1.++What+is+a+PLC?

Professional Learning Communities
** Definition of a PLC **

Although there is no universal definition of a PLC (Stoll et al., 2006; Williams, Brien, Sprague, & Sullivan, 2008), the following definitions offer a range of ways to describe a PLC: While these definitions capture the spirit of PLCs, they are only a starting point for understanding them.
 * An ongoing process through which teachers and administrators work collaboratively to seek and share learning and to act on their learning, their goal being to enhance their effectiveness as professionals for students’ benefit (Hord, 1997)
 * A school culture that recognizes and capitalizes on the collective strengths and talents of the staff (Protheroe, 2008).
 * A strategy to increase student achievement by creating a collaborative school culture focused on learning (Feger & Arruda, 2008).
 * Team members who regularly collaborate toward continued improvement in meeting learner needs through a shared curricular-focused vision (Reichstetter, 2006).
 * A group of people sharing and critically interrogating their practice in an ongoing, reflective, collaborative, inclusive learning-oriented and growth-promoting way (McREL, 2003).
 * Educators committed to working collaboratively in ongoing processes of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2006).
 * An inclusive group of people, motivated by a shared learning vision, who support and work with each other to inquire on their practice and together learn new and better approaches to enhance student learning (Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Thomas, Wallace, Greenwood et al., 2005).

What makes a PLC difficult to define is that it is not a prescription, a new program, a model, or an innovation to be implemented. Rather, a PLC is an infrastructure or a way of working together that results in continuous school improvement (Hord, 1997).

Here is a link to a short five minute video on teacher tube also giving a great explanation of what a professional learning community is.

Here is another link to a website that is entirely about Professional Learning Communities.