Introduction to "Plan Site-Based Initiatives"

Video Transcription

Welcome to this unit, Plan Site-based Initiatives. The learning objectives in this unit will include, analyzing the theory of site-based management and professional learning communities, analyzing and developing a mission, vision, goals, and norms for your site-based team, evaluating strategies to develop action plans and SMART goals, developing an action plan and SMART goals with appropriate site-based team, and reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of your plan and revising accordingly.

We'll begin the unit by analyzing the theory of site-based management and professional learning communities. As part of this learning objective, we'll be exploring the theories that support site-based management. We'll look at how PLCs, including site-based management teams that are organized as PLCs, can support school improvement and school reform. And we'll also explore the various PLC formats that you might see in your school or district.

The structure of a PLC is very much dependent on the function that the PLC is going to serve, and that will dictate the makeup of the PLC. For example, some pieces are made up of just teachers. Others include both teachers and administrators. Still, others include teachers and administrators and students and parents and other school personnel, and so we'll consider what some of those formats might look like.

Once you've got a grasp on the theories behind site-based management and PLCs, and also a good understanding of the functions that those teams can serve and the formats that they might take, you will be ready to analyze and actually develop a mission, a vision, a set of goals, and a set of norms for your site-based team. We'll begin this learning objective by considering the process of developing these elements as a community of practice. It's important that these processes happen collaboratively whenever possible.

For reference, I'll share with you some sample missions, visions, goals, and norms that you can use as jumping off points if you wish as you reflect on what these elements might look like in your team, and as you actually begin the process of developing these pieces. And finally, in this learning objective, we will start our discussion of SMART goals. And you'll find that this is a topic that is going to carry through the entire rest of the unit, because SMART goals play such an important role in site-based management and in the functioning of your PLC.

After you have developed the vision, mission, goals, and norms for your team, you'll be ready to start developing action plans and SMART goals that are aligned with all of those other pieces. So in this learning objective, I will walk you through the process of locating SMART goal templates and then actually using those templates to write SMART goals that are aligned with the vision and mission of your team. We'll also talk about analyzing action plans for alignment to school goals.

Not only is it important that your action plans are aligned with the vision and mission and goals of your team, but it's also important to align to school level goals. And, in fact, we also will talk in this learning objective about the importance of aligning to the district vision, mission, and goals. Through this process, I will share with you a chart that displays some sample visions, missions, and goals so that you can clearly see the alignment all across the board of all of these different elements.

After we've talked about developing action plans and SMART goals in theory, you'll be ready to put your new skills to the test. You will put those SMART goal templates to use. You will be able to analyze your action plan and your SMART goals for alignment to each other, and you'll be able to analyze your action plan and SMART goals for alignment to the district level vision, mission, and goals.

For both of these alignment processes, I will actually demonstrate the process for you so that you have an idea of what it might look like, and then you'll be ready to try it out for yourself with your own action plan and your own SMART goals. And finally, we'll wrap up the unit by reflecting on the strengths and the weaknesses of the plan that you've created, and you'll be able to revise your plan accordingly. This is a really important step after all of the other work that you have done throughout this unit in creating your team level plan in aligning your vision and mission and goals and norms of your plan, not only to each other, but to the school level and district level pieces as well.

It's important that you stop and reflect and review your plan using the current information, the current data, and current feedback. You also will want to analyze the impact of your reflection on things like capacity building, implementation, sustainability, and continuous improvement. And you'll need to consider whether the vision and the mission that you are aligned to continue to be relevant. You always want to be confident that the action steps you're putting into place are aligned to a vision and a mission and goals that are reflecting the current reality, and that meet the current needs of your students, and that fit your current situation.

To recap, the learning objectives in this unit will include, analyzing the theory of site-based management and professional learning communities, analyzing and developing a mission, vision, goals, and norms for your site-based team, evaluating strategies to develop action plans and SMART goals, developing an action plan and SMART goals with your site-based team, and reflecting on both the strengths and weaknesses of your plan and revising accordingly.

So take a moment to stop and reflect. If your PLC or site-based management team has already developed a vision, or a mission, or a set of norms, or SMART goals, or even action plans, you may wish to take a moment to locate those documents so that you can refer to them throughout this unit. To dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure to check out the additional resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find links targeted toward helping you discover more ways to apply this course material.

Thanks for watching. I hope you'll join me in my upcoming tutorials throughout this unit. Have a great day.