connected communities of change
TRANSCRIPT
Recognition well deserved that you are a leader in your field. That you are the one we will look to for innovation.
Just admit it…
You are an agent of change!
Now. Always. And now you have the tools to leverage your ideas.
What will change in education because of your being here today?
What will you go back and …Make a stand for?Create an awareness of?Do?Share?Connect?Collaborate?Act Collectively?
Mantra …
We are stronger together than apart.
None of us is as smart, creative, or productive as all of us.
• Letting go of control• Willing to unlearn &
relearn• Mindset of discovery• Reversed mentorship• Distributive leadership• Co-learning and co-creating• Messy, ground zero, risk taking
http://bit.ly/QSqfjI
Maybe a first change step could be developing your own Manifesto around changed practice in your school.
What strong assertions do you and others who serve there feel (believe) about the culture?
Wonder is both a sense of awe and capacity for contemplation.
Wonderment begins with curiosity but then goes deeper beyond the surface to a place of possibility. A place we look for patterns and testing of ideas we had closed to our more reasonable mind.
Wonder is to leave aside our taken-for-granted assumptions, peel away our biases, and to willing explore aspects and angles we wouldn't have seen before.http://bit.ly/1g9YEec
It also helps to ask yourself questions like:
1) Why am I planning to do this? 2) How will I initiate this change? 3) Who can I connect with online in my network that can help me? 4) How will I measure my progress? Or how will I know if I am learning?5) Am I using various social media tools for different purposes?
http://connectedprincipals.com/guiding-principles
Networks are very “me” oriented. You intentionally with purpose pick and choose who is in your network to learn from and why.
Learning with networks happens through BOTH social and cognitive presence.
https://twitter.com/Joe_Mazza/lists/connected-principals/members
Developing Your Tribe
A group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader (you), connected to an idea
Need two things:
1) Shared interest (mission)
2) A way to communicate
Personal Learning Networks (building of your tribe)
Are you mobilizing and contextualizing what you are
learning? Can I find you and learn from you?
It’s out of networks that community falls. ~ Nancy
White
Dynamics of Different Network Types
Community of Practice
Project Teams Informal networks
Purpose Learning
Sharing
Creating Knowledge
Accomplish specific task
Communication flows
Boundary Knowledge domain Assigned projector task
Networking, resource building and establishing relationships
Connections Common application or discovery-innovation
Commitment to goal Interpersonal acquaintances
Membership Semi - permanent Constant for a fixed period
Links made based on needs of the individual
Time scale As long as it adds value to the its members
Fixed ends when project deliverables have been accomplished
No pre-engineered end
• THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
ProfessionalLearning Communities
Personal LearningNetworks
Communities of Practice
Method Often organized for teachers
Do-it-yourself Educators organize it themselves
Purpose To collaborate in subject area or grade level teams around tasks
For individuals to gather info for personal knowledge construction and to bring back info to the community
Collective knowledge building around sharedinterests and goals.
Structure Team/groupF2f
Individual, face to face, and online
Collective, face to face, or online
Focus Student achievement
Personal growth Systemic improvement
Community is the New Professional Development
Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999a) describe three ways of knowing and constructing knowledge…
Knowledge for Practice is often reflected in traditional PD efforts when a trainer shares with teachers information produced by educational researchers. This knowledge presumes a commonly accepted degree of correctness about what is being shared. The learner is typically passive in this kind of "sit and get" experience. This kind of knowledge is difficult for teachers to transfer to classrooms without support and follow through. After a workshop, much of what was useful gets lost in the daily grind, pressures and isolation of teaching.
Knowledge in Practice recognizes the importance of teacher experience and practical knowledge in improving classroom practice. As a teacher tests out new strategies and assimilates them into teaching routines they construct knowledge in practice. They learn by doing. This knowledge is strengthened when teachers reflect and share with one another lessons learned during specific teaching sessions and describe the tacit knowledge embedded in their experiences.
Community is the New Professional Development
Knowledge of Practice believes that systematic inquiry where teachers create knowledge as they focus on raising questions about and systematically studying their own classroom teaching practices collaboratively, allows educators to construct knowledge of practice in ways that move beyond the basics of classroom practice to a more systemic view of learning.
I believe that by attending to the development of knowledge for, in and of practice, we can enhance professional growth that leads to real change.
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S.L. (1999a). Relationships of knowledge and practice: Teaching learning in communities. Review of Research in Education, 24, 249-305.
Passive, active, and reflective knowledge building in local (PLC), global (CoP) and contextual (PLN) learning spaces.
Virtual CommunityA virtual space supported by computer-based information technology, centered upon communication and interaction of participants to generate member-driven content, resulting in relationships being built up. (Lee & Vogel, 2003)
A Definition of Community
Communities are quite simply, collections of individuals who are bound together by natural will and a set of shared ideas and ideals.
“A system in which people can enter into relations that are determined by problems or shared ambitions rather than by rules or structure.” (Heckscher, 1994, p. 24).
The process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest in some subject or problem collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations. (Wikipedia)
A Community of Practice is a network of individuals with common problems or interests who get together to explore ways of working, identify common solutions, and share good practice and ideas.
• puts you in touch with like-minded colleagues and peers
• allows you to share your experiences and learn from others
• allows you to collaborate and achieve common outcomes
• accelerates your learning
• Improves student achievement
• validates and builds on existing knowledge and good practice
• provides the opportunity to innovate and create new ideas
Looking Closely at Learning Community Design
4L Model (Linking, Lurking, Learning, and Leading) inspired by John Seeley Brown http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/2006/06/roles-in-cops.html
This model is developed around the roles and interactions members of a community have as participants in that community.
User Generated Co-created
Content
Celebration
Connection
Communication
Collaboration
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Critical friends: Form a professional learning team who come together voluntarily at least once a month. Have members commit to improving their practice through collaborative learning. Use protocols to examine each other’s teaching or leadership activities and share both warm and cool feedback in respectful ways.
Curriculum review or mapping groups: Meet regularly in teams to review what team members are teaching, to reflect together on the impact of assumptions that underlie the curriculum, and to make collaborative decisions. Teams often study lesson plans together.
Action research groups: Do active, collaborative research focused on improvement around a possibility or problem in a classroom, school, district, or state.
Book study groups: Collaboratively read and discuss a book in an online space.
Case studies: Analyze in detail specific situations and their relationship to current thinking and pedagogy. Write, discuss, and reflect on cases using a 21st century lens to produce collaborative reflection and improve practice.
Instructional rounds: Adopt a process through which educators develop a shared practice of observing each other, analyzing learning and teaching from a research perspective, and sharing expertise.
Connected coaching: Assign a connected coach to individuals on teams who will discuss and share teaching practices in order to promote collegiality and help educators think about how the new literacies inform current teaching practices.
Are you (is your school) #FutureReady?
http://tech.ed.gov
Future Ready Pledgehttp://futurereadyschools.org/take-the-pledge
"Imagine an organization with an employee who can accurately see the truth, understand the situation, and understand the potential outcomes of various decisions. And now imagine that this person is able to make something happen." ~ Seth Godin.