What I would like to see in a professional learning community...

In a professional learning community, Dave Intlekofer discusses the professional development in the school he works. I would love to work in his school.

We here talk about sharing and more time. I for one, like this about his account of pd:

...Reflection/Integration Day, is another day that we could take advantage of much better. Reflecting on our work always has positive benefits for our future lessons and our students... Discussing the Essential Questions of our class for the week always gets us thinking about the bigger picture. It is so easy to get bogged down by the “daily grind” that we often merely focus on getting through the content, and forget the questions (learning objectives) that motivated the unit in the first place.

I love that. We should be moving towards more authentic instruction and realigning curriculum in order to not keep teaching the same things. This needs to be done in collaboration with one another and hard to achieve from 3 - 3:30 one day a month. This common time would allow us to get so much done. Very rarely is ther enough time to talk, plan, or share with colleagues.

...Professional Development Day, is my favorite. Each week, one of the five teachers is responsible for leading a lesson on an innovation, article, or any other subject that could benefit the team. The teacher leading the talk prepares any information in advance (often giving the others a short article to read on Wednesday) and leads the discussion. This has been a fantastic time of learning, brainstorming, and collaboration...

This would be great! A wonderful way to share something new or use an old idea in a new way. Some of these topics could be used for the Inservice days at the start of the school year and expanded into true learning experience. I think we should be accountable for our own learning. Sharing our learning promotes an atmosphere that is beneficial for all.

From maintaining our own learning through readings and blogs, to the sharing with other teachers in our school and district, we can use this as a great example of where to start. I would hope that as school reform sweeps through, that administration could find that teachers are able to be trusted with the best professional development to leave no child behind! A group of teachers creating a one size fits all professional development day really does not keep us on top of what is needed.

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