I'm thinking about how to develop positive, collaborative Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) with the teachers (and maybe parents since it is a parent participation school). I read somewhere about having dialogue journals where staff members write a reflection in a journal at each staff meeting and trade journals with other teachers and the principal. I'm looking online again for that idea and I came across this paper on PLCs published in the American School Board Journal called, An Exercise in Collaboration. I thought it was a good brief overview of the purpose and establishment of PLCs.
Anyway, I used dialogue journals in my classroom, and I'm thinking it would be a good way to develop PLCs even when staff meetings are over. However, with my experience in STEM education, and with Globaloria, I was thinking about how to bring these dialogue journals to life with social media. I'm wondering how the teachers might feel about setting up professional blogs about their experiences in progressive ed, or whether an Edmodo group would be better. I think blogging is better for longer reflections, and Edmodo would be better for short posts on certain topics.
How would you react to this idea as a teacher?
Genvieve,
ReplyDeleteI think that the idea of posting your goals tells people that you take them seriously. Since you will be new to Indigo, you might want to share them as a draft with teachers early on and have a process to gather their input, probably parent input also, and input from Tom Burgei when he starts coaching you. I also recommend that you have handy a list of all teachers, look at it each day before you leave, and make a note of those you did not talk with that day about something professional. No teacher should go more than two days without a brief conversation with you.
My thoughts regarding the journal are similar. This is a constructivist school. What is the PLC like now? How do you build off of the strengths? How can you gather input from staff about how they would best like to communicate regarding reflections and practice? Everything you do should be based on building relationships.
Marty
Marty, I love the idea of making sure I talk with each teacher about something professional at least ever couple of days. As for the current state of Indigo's PLC, I don't know what it's like, I don't know their norms or practices.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reflective questions, I will definitely keep them in mind as I proceed.
Genvieve
The idea of a professional blog might be daunting to some, as you are putting your ideas "out there". As Marty stated, a poll of how they like to communicate might be a useful tool. Showing them yours, as well as some others (Edudemic has a big list: http://www.edudemic.com/2011/12/teacher-blogs/) might also help.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this article is tailor made for you: http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/8406.
Thanks, Mariana. I've subscribed to that blog, but I hadn't seen that post. The rules of thumb are great to keep me focused on what is needed by me in my new role. Thanks, again!
ReplyDelete