant and timely issue with innovation and critical thinking. Best of all for you, each competition can also be used to present the core content that you are required to teach.
ExploraVision
ExploraVision is a science competition in which groups of two to four K-12 students, plus their teacher serving as a coach, imagine future technology. The student group selects a piece of technology that affects everyday life. The team then explores how the technology currently works, how and why it was invented, and the history of the particular technology. Based on the current state of the technology, the team envisions what it will look like in twenty years. Using this vision and their research, the team creates a detailed written entry on their technology and submits simulated web pages explaining the technology and the group’s vision.
Details about deadlines as well as links to free webinars for potential coaches can be found at the website. Previous winning projects include: NIBEye (Neural Interfaced Bionic Eye), in which students imagined an artificial eye that would give the blind sight; RegenX, an injection that would regenerate limbs following an amputation; and Automatic Correcting Eyeglasses, glasses that don’t require renewal of the prescription because they automatically adjust to worsening vision. Each of these products represent the student group’s vision for a specific technology in the future. While their visions aren’t necessarily feasible at this time, they are based on the actual current technology in each area. For example, some of the components of the bionic eye — such as stretchable silicon and intraocular lenses — currently exist.
These winning projects demonstrate the level of creativity and innovation of the students in developing their visions. The students successfully thought beyond current technology in order to come up with something that has yet to exist. While these projects are impressive, they tap into students’ natural curiosity and tendency to ask questions like “Why can’t scientists do that yet?” or “Wouldn’t it be great if someone would invent… ?”
In addition to the innovative aspects of this competition, ExploraVision allows teachers to integrate the National Science Education Standards (NSES) — specifically Science as Inquiry, Science in Personal and Social Perspectives, Science and Technology Standards, and History and Nature of Science Standards. Also, depending on the specific technology selected, many of the life, physical, or earth and space science standards can also be integrated into a project.
Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge
A second choice for a competition is sponsored by the prominent technology company Siemens. The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge focuses on environmental sustainability. Small groups of students and their mentor/teacher are charged with identifying a local environmental concern and developing a sustainable, reproducible way of addressing the concern. The competition encourages a six-step process in which students choose a local environmental issue, research that issue, plan a feasible and measurable solution to impact the issue, carry out the plan, analyze their impacts on the issue, and finally share their results by making recommendations on how their solution could be expanded, improved, and spread to other communities.
Last year’s first-place winner studied the impact of idling cars in their school’s after-school pick-up line. The students handed out stickers and brochures to educate parents about the harmful effects of idling and actually succeeded in decreasing the number of parents idling as a result of their education campaign.
Like the ExploraVision competition, the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge encourages students to work together to come up with a creative, implementable solution to a problem — in this case, an environmental one. This particular topic should be of great concern to today’s students, as they and future generations will face major environmental challenges such as climate change and overpopulation. Thinking creatively about those issues now will benefit them as they move toward an adulthood in which they’re responsible for finding viable solutions to these problems
In addition to providing students with a forum for creativity, this competition offers the teacher a way to integrate important standards from the NSES. First, you might notice that the six suggested steps for completing this competition sound a lot like the “steps of the scientific method” that many teachers teach: Students need to collect and analyze measurable data before drawing their conclusions. Although we may like to teach our students that science is more of a circular thought process — questions lead to experiments which lead to results that lead to more questions — framing the competition in such a way is likely to reinforce students’ scientific thinking.
This competition also helps teachers to address the Science in Personal and Social Perspectives content standard. The NSES says, “Although students in grades 5-8 have some awareness of global issues, teachers should challenge misconceptions, such as anything natural is not a pollutant, oceans are limitless resources, and humans are indestructible as a species.”1 Having your students compete in this challenge would be an excellent way to address some of the misconceptions held by students and build their recognition of science as an avenue for solving social problems.
ThinkQuest International
A third option for a competition that will inspire innovation and creativity is the ThinkQuest International competition. ThinkQuest is an online learning environment that includes a library of 7000+ projects “by students, for students.” These projects cover a range of topics and are mostly interactive websites to help students learn about a particular topic. The competition is extremely broad: The only instruction is that student groups define a problem and come up with a solution. The solution can take the form of a ThinkQuest learning project such as are displayed in the library, a digital media project (a blog, video, photo essay or combination), or a web-based application. Some project ideas given by ThinkQuest include addressing school bullying, finding out how eco-friendly your seafood is, and teaching younger students about grammar rules. What makes this competition different from the others is that students are encouraged to think and collaborate globally. The website features a matchmaker tool to help students find coaches and other students with similar interests.
