“We can always get better.” This is the saying Principal Angela Olson emphasized when she and 11 Xavier staff members attended The Summit on PLC (Professional Learning Communities) at Work conference in Phoenix, Arizona. PLCs are schools that can enable teachers to work together to attain superior results for the students they assist. The conference took place February 18-21 for teachers of all grades throughout the country.

This was the first year Xavier attended the conference. Olson expressed the goal of the four-day trip was to implement professional development. Teachers would have data that tells them where to improve and that would create goals to drive Xavier towards professional development.

“It is always good for us to keep learning the best practices for teaching,” Olson said.

The presenters were all professional speakers with backgrounds in education, many of whom have written books on various topics from motivation to developing a school’s culture.

The conference included keynote speakers and break-out sessions. Each session covered topics such as assessments, culture, curriculum, accountability and data within schools. The Xavier teachers were given an opportunity to come together each evening to discuss the takeaways from that day’s sessions and how they could implement those ideas at Xavier.

This conference has added a new theme focusing on collaborative teams for teacher in-service days at Xavier. It aims to help teachers from different departments to work together more.

“I am inspired to come back and work to improve Xavier by working with my colleagues more,” physics teacher Mr. Darrin Ellsworth said.

Olson stated this conference is a tool to help the school improve on working together as a staff and to stress the idea of having a team mentality throughout the school year.