What do the best PS-12th grade schools in the country do to achieve and maintain excellence-driven academics? They insist on ongoing professional development for their staff and provide opportunities for that to take place. Timothy Christian Schools is one of those schools.

Every Wednesday is a one-hour late start for students at Timothy. However, teachers and administrators arrive no later than 7:30am. They participate in a Professional Learning Community (PLC). The best schools in the country have PLCs, which are intended to increase student achievement at every level. Writing for the George Lucas Education Foundation, author Andrew Miller writes, “PLCs harness an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve.” In that vein, every Wednesday morning you will find Timothy teachers and administrators honing skills, learning new instructional strategies, and addressing issues that are unique to Timothy. 

The Academic Leadership Team, made up of building principals, Justin Horne (PS-8th) and Brad Mitchell (high school), Directors of Teaching and Learning, Kris Wise (PS-6th grade) and Kendra Lee, (7th-12th grade), Lindsay Slovey (Director of High School Academic Support), Kevin Hackert (Director of Technology), and Laura Groenewold (Director of Student Services PS-8th grade), spends part of the summer planning what will be covered in the PLC over the course of a school year. Once school is in session teachers from each building meet separately to cover the topics pertinent to their students. Occasionally an all-school meeting will take place.

Timothy has been a gradual adapter of The Professional Learning Community. Eleven years ago, Timothy started 15-minute late starts, with quarterly one-hour late starts eventually added in. It has proven so valuable that this year, there is a campus-wide one hour late start every Wednesday.  

“We are very intentional in our planning and implementation of our PLC time,” says Justin Horne. “We want to make sure that what we are covering is helpful for our teachers and applicable to all levels of learning.” The biggest challenge for the leaders is to narrow the focus of what they want to cover over a year. One of this year’s areas of focus has been “Instructional Practices.” 

“It is extremely helpful for teachers to learn newly developed instructional practices, strategize how they can be implemented in their setting, evaluate their effectiveness and then make adjustments. The timeliness of our weekly meetings is one of the keys to success,” says Kris Wise. Teachers can implement practices and then come together the next week to evaluate them and help one another adjust. When that occurs every week, the instructional practices remain fresh, creative, and relevant.

Another key factor is the community aspect of the Professional Learning Community. The one-hour early start allows teachers from the same department or grade level to collaborate on plans, strategies and implementation. Colleagues can collaborate and help one another become the best teachers they can be. Iron sharpens iron: this is in keeping with Timothy’s values of being excellence-driven and growth-oriented. Timothy’s teachers are passionate about continuous learning and developing pedagogical skills in a rapidly changing world.

A second area of focus this year has been “Biblical Worldview.” The integration of faith and learning is extremely practical for teachers at Timothy. Teachers are always looking for ways to include a faith component to their subject material. Communicating a Biblical worldview is not just reading a few scripture passages that might fit a lesson, but it is an overall philosophical approach that helps students understand the unique approach Christians have on the culture, society, history, ethics, and values. A Biblical worldview includes the empathy, compassion, and love of Christ for all mankind. Understanding how that impacts every aspect of life is life-changing for students and a unique aspect of Christ-centered education.