Teaching is about continually growing and improving to ensure the best education for our students. I work with a school improvement team in my district this year that coaches probationary and temporary teachers. Through my role as coach and lead-teacher, we are using a variety of things to help them learn and grow. This involves targeted professional development, modelling in classrooms, sharing of resources, facilitating classroom visits, coaching conversations, and reflective questions. We are looking at some creative ways as coaches to support small learning groups within a school to target a collaborative learning opportunity.
Our goal is to support and develop master teachers. But what about other teachers who want to pursue an idea or an area of growth in their professional journey? Our district has professional development mornings throughout the year dedicated to teacher professional learning. Our teachers choose an essential question that will drive student learning. This makes me wonder about how we as educators pursue growth. Many like to keep the learning in a box. Within our comfort zone. Where else can growth and learning continue to happen?
Growing Your Professional Learning Network:
Exploring the potential sharing and collaboration of ideas through Twitter can be very powerful. Even as I write this, I drop a “help me find this information!” out to my twitter peeps. Within 20 minutes my office colleague finds what I am looking for and tweets me. Ten minutes later a colleague who is working in another city sends more links. How easy was that!!! I am in no way Twitter savvy, but it has opened my mind to new people and ideas. Do I sweat bullets and work frantically to keep up with a chat? Always! But I am grateful for the insight and conversations.
What about a face-to-face sharing of ideas? All over Twitter you see opportunities for coffee and learning. One of my colleagues has some “Pub and Problem-Solving” math evening opportunities. If you put it out there, will they come? Let’s hope they had you at WING NIGHT!
Transparent Classrooms:
We teach with exceptional colleagues, but how often do we actually take the time to watch each other? On Twitter, I’ve noticed a number of educators opening up their classrooms to colleagues. How powerful would that be?
Follow the hashtag #observeme to see what other educators are doing to embrace this idea. You can find more information on this movement at robertkaplinsky.com/observeme.
Another idea I saw was called “The Pineapple Chart” from the Cult of Pedagogy. Apparently pineapples are a symbol of hospitality and represent welcoming others into your classroom. Instead of a pineapple on your door, there would be a pineapple chart in the staffroom where teachers could advertise a particular lesson for others to observe. Pop-in, stay for 15 minutes or the whole block. It is just a way of facilitating teacher learning.
Like our students, we learn best from each other, sharing ideas, and collaborating. How are you learning and growing as an educator?
No Bad Hair Days 