* What resources will you need to carry out your plan?
In order to effectively carry out my my GAME plan, I will need a number of resources. In order to model creative thinking for my students, I will need to see creative thinking being modeled in the classroom. I think the best resource to use for this goal would be to observe how my colleagues model creative thinking. I have a couple people in mind who I am sure are quite effective at modeling creative thinking so I plan to set up a time to observe them early on in the school year.
For my second goal, which is to make myself part of learning communities, I will need to find the learning communities to join. The resources necessary here are a group of colleagues willing to join me as well as some professional development opportunities.
*What additional information do you need?
In order to carry out my GAME plan, I need to find information on the different types of professional development that are available that will help me to build a network of learning communities. I have never been a part of an organized learning community and really have no idea what is out there or what a learning community looks like.
*What steps have you been able to take so far?
Due to the fact that we are on summer break, I have not made much progress on my GAME plan. In fact, the only real progress I have made is to compile a list of names of colleagues that I would like to observe when I return to school.
Bryan,
ReplyDeleteTo help you develop an understanding of what an organized learning communities looks like, I would suggest you research Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) online and in our research database through the Walden Library website. PLCs are characterized by a group of educators working collaboratively to improve their own practices with the purpose of improving education for students (Servage, 2008). You can create PLCs within your own school, but you can also create learning communities online with other teachers across the globe. On the website (http://www.allthingsplc.info/) you can access agendas and activities from PLCs all over the country to help you start your own learning community. I would ask a few of the colleagues that you plan to observe this school year help create your PLC. Since you cannot be in contact with these teachers already, I would begin by finding out more about learning communities and how to start your own. Good luck on carrying out your GAME Plan!
Whitney Barber
Servage, L. (2008). Critical and transformative practices in professional learning communities. Teacher Education Quarterly, 35(1), 63-77. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Bryan,
ReplyDeleteWould any of these teachers be open to observing you and giving peer feedback to help you see how your are doing on modeling? I know that we are often hard on ourselves, but having an objective outsider observe us can help us discover our strengths and weaknesses. My principal has been very helpful to with covering classes if teachers want to observe each other. sometimes our PLCs can be simple constructive mirrors of us.
If you don't feel trusting of others to watch you, try to video tape yourself. But even then I would still suggest another set of eyes to help. Send me a video tape if your looking for someone. I'm not perfect, but you can trust me that I'm not trying to steal your job or get you in trouble. HAHA. Good luck on your community.
Suzanna
Hi Bryan,
ReplyDeleteDo not forget that there are a lot of wonderful blogs and professional websites out there to add to your aggregator in order to expand your learning network. I have found that most of my new knowledge has come from other professional blogs.
This is just my opinion but in my view a learning community is simply a group of like-minded life-longer learners who come together to share ideas and questions. You already have something of that already established right here. I do not really think that you need professional development training for it. Plus, creating your own community means you can hand-pick those blogs/sites you feel are most useful to you.
Additionally, I completely agree with you that not a lot can happen with my GAME plan until school starts up again.
Susan