School Improvement Plan 2012-13

Nikki Robertson is thrilled that her school has made  ‘Building Your PLN with Twitter’ one of three three School Improvement Goals  for the school year. She ran a professional development session for the staff, complete with donuts and coffee. She described her experiences on Twitter adn the Twitter basics and terminology but has encountered resistance from staff afterwards.

This sinister underlying resistance was verbalized by one of our teachers at lunch the other day and has been echoed in one way or another by several other teachers.  So what is this resistance?  Well, here is a paraphrased quote:

“I’m not sharing my lesson plans or activities with anyone.  I worked to hard to make them to just give them away.”

In full

 

Learning in Networks

Brian Harrison reports from #DENSI2012 on a discussion about networked learning. He believes that learning networks can enhance and develop collaboration amongst educators and show how learning amongst students as well as educators are connected. He mentions a taxonomy provided by Judith Warren Little which includes

Sharing: There is an exchange of learning that flows in two directions (think of sharing units, links or resources) but there is no expectation that the parties will actually use what has been shared. We are great collectors of ideas and resources but tend to stick with what we know and prefer. Sharing is important because it fosters a norm that sharing is a good thing for teachers and builds positive interdependence; a precondition for true collaborative learning. It is worth noting that this phase, and the next one, are non-hierarhcical and based upon the principle of mutual benefit.

In full

Teach Up: Create a classroom that works for all students

Robert Ryshke looks at a model of teaching up which has seven principles

1. Accept that human differences are not only normal but also desirable.
2. Develop a growth mindset.
3. Work to understand students’ culture, interests, needs and perspectives.
4. Create a base of rigorous learning opportunities for ALL students.
5. Understand that students come to the classroom with varied points of entry into a curriculum and move through it at different rates.
6. Create flexible classroom routines and procedures that attend to learner needs.
7. Be an analytical practitioner.

He looks at learning environments where students have been segregated and not given opportunities to share and outlines how these principles can be implemented

In full