Isabella Szczur

PLC Discussion notes February 16th 2019 at Lynnhaven Middle School

 There are 4 Civics and Economics teachers present, including Mrs. Luck and Mrs. Pardo
 Discussed the speed of the units being taught and whether or not pacing needed to be adjusted
 Mrs. Phillips expressed her concern with the possibility of her students being behind due to her
leave of absence for a few weeks. We discussed where her students were and found that the
class Mrs. Luck and I teach is ahead of the others in terms of pacing.
 We exchanged rough schedules and plans for the upcoming unit on political elections and I
mentioned the idea of having students compare campaign ads.
 Got on a discussion of how to approach talking about the upcoming elections without causing
students to argue over politics
 Talked about who is currently planning on running for office
 Mrs. Belliares brought up the idea of having her students make a board where they would keep
track of who is running and list the issues that they stand for.
 She said it could be updated as people dropped out of the race, and to have students make
predictions about who might win the nomination for each party
 Discussion turned to best methods for comparing campaigns, I suggested having students look
at tv ads and compare them.
 Mrs. Pardo asked for a copy of the mock trial script as she had heard about it from some of her
kids and wanted to perform it in her own classroom as a fun activity
 I explained to the other teachers what the mock trial script was about and how it used vocab
terms and let them apply it to real life situations.
 Mrs. Pardo and I brainstormed how to alter it to fit her smaller class. I suggested combining the
court clerk with another role, and even removing roles such as the bailiff if needed.
 Meeting ended with teachers discussing results of the tests and other assessments. Mrs. Phillips
brought up the mini essays Mrs. Luck’s students had to write, and wanted to know how much
time went in to grading them
 Mrs. Luck stated it did not take very long because it is so cut and dry, you can easily tell if they
understand what they are talking about.