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“Towards the Learning Profession”
This article is about learning communities and they positive impact they can have on teachers when done in the right way. This as a study done in England with two different schools in both a rural area and a metropolitan area. The schools had good reviews and low teacher turnover. They were picked for this case because of these points as well as their commitment to professional learning communities.
The study and article focused on what made these schools succeed in what they do. They found that these schools were using learning communities to better the teachers and in turn the instruction. The teachers had an open policy with each other and welcomed others to come into their classroom to observe and make suggestions for change. The lead teachers were able to do this in a tact way to make everyone feel good about it. It wasn’t done to make anyone look bad or get in trouble by administration. They all simply wanted to be better teachers. One teacher stated “no one now would flinch in you walked into their lesson…What we try and work here is a no-blame culture – you’re going to screw up sometimes but that’s fine and let’s look at strategies to support you.” All the people in the group respect the lead teachers and want their input. It is a very non-threatening environment where everyone can get better.
I think this is a great way for the lead teachers to conduct a learning community. Everyone should feel as if they are equal contributors and have something to give to the group. The leaders should also make everyone understand what the point of the group is and to make sure that the objective is reached. No one wants to waste precious time on things that don’t matter. If all the participants in the group feel as if it matters and they are not being taken advantage of, they will be much better participants and the group as a whole will be more productive.
“The Power of Two”
This article showcases a casual learning community that two principals in the same district have made for themselves. They realized that they were spending a fair amount of time setting up and facilitating learning communities for the teachers, but wanted a safe and non-judged place for themselves to discuss areas of concern as well as ideas for solutions. The principals were from an elementary school and a high school, but were able to see their likeness more than their differences to make this work for them.
Neither of the men had a lot of free time or wanted to be wasting time with something invaluable, so they committed to a set schedule of once a month meetings for a one to two hour block of time. They also made a commitment to not spend their time whining. They wanted to leave each meeting on a positive note and with at least one new idea to try, so they were responsible to stop the other from whining and turn the conversation to be more proactive.
Both principals expressed how much this learning community has helped them to be better at their jobs. They take ideas and suggestions from each other and try to implement them into their school to make it the best it can be. Both men also saw big improvements in the areas of staff communication and teacher reviews because they took the time to make changes and make these things run as smoothly as possible and give the teachers what they need as well. I think this was a great idea for the principals to do and I applaud them for taking initiative to find time in their busy schedules for improving their schools. They showed that they really did care about the quality of their school and made changes to fix problems.
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LaDarrah Krogh 