Coaching sessions give administrators and peers the opportunity to get into classrooms on a regular basis and see the great instruction and learning that is taking place across the district.  We have a plethora of talent and knowledge in the Alamosa School District, and it is important for us to support and learn from each other and share our knowledge with one another.  To further the effort of developing a culture of collaboration district wide we structured two PLCs in December for some in house professional development.  We took a conference style approach and structured these two PLCs so that teachers could have the opportunity to learn from each other  and share ideas with their colleagues.  Our focus for the PLCs was on the different elements from the C4S coaching protocol, including objectives, relevance, engagement, instructional scaffolding, academic discourse, and formative assessment.

We had teams of teachers from each of the four buildings AES K-2, 3-5, OMS, and AHS. Each team focused on one of the elements on the coaching protocol. These teams presented to staff, providing examples of the different elements on the protocol and/or modeling what that might look like in a classroom setting. The breakout sessions utilized different approaches during their sessions, including, but not limited to, the use of video clips, modeling actual classroom instruction, interactive lessons, discussions, and demonstrations.
The first session took place at AES 3-5 on December 9th. The audience for this session was K-5 staff only. The breakout teams presenting were K-12 staff from the different buildings. The second session took place at OMS on December 16th. Due to the success and positive feedback we received from the first session, we had all district staff attend this session. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and we were all impressed with the overall collegiality of our teachers and the positive level of professionalism. ASD staff is committed to our mission of education excellence through professional learning communities.