Ruth’s Ruckus

Of course the test of my resolve to blog biweekly would be to look at my blog.  So no wonder that 6 weeks have gone by without a single entry…Well I continue to try.  

I found an interesting entry at 21^st Century Collaborative on professional learning communities. In the post Beach talks about a learning community including administrators and staff working and learning collaboratively to improve student learning.  I find it interesting that this approach while endorsed by ASCD and many others (Beach quotes Senge who I had to read as part of my school administration studies) is not being carried out  in the school division.  Several of the schools are in dire need of some intervention…we’ve got sweeps, school improvement plans, after school programs, but we’re not sitting down to learn together or from each other.  When research says that this approach could turn a school around, why aren’t we trying it?  My department is driven to be a learning community…whether we like it or not.  We meet weekly to share best practices, discuss the literature and learn new techniques.  We are challenged to reflect on our practice so that we can become better trainers. Even though she is way too busy, our supervisor subjects herself to many of the same things that she expects us to do.  This way, we learn together.  It does work for us, although we do a monumental amount of stretching ourselves.

What would it take to get administrators and teacher to develop a learning community?  I guess it would have to be driven by the administrator.  How do you get an administrator interested in doing that?  Why has this practice not been brought to our division when it has the potential to make lasting change by changing the very culture of the schools?  

I am catching up on my reading…still behind everyone by a few weeks.  Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach posted about virtual learning communities and communities of practice.  I found her post interesting considering my charge this year to develop a personal professional development plan.  I’ve been a member of a few communities, but never got past the linking or lurking stage.  David Lee’s explanation of these roles describes exactly where I was coming from in my membership.  I find it interesting that while I felt the need to join these groups as a matter of my own professional development, I never considered my role or the need to become an active participant until challenged to “take it to a new level” by my boss.  I then had the task to decide which community I would become an active participant of.  I belong/subscribe to several: an ITRT Yahoo! group,  The DEN, VSTE forums, TiPS, and Classroom 2.0.  If I was going to make the move from consumer to commentor it had to be in the right community.  The choice wasn’t hard.  Three of the five aren’t active enough to merit a change. I’ve always found participation at the DEN to be challenging, so I went with Classroom 2.0.  It’s got all of the hallmarks of the healthy community that Sheryl mentioned.  When I joined I was immediately welcomed by several members and the topics of conversation are really relevant to what I am doing.  In the week that I have been a more active participant, I have learned an aweful lot. 

• I got an idea for a lesson for a fifth grade class that I’ll be working with.   
• One discussion helped me connect some ideas I have for a teacher workshop that I am developing.
• I’ve been challenged to change my pedagogical ideas about instructional blogging.

As I told my boss on Friday – it’s already changed my practice.  As Sheryl puts it, I’ll be around Classroom 2.0 a lot  – not just because it’s part of my plan – it’s  worth my time.