Village School

Principal's Corner

By David Wilce, Principal at Village School

Where, Oh Where, Did My Teacher Go?

Many of you have wondered or even asked about where our teachers are and what they are doing during ‘planning’ or ‘collaboration’ days. Although not in the classroom, our teachers are on campus doing important work. They spend the day in grade level teams, called Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), working collaboratively to review student work and to discuss how to adapt their teaching and curriculum to better support students struggling with specific lessons, while still engaging students who have mastered the concepts.

At Village, our school philosophy embraces a hands-on, project-based curriculum, rather than a traditional top-down, worksheet-oriented approach. Our teachers excel at this practice — planning, developing and delivering an engaging multi-sensory curriculum that continually motivates our students. Delivering a fun lesson, however, is the easy part; the tricky part is ensuring that the curriculum has met the needs of all students.

How do we know which students have learned? What do we do for the students who understood or excelled at the lesson, and how do we support the students who didn’t get it? Most importantly how do we identify these different needs in a timely enough manner to do something about them? This is the where ‘collaboration days’ come in. Our teacher-groups use a protocol that not only ensures these questions are answered, but that also develops and refines their practice, allowing them to become better at meeting the unique needs of each students as they teach. Using student work samples as an authentic assessment and collectively discussing student outcomes, our teachers purposefully uncover professional practices that result in greater student engagement and success. As a result, teachers improve their practice and all students benefit.

Our Village teachers work hard to create lessons and learning environments that foster the 21st century skills of communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. ‘Collaboration days’ build on these lessons, allowing teachers the time and tools to differentiate the curriculum and delivery, ensuring that all students have not only access but also success.