Since the competition topic is so broad, it could be used to address learning objectives in nearly any content area. On the other hand, its broadness can be daunting, as students often get that deer-in-the-headlights look when the options are so wide open. If that’s the case, you and your students may benefit from setting some parameters to limit the scope of the competition.
One option might be mandating the format in which students will submit their product. For example, you might ask your students to create only a digital media project. Defining a topic can also be helpful. For instance, if you’re studying ecosystems in your class, you might want to brainstorm with your students a list of potential issues and problems related to that topic. You might come up with ideas like invasive species, storm-water runoff, and recycling. Once you’ve narrowed the topic and defined the type of projects your students will create, the students should be much more capable of coming up with a creative and innovative solution. One student might make a photo essay documenting the sources of storm-water runoff in their community, and then show how they are addressing those issues. Another might make a video about a nonnative plant that’s grown out of control in the community, and offer some creative ideas for solving the problem.
Classroom projects
While competitions can be a great way to inspire your students to create and innovate, all of the competitions listed in this article require copious amounts of time and effort. But even when time is limited, you don’t need to sacrifice opportunities for creativity. There are innumerable smaller classroom projects that merge student innovation with essential content instruction. A few suggestions — though again, not a comprehensive list — are listed here.
NASA Engineering Design Challenges
NASA’s Engineering Design Challenges help teachers teach specific science content, introduce students to real problems faced by NASA engineers, and model the process by which those problems are solved. Each project takes only a few class periods — a fraction of the time required for some of the in-depth competitions.
In my experience, middle school students tend to be particularly motivated to learn anything related to outer space. Unfortunately, outer space is not always in the required curriculum. NASA’s Engineering Design Challenges can help you find a concept that is in your curriculum and tie it to space exploration, resulting in a more engaging experience.
The challenges and their respective science content alignments include:
- Thermal Protection Systems Design Challenge (heat and conduction)
- Spacecraft Design Structures Challenge (Newton’s Law)
- Electrodynamic Propulsion Systems (electromagnetism)
- Centennial of Flight: Propeller Design Challenge (forces and motion)
- Personal Satellite Assistant (forces and motion)
- Living Off the Land: Water Filtration Challenge (properties and changes of properties in matter)
- Lunar Plant Growth Chamber (life science, technology)
Let’s examine the Water Filtration Challenge in detail. In this challenge, students are asked to build a water filtration device using commonly available materials. You could include this project in several different units that you might be teaching, none of which is necessarily a “space unit.” In a unit on solutions and mixtures, building a filter that would best clean the water would require students to have an understanding of the differences between items in a mixture and items in solution. In a unit on ecosystems, completing this challenge would model the way that estuaries filter storm-water runoff and prevent water pollution. If you were teaching a unit on pollution, implementing this project would help students learn about the challenges of recycling and limited resource management as they build the filter. In all cases, the space tie-in is that on the International Space Station, astronauts need an efficient supply of potable water, and a recycling system is critical.
Each of these challenges comes with a detailed teacher’s guide to help you implement it in your classroom. The guide gives an overview of the background science as it relates to NASA’s work, and the ever-important supply list with cost estimation. All of the challenges can be completed with cheap, easily obtainable supplies. All of them provide a hands-on experience for the students, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of whichever topic you decide to tie in to. Educationally, the way that these challenges are designed allow for a nice balance of freedom and constraint. The goal of each challenge is explained clearly, and material parameters are given. However, students then have the freedom to build and test their devices by creatively using the available materials.
PBS Design Squad
The PBS Design Squad website is a companion to the PBS children’s show Design Squad. On the website, you can watch episodes of the show, which showcase hip, diverse engineers and student teams completing some kind of design challenge. The challenges range from the serious — designing a machine to make peanut butter using inexpensive materials in order to help Haitians — to the silly — a challenge to create an item of clothing that has a “hidden” function such as turning into a piece of furniture. These episodes could be used to inspire your students prior to implementing one of the projects featured on the teacher’s site. Even if you don’t have your students complete a hands-on project, just showing them an episode or two will allow them to see what the design process looks like, from the brainstorming and testing phases to assessing their final designs. It is a great model for scientific innovation!
To take it a step further and give your students a hands-on design opportunity, you’ll find a number of possibilities on the Design Squad teacher’s site. There, you will find, organized by science topic, an extensive collection of activities, animations, career profiles, and episodes related to that topic. As a teacher, this is your jumping-off point for giving your students the freedom to create and innovate within the confines of a particular topic.
