When a culture is deeply rooted in Making A Difference through Purposeful Learning and Meaningful Collaboration, the focus shifts from “my kids” to “our kids,” and people outside the organization take notice!

Wanamaker Early Learning Center (WELC) was recently named a Model PLC at Work school! This national recognition did not happen overnight. It has been built over many years by a staff that is Making A Difference by working as one, continually asking how they can better meet the needs of each individual student.

WELC Preschool Instructor Debbie Mahurin explains that being part of a Professional Learning Community (PLC) goes well beyond a scheduled PLC meeting. “In my day-to-day work, PLC is a quick text, email, or conversation in the hall to help me decide if what I’m doing is working or to suggest a technique or visual that may meet more needs,” Debbie said. “PLC isn’t always a long process or conversation.” That is Meaningful Collaboration in action. It has helped create a culture at WELC where students do not belong to just one classroom or one teacher. They belong to everyone.

WELC Preschool Instructor Michelle Carr sees that every day with her Pre-K team. “Our Pre-K team truly operates on the fact that we are all responsible for each and every student, not just the students in our classroom,” Michelle said. “All the Pre-K students know they can count on each teacher to care for them and help them through a situation.” That shared responsibility becomes especially important when a student is struggling. Instead of one teacher trying to figure it out alone, staff members engage in Purposeful Learning by coming together to brainstorm, problem-solve, and determine what they can do differently to meet that student where they are.

For WELC Director of Early Learning Nichole Webb, that shift from “my kids” to “our kids” has been one of the most meaningful parts of WELC’s PLC journey. General education teachers, developmental preschool teachers, speech therapists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists are no longer working on separate classroom islands trying to solve challenges independently. They are working together to Make A Difference by sharing what they see and determining what each child needs next.

Nichole remembers one moment when the power of that collective responsibility, and its ability to Make A Difference for one child, became especially clear. During a PLC meeting, a teacher shared a celebration about a student who had finally initiated an interaction with a peer on the playground. As she shared, the speech therapist smiled, the occupational therapist talked about what she had been working on with the student, and the student’s former developmental preschool teacher nodded along.

“The room fell completely quiet, and we all had this sudden, powerful ‘aha’ moment,” Nichole said. “We realized that more than half of the educators sitting around that table had directly, intentionally impacted that one child’s breakthrough that very morning. Nobody was working in a silo anymore. We were acting as a single, coordinated system of support, and the child was thriving because of it.”

But simply working together is only part of the equation. At WELC, Meaningful Collaboration has to lead to action, and ultimately to more Purposeful Learning for students. Early Learning Coordinator Sarah Puckett explains that at WELC, PLC includes celebrating big successes and small wins, as well as reviewing student work and data, talking honestly about what worked and what did not, and determining what staff might need to try differently. “It’s not just a meeting where we talk about what happened,” Sarah said. “We are constantly asking ourselves, ‘What are our students telling us, and what do we need to do next?’”

Sometimes the answer comes from learning from one another. Both Michelle and Debbie pointed to the increased use of visuals as something they have learned through Purposeful Learning and Meaningful Collaboration with their colleagues. “The extensive use and benefit of visuals has helped me better serve the needs of my students,” Michelle said. “Within our staff, we have such a wealth of knowledge that is willingly shared for the educational benefit of the teachers as well as the students. It is phenomenal!”

For Debbie, that Purposeful Learning helped bridge the gap between school and home when her team recognized that one student would benefit from a visual schedule in both environments. “Our team has helped me in the past with seeing that a child needed a visual schedule not only at school but at home and also helped me with making it,” Debbie said.

That schedule helped the student better understand what to expect in both environments and successfully transition between home and school. It is a simple example of what Making A Difference can look like at WELC: educators sharing what they know, identifying what a child needs, and then taking action.

It is also an example of what Sarah believes makes the collaboration at WELC so special. Staff members are willing to learn from one another and to be vulnerable enough to admit when something is not working and ask for help.

That Purposeful Learning is often much more intentional than what people outside Wanamaker Early Learning Center may realize. “It can look like play from the outside, but there is so much purpose behind what our teachers do,” Sarah said. Behind that play, WELC teachers are constantly observing, assessing, adjusting, and making decisions based on individual students’ needs. A simple activity may have multiple learning goals, with teachers considering how the same experience can meet the needs of several different learners.

And much of that work happens where families may never see it. The PLC meetings, conversations about individual students, analysis of student learning, and quick hallway conversations between colleagues all contribute to what eventually happens in the classroom. It is why the PLC At Work national recognition is about much more than an award. It recognizes a culture that has developed over years, a culture where Meaningful Collaboration drives Purposeful Learning and staff members collectively take responsibility for Making A Difference for every child.

Nichole sums up what earned WELC this recognition best: “WELC earned this recognition because our staff refused to work on separate classroom islands, embraced the vulnerability of learning together, and fell in love with the transformative power of ‘not there yet’ for every single child.”

Congratulations to Wanamaker Early Learning Center on being nationally recognized as a PLC At Work school!