One year, 365 calendar days ago public education as we knew it took on a new look. This look varied for each individual and educational entity as all of us showed resilience and dedication to student learning during an uneasy global climate.  Many of us grieved our traditional school activities: district open houses, high school athletics, first day of school pictures, talent shows, and many more were fond memories as we navigated these uncharted pandemic waters seeking to create a “new” normal.  As a district, we dedicated ourselves to shift from a reactive state to one of an upstream effort (Heath, 2020).  Using Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) as the vehicle, this effort focused on strengthening collective teacher efficacy through continued meaningful celebrations and intentional promotion of staff wellness.

Meaningful Celebrations

Celebrations provide an opportunity to tell stories.  This is one of the oldest ways in our world to convey the ideals and values of a community (All Things PLC, 2018). Storytelling also allows people to be vulnerable, share common ground, overcome differences and let defenses down as stories allow us to better understand each other and to find commonality amongst a group, a grade level team.  

As a district, we wanted to incorporate celebration into the culture of our school.  Setting aside time in PLCs was a way to provide staff an opportunity to share personal and professional meaningful stories that brought data to life while appealing to both the head and the heart (All Things PLC, 2018).  We discovered our staff started to relate to one another in new ways.  The celebrations created a sense of community and a feeling of belonging,  at a time when the staff was coping with the isolation of social distancing.  Celebration and storytelling met our basic need to belong, to be a member of a community and put a human face on our successes by personifying our mission of collaborative inquiry.  Our purpose and priority, to establish a collective belief in each other, was strengthened as the staff shared encounters where their actions made a difference in the lives of students. 

Promoting Staff Wellness

The demand that educators move to a virtual platform, coupled with the emotional exhaustion of the pandemic brought to light the need for schools to purposefully promote staff self-care and overall wellbeing. Initial research supporting the continued development and fostering of staff mental health and emotional skills showed teachers were more likely to be effective at supporting students during stressful times if they themselves felt supported.  

As a district, we purposely embedded inclusion activities into PLCs that focused on promoting the emotional and social wellbeing of staff.  We knew that it was not important to answer all the questions or have solutions to problems but simply give staff time to express themselves.  We sought ways to recognize and acknowledge how staff were feeling, identify what was and was not within one’s control and brainstorm coping strategies to help reduce stress.  Our goal was to create a regularly scheduled time to focus on the positive through social connections and collegial support.  We found in turn that our staff were using these same strategies and activities with their students giving them opportunities to verbalize their feelings in a similar fashion. 

The definition of a PLC is when educators work collaboratively in a recurring cycle of inquiry.  Reframing PLCs to include meaningful celebrations and the promotion of staff wellbeing gave staff the opportunity to engage in collaborative inquiry,  strengthening their collective belief in each other to positively impact student lives. 


Written by Katie Fuelling, Roscommon Elementary/Middle School Principal