The activities are particularly useful. For each one, there is a PDF handout that explains the challenge, lists necessary materials, and guides students through the brainstorming and designing process without giving them a prescribed set of steps to follow. This format provides just enough structure and direction while still allowing students to be creative — which is a powerful way to scaffold students toward true innovation.
Additionally, these projects could be completed by students in just a few class periods. Since the activities are arranged by topic, you can align your selection to any one of several NSES standards. For example, if you were studying structure and function in the human body, in particular the skeletal and muscular systems, you could have your students complete the Helping Hand challenge. In this challenge, students are asked to design a device that can pick up objects two feet away from them. Building this device will reinforce concepts regarding how muscles and bones work to allow movement.
Solving tomorrow’s problems
Developing and nurturing creativity and innovation is essential for students today. With the issues that will face them — climate change, overpopulation, shrinking natural resources, to name just a few — these skills will be critical as tomorrow’s leaders formulate solutions. Additionally, it seems as if technology advances and increases on a daily basis. Companies will need employees who can come up with new types of technology and new ways to use it. Those future skills will be built on what students do in the classroom today. While these ideas represent only a small sampling of the opportunities available, they provide a starting place to help your students experience the joys of creativity and innovation.
January 18, 2011
BY JAYME LINTON
We’ve all been there. You go to a workshop, excited to have a day away from school and eager to learn new ideas. Throughout the workshop, you explore new resources, see effective strategies being modeled, take notes, and flag pages to refer to once you get back to the classroom. You leave the workshop on a high, excited about what you’ve learned and rejuvenated from a day of professional learning and dialogue. You have high hopes of making instructional changes and using the new resources with your students, and you can’t wait to share what you’ve learned with the teacher down the hall. The following day, you return to your classroom, put your workshop materials on a shelf for the time being, and pick up where you left off two days ago. One day, a few months later, you stumble upon the stack of materials from the workshop and remember, vaguely, that there’s something good there. You may or may not take the time to explore the materials again, and whether you do really makes no difference. The excitement and newness of the learning has worn off.
PLCs: A lasting impact
Even with the best intentions, many teachers never make any real change to their instruction based on what they learn in one-shot workshops. In order to provide professional development that has a lasting impact on teachers and students, many schools have moved away from a standalone, one-day workshop approach toward a job-embedded, ongoing framework known as professional learning communities (PLCs).
PLCs provide a structure for collaboration with colleagues and continual teacher growth and development. A typical PLC framework is embedded into the school day and facilitated by teachers or teacher support staff such as instructional coaches or curriculum facilitators. A PLC is not collaboration for collaboration’s sake. The purpose of collaboration in a PLC is to make an impact on classroom practice in order to achieve better results. Participation in a PLC allows teachers to engage in ongoing dialogue around issues related to curriculum, instruction, assessment, classroom management, and any other topic of interest or need. Through PLCs, teachers learn from each other, regularly sharing best practices, analyzing student data, and planning for instruction. Teachers belonging to a PLC expand their repertoire of effective instructional strategies and build a sense of community. By coming together regularly to collaborate, teachers break away from the traditional model of isolation in schools.
An alternative to the conventional PLC model involves taking advantage of web-based tools for teacher collaboration. Online PLCs allow teachers to guide their own learning and collaboration. The flexibility of an online PLC allows teachers to work on their own time, in their own space, using a format that meets their instructional needs. Participating in an online PLC can support teachers by extending their professional learning beyond the confines of the school building, the school day, and the school schedule. Since teachers are the guiding force behind online PLCs, the collaboration and learning that takes place is meaningful. When teachers direct the content and process of their PLC, they can ensure that their time collaborating is time well spent. Discussions and resources shared are relevant to participants and support them in their areas of need. An online PLC can provide individualized, just-in-time professional development. Many teachers and teacher teams may benefit from a blended approach, with a combination of face-to-face and online collaboration.
Creating a meaningful online professional learning community
As you begin creating or participating in an online PLC, there are three things to consider that will help you make the most of your PLC: content, structure, and tools. The industrial design principle form follows function should also apply to the design of an effective PLC: The structure and tools that shape a PLC should follow from its content. What is it that you’re hoping to learn or gain from participating in the PLC? What curricular or instructional issues or topics do you want to address?
According to the authors of Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work, “A PLC is composed of collaborative teams whose members work interdependently to achieve common goals linked to the purpose of learning for all.” Determining the purpose of your collaboration and setting goals for what you want to accomplish is the first step in creating a meaningful online PLC.
