After meeting so many innovative teachers at Jump$tart Nationals in Washington, DC this past November, NGPF was inspired to launch the pilot version of our Professional Learning Community (PLC). As we look to expand our PLC program, here are some details to help you decide if you’d like to participate.

Summary: PLC participants each submit an original project, activity, or lesson plan (artifact) that they’d like the team to review. Each week, we collaborate live, but remotely, to give feedback on one teacher’s artifact and generate concrete, innovative suggestions for improving the document.

FAQs:

1. What’s the time commitment?
   1. Upfront, you’ll respond to a few emails as we schedule a mutually agreeable day/time for our PLC to “meet” online. You’ll also need to send Jessica an artifact you’d like the team to review. This should take at most 45 minutes.
   2. Each week, you’ll spend about 15-30 minutes reviewing the artifact for that week and then 30 minutes in our PLC meeting. If you agree to join the PLC, you’re committing to one week for each member of the team (3-5 teachers). 
   3. At the very end, you’ll complete a quick survey on your experience — 5-10 minutes.
   4. When the fully cycle is complete, your PLC team members will have the option of signing up to repeat the entire process with new artifacts.
2. How does the scheduling work? Once I know who the PLC team members are, I’ll send a series of scheduling emails, determining the day of the week and then time of day that works for all members. Ideally, we’ll meet at that same scheduled time for each week’s meeting. For example, the pilot PLC agreed on Tuesdays and then, with members across 3 time zones, we meet at 2:30 (Pacific), 3:30 (Mountain), and 5:30 (Eastern). See, it works out perfectly

About the Author

Jessica Endlich

When I started working at Next Gen Personal Finance, it's as though my undergraduate degree in finance, followed by ten years as an educator in an NYC public high school, suddenly all made sense.