The Blue Ribbon Project (Podcast)

The Blue Ribbon Project's new episode follows a group of principals in Brooklyn who have formed a PLC. They are reading a book together, The Fundamental Five, and working through the concepts in their schools. Before this conversation, they watched a number of videos of classroom teachers working with students in class that included English Language Learners. The problem of practice (POP) they focused on had to do with developing academic vocabulary, among other things discussed during this podcast.

The conversation is hosted by Dr. Donald James, the Executive Director of CITE and former superintendent of schools in the Commack school district where his high school won a blue ribbon in 2021.

The administrators in the PLC highlighted in this podcast are from District 17 in Brooklyn. They are:
Berthe Faustin PS 189
Marc-Heralde Mardy PS 289
Marie Casseus-Monteau PS 397
Marie Chauvet-Monchik PS 138
Ana Dejesus PS 249, a Blue Ribbon School
Elisa Brown PS 249, a Blue Ribbon School

They discuss leadership strategies for creating and empowering PLCs of teachers in their schools, including:

Sharing learning among schools
Engaging in conversations about teaching practices
Defined structures for PLCs - creating teacher teams in a school, by building, grade-level, and to analyze data to inform teaching strategies
lab structure for high-impact instructional strategies
PLC roles for teachers within a school
Supervising teacher PLCs for administrators
Including teacher input on staff professional development
How to empower teachers to become leaders who are invested in continuous improvement for their classrooms and the school

This PLC of principals is reading the book The Fundamental Five, and implementing teaching strategies from the book. Some of the classroom concepts from the book that they are discussing in this podcast are:

Engaging students as learning partners
Empowering students as learning partners
Creating a student-centered classroom
Peer and Self assessment for students

For more on the book: Fundamental Five - The Formula for Quality Instruction by Sean Cain and Mike Laird, see below.

The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction, shares with teachers and school leaders the five practices that every teacher can, and should, use to dramatically improve instructional rigor and relevance, and student performance.

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamental-Fo...

For more on Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) please see the work of Douglas Reeves
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...

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Elisa Brown mentions the CITE / Russell Sage doctoral program, where she is a Doctoral Candidate, which stresses the importance of empowering teachers as leaders. Learn more about the program at www.citesage.com