RSA3: Learning Communities

RSA3: Learning Communities

http://www.learningforward.org/news/getDocument.cfm?articleID=2311

Educators are working to become Professional Learning Communities in hopes that student learning will improve.  With all the challenges facing schools today, lack of funds, lack of parental support, lack of supplies and resources, coupled with increased accountability. The idea of a school of teachers working together for common goals seems idealistic but if you realize this is the best strategy for improvement.  You have to swallow your pride and realize you may not know everything.  Maybe one of your colleges has a better way of doing what you do.  So you adapt and try something new.  Isn’t that what we should have always been doing?  Dufour goes on to say that this is the best strategy for sustained, substantial school improvement.

 Reflection has always been part of my lesson planning.  Once a unit or sometimes even a lesson is done I reflect on what went well and what didn’t work.  I try to change it up before I do it again.  Why should I keep doing something that did not work to improve the students’ knowledge? It is only reasonable that I would need to find something better.  So I ask others who teach the same thing. Be it in my building or across the country.  That is the joy of living in this internet based world.  I can collaborate with so many more of my colleges.  There are many teachers’ forums to exchange information about lessons and problems we encounter.  Believe me GOOD teachers have been exchanging ideas for most of their career with others.  Only now schools are asking you to go within your school for ideas.  Think about it. These colleges of yours may see something about a student’s learning capability that you don’t.  They have the inside track on them.  They can steer you to lessons that work within their cogitative abilities.  Other teachers on the web do not have that advantage.  Quantitative data gathered from a statewide representative sample of 78 elementary schools in eight school districts show that collaboration is a strong predictor of student achievement gains in reading and math (Rosenholtz 1989).