A Win for Building a PLC at Work

Most regular Radical readers know that I'm the proud author of two Solution Tree books titled Building a Professional Learning Community at Work and Teaching the iGeneration. 

I'm just a little bit prouder this morning, however, because Building a Professional Learning Community at Work---a practical book designed to support schools in their first year of PLC implementation by sharing stories, approachable research and a heaping cheeseload of handouts---was named the Learning Forward (formerly NSDC) Staff Development Book of the Year.

Not bad for a guy who is just a classroom teacher, huh?

After all, the list of NSDC Book of the Year award winners reads like a veritable Who's Who in educational thinking.  Last year's winners were Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan.  Roland Barth is on the list.  These are the kinds of people that I both respect and admire.

And now I share a place alongside of them.  Too cool.

What I'm most proud of, though, is that Parry Graham and I have written a book that practitioners find useful.  Not only did it stand up against the hundreds of nominations that Learning Forward receives for its annual BOY competition, but for the past two days here at the Learning Forward conference in Atlanta, I've had staff developers telling me that our title is one of the first that they pull out of their bag of tricks when working with new learning teams.

In the end, that's all I really care about.  I believe in the power of professional learning communities to change the learning patterns of teachers because I'm a practitoner that has had my own practice changed by collaborating with my peers. 

My only goal for writing was to share what I've learned about successful PLC implementation with others---and it sounds like that's exactly what I've done!

Be sure to stop by the Building a Professional Learning Community at Work product page on the Solution Tree website.  Every handout from the entire text----implementation surveys, team structuring templates, trust development documents---are all available for free download.

Even if you don't pick up a copy for your professional library, there's value to be had by stopping by.

And check out the complete library of PLC posts here on the Radical.  There's some good stuff buried under that tab, too!

Comments

[Kevin Jarrett]

Congratulations, Bill! Well deserved! Stay gold!

-kj-

[SolutionTree]

Congrats on behalf of all of us at Solution Tree!

[Chris Jakicic]

Hi, Bill, Congratulations on this win....I know lots of teachers who rely on this book for their work and I've recommended it to many of then!

[Matt Townsley]

I read your book a while back after reading several other PLC books by Solution Tree (you can guess the authors :). Later, our district PD team settled on a different solution tree book to read for our summer book study. Later this fall, someone else approached me and said, "Hey have you heard of this book by Ferriter and Graham?" I just smiled.

Congrats, Bill. This is a quality book for those of us in the PD trenches.

[Bill Ferriter]

Hey Matt,

Thanks a ton for the kind words! Knowing that a guy that I respect, admire and enjoy found my book to be of value is the real reward for me.

And remember that regardless of whose book your district bought, I'm only a Skype phone call away for anyone in your district that needs a bit of advice!

That's called leveraging your PLN for the benefit of your system!

Rock right on,
Bill

[Gail Ritchie]

Congrats, Bill! On my recommendation, the Dep't of Professional Learning in my district purchased copies of your book for all the Instructional Coaches. :-)