en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:54:28 GMT 15 By Jane Morice
Waking up bright and early isn’t something a lot of students look forward to. Waking up bright and early on a Monday morning seems to be so much worse. However, luckily for the students at the high school, the teachers are going to be participating in Professional Learning Community (PLC) days, which are similar to the former “Prime Time” days, only PLC days will be more often, sometimes twice a month. Other school districts in the Cleveland area, including Chardon, participate in PLC days. Chardon High School principal Doug Delong is extremely pleased with the results of the PLCs at his school. Chardon High School have been participating in them for six years. “The teachers are doing a better job in the classroom, and they know whether the students are learning the material. Any time teachers can work together and learn from each other, the students will see the benefit in better instruction and communication with their teachers,” Delong said. The goals for the PLCs are more of an ongoing thing. The teachers will be grouped by their department, and then they will discuss various things that will hopefully help them improve each others’ lesson plans and activities. At Chardon, the mornings are spent in a similar way. “When the teachers are grouped together and talking everything out, the synergy will be dynamic,” principal Debra Bernard said. History teacher Sara Ziemnik hopes there will be more interaction as a staff. “I’m so busy all the time that I hardly get to talk with my colleagues,” Ziemnik said, “They [PLC days] have the potential to be very, very good.” Ziemnik is hoping to use the time to share ideas with department members, as well as more specific topics, such as writing grants for new equipment and working with the LRC and special education tutors and teachers. The PLC days are not only supposed to be beneficial to the staff but to the students as well. “There’s absolutely nothing bad about having them,” sophomore Emily Kershner said. Starting school an hour or so later gives students the opportunity to sleep in later or catch up with other work they have to do. Kershner doesn’t think that teachers will be any harder on students or give them more work because of the shorter days either. “If they give us more work, there’s more work [for the teachers] to grade. They don’t love school that much,” Kershner said. ]]> Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:37:00 GMT