Once you’ve set content goals for your online PLC, you’ll be able to determine a format for how your PLC should be structured. If you’re hoping to broaden your knowledge base of fifth-grade science curriculum and instructional strategies, you might want to join an online community to gather ideas, resources, and strategies from the many other community members. A wiki might be a more appropriate format if the goal of your online PLC is to create a space for your grade-level team to collaborate. The structure you choose will guide you in selecting the online tools you’ll need to access in order to build and maintain your online professional learning community.
- Step 1: Determine your content goals and expectations for participating in an online PLC.
- Step 2: Choose a structure that will support you as you work toward your goals.
- Step 3: Select tools that will help you create the structure you need.
Re-envisioning professional learning communities
Building and maintaining an online PLC will require you to re-envision traditional professional learning opportunities. Let’s take a look at some possibilities for what this process might look like for teachers involved in an online PLC.
Making time
A third-grade teacher team struggles to find enough time to plan lessons and share resources during the school day. Their common planning time doesn’t allow enough opportunities for in-depth planning or sharing of resources and ideas. The team decides to create an online space to continue their collaboration beyond the school day. These teachers use their online PLC to share resources and create collaborative lesson plans. Using collaborative editing tools, they post resources to share and create lesson plans and other documents together. They also take advantage of an online meeting space to carry on real-time conversations about grade-level topics.
- Content: Collaborative planning and resource-sharing
- Structure: Collaborative editing and online meeting space
- Tools: Wikispaces, Google Docs, and iEtherPad
Becoming a valuable team member
Yvette, a teacher new to eighth grade, lacks a solid understanding of her new curriculum as well as effective instructional strategies for working with eighth graders. Her grade-level team members help when they can, but she wants to be able to contribute to her team rather than constantly asking for help. To address these needs, Yvette builds her own online PLC, gathering strategies and resources from others and contributing her own ideas to her expanding network of educators. She checks her online community’s discussion board daily and contributes ideas and resources that she’s used successfully. The online community allows Yvette to build relationships with educators who have similar needs as well as veteran teachers whose expertise helps her become a stronger teacher.
- Content: Curricular understanding and effective instructional strategies
- Structure: Online community
- Tools: Ning
Reaching beyond the school
As the lone performing arts teacher in his school, Matthew finds that opportunities for true collaboration are few and far between. He participates in a school-based professional learning community with classroom teachers, which allows him to integrate curricular content into his instruction. However, he rarely has the opportunity to collaborate with other arts teachers who work with curricular, instructional, and budgetary issues similar to his own. Matthew initiates an online PLC to collaborate with other arts teachers around the world, participating, for the first time ever, in ongoing, relevant, and meaningful professional development. This online PLC allows him to gain new resources, instructional strategies, and solutions for overcoming obstacles. He also uses the online PLC to build a network of like-minded professionals.
- Content: Curriculum, instruction, resource-sharing, and networking
- Structure: Microblogging platform
- Tools: Twitter
Resources for building and maintaining an online PLC
Wikispaces
Wikispaces provides a free online workspace for collaborative editing. Teachers can create a free account, then upgrade to the Plus Wiki for Educators for free. You’ll find that the editing tools and account management features are easy to use. You can control the privacy level of your wiki, ensuring that only people you’ve invited are able to view and edit the contents of your wiki.
It’s easy to upload files, add and edit content, and share resources with other members of your wiki. Use the built-in discussion board to host an ongoing conversation about the content of the wiki. All members of a wiki have editing rights, so everyone can contribute to the PLC equally. PLC members can use a wiki to upload lesson planning templates and other documents, post links to instructional websites for teachers and interactive sites for students, and share updates and reminders about issues like field trips and special events.
The third-grade team uses their wiki to post links to teacher and student sites for upcoming topics. Members of the PLC explore the links on their own time, and each teacher chooses which sites to use in the coming days and weeks. Instead of making copies, which they don’t have time for anyway, the teachers upload files to share with each other, including graphic organizers, teacher-created interactive whiteboard lessons, homework assignments, and permission forms for upcoming field trips. The teachers receive email notifications each time someone updates the wiki, so they know when they need to visit the wiki for the latest resource.
Twitter
Twitter is a microblogging platform that allows users to post short tweets, or updates, sharing comments, strategies, and resources with their followers. Create your own account and find other Twitter users to follow. The tweets of those you follow will be visible to you, and your followers will see your tweets as well. The key to maximizing your twitter account is following the right people. If you find educators and experts with similar interests, each tweet can provide you with a professional learning opportunity. Using Twitter as a PLC platform requires exploring the links and resources posted by those you follow, and sharing your own resources and ideas with your followers. (For more on making the most of Twitter as a professional development tool, see the article “Twitter as a Learning Tool for Teachers.”)
