Standard
6
Teacher leaders will communicate and collaborate with a variety of stakeholders
Relevant Courses:
EDAD 6589 Engaging Communities
EