May+2014

May 20, 2014
To be continued, but below is a link to a slide deck from a recent presentation:

May 30, 2014
Today I met with a bunch of teachers from a few of our high schools to cap off a year of exploring teaching and learning in a Digital Age. Like most things, this sort of group meeting has a name, it's called a Professional Learning Community (PLC) and sometimes folks call it a Professional Learning Network (PLN) as well. Our meetings are loosely designed after the models proposed by the [|Dufours]. I really like how our School Division (the Louis Riel School Division) has encouraged teachers to develop PLCs and offers money for release time so that teachers can meet. The PLC program in the LRSD is a good thing for teachers and their development as professionals. It is really good to hear a variety of perspectives on subjects of common interest, and we can share what's working well. The PLC experience also helps us to develop a community, and we start to know one another, and figure out how to combine our strengths to help each other out.

Separate from the LRSD PLCs, I know that at Dakota Collegiate the PLC model is alive and thriving. Our school-based PLCs allow our staff here to take some time away from classes to look at new ideas. A few of the PLCs this year include topics such as video and the flipped classroom, numeracy in Industrial Arts, common assessment development in English classes, screencasting, aboriginal perspectives and learning, and an academic book club that read and studied [|Professional Capital] to see how it applies at our school. I have not listed even half of the PLCs at Dakota this year, but these serve to show the variety of ways that teachers can direct their own development as professionals if they are given the means, and they have the will.

It seems to me that "one size fits all" PD just does not work as well as it used to work. Everyone wants things customized and individualized, and PLCs offer a way for teachers to customize their PD. On the flip side, so many of us still like lectures and stories, and that's a good thing too. TED talks are still very popular, and there is a certain joy in hearing someone with fresh ideas explain them well to an audience of active listeners. Finding the balance between PD that we all subscribe to and the ability to customize to fit our own interests will always be a challenge. Learning together, and in small groups, and on our own is really the point. I'm glad I work in a place where all of that is encouraged.