Matthew started building his online PLC by talking with a few performing arts teachers he knew in nearby districts. They all created Twitter accounts and started following each other’s tweets. Then, Matthew started to follow a few regional and national performing arts experts whose names he knew well. His online PLC grew exponentially as he explored the lists of people who those experts were following on Twitter, and Matthew started following some of them as well. Before long, he was checking his Twitter feed a few times a day, each time finding a new resource or idea to try. He also contributed to his online PLC by tweeting about his own successes and useful resources.
Ning
Ning allows members to create their own social network for professional learning. Choose from a variety of Nings tailored to topics of interest to you, such as Flat Classroom Project and Classroom 2.0. Ning users are able to add content, including ideas, resources, and videos, as well as participate in message boards and chat rooms. By joining a Ning, you can expand your professional network, gain new information and resources, and contribute to a community of like-minded educators.
Yvette joined a Ning for new teachers, which allowed her to engage in discussions with other educators facing similar issues and challenges. The ongoing dialogue and continuous stream of problems and solutions helped her feel supported and gave her a sense of belonging. Yvette enjoys the flexibility and consistency of her Ning community. She can participate in the discussions and explore resources whenever she has time. Yvette regularly shares new ideas and resources she learns about through Ning with her colleagues at school.
iEtherPad
iEtherPad is an online word-processing application that lets you set up a virtual meeting space to collaborate with other PLC members in real-time — when one of your collaborators makes a change, you’ll see her updates as she makes them. Once you’ve set up your meeting space, you can use it to chat about topics of interest to your PLC team and create content together synchronously. When the meeting ends, you may either export the content of your meeting space or post the link so that all PLC members can access the information and resources shared.
iEtherPad provides the third-grade teacher team with an online space to have conversations about grade-level issues. The team uses iEtherPad at the start of every new unit or topic of study. They use the meeting space to share instructional strategies for helping students master the content, brainstorm ideas about pacing, and explore resources that might be useful. After the meeting, each PLC member exports the meeting notes and saves them for future reference. Team members can join the meeting space again at any time. They occasionally invite other colleagues to participate in their online meetings, including the instructional coach, media specialist, and principal, in order to tap into their expertise and expand their collaborative planning sessions.
Google Docs
Google Docs allows you to create, organize, and store documents online. The key benefit of Google Docs is easy collaboration. You can collaboratively create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with anyone you choose. To share a document with PLC members, use the simple sharing feature, which allows you to select whether each member has viewing rights or editing rights. The chat feature allows you to discuss editing changes with others with whom you’ve shared documents. Google Docs also allows you to import existing documents that were created in other programs, as well as export Google Docs files into other formats such as Microsoft Word. Since your documents are stored online, you and your PLC team can access them from any computer with Internet access.
The third-grade PLC team uses Google Docs to create and revise pacing guides for each content area. Whenever a team member adds a resource to a pacing guide, all PLC members see the most current version of the document simply by opening the pacing guide from their Google Docs list. This keeps the team from having to email the pacing guides back and forth after making changes — a process that could otherwise get confusing with multiple versions floating around.
This teacher team also creates a weekly parent newsletter. They used to send multiple emails to each other about what they’d like to include in the newsletter, and one team member would type the information into a newsletter template. Now, the team creates and edits their weekly newsletters in Google Docs. Each team member is responsible for a section of the newsletter, and Google Docs allows them all to work on the newsletter simultaneously or individually on their own time. The chat feature allows the team to ask each other questions about the newsletter and make revising or editing suggestions.
Professional growth at the right time and place
Many educators can relate to the teachers discussed in this article — the third-grade teacher team that needs more time to collaborate; Yvette, the new eighth-grade teacher who wants to be a more active contributor to professional growth in her school; and Matthew, the performing arts teacher who seeks more professional development than he can find in his own school environment.
The work of teachers is often isolated, and there are seldom opportunities for professional collaboration. Professional Learning Communities address this issue by giving teachers time and space to learn together and work toward common goals. Web tools can provide teachers with an avenue for creating a PLC or enhance an existing PLC.
Consider your own goals, needs, and expectations for participating in a PLC. Find others, either within your school or anywhere in the world, whose goals and needs match your own. Determine which structure or format will help you establish or enhance your learning community, and select the web tools that will help you accomplish your professional learning goals. The time you put into building and maintaining your online PLC will benefit you and your students as you engage in ongoing learning and purposeful collaboration that can have a lasting impact on your classroom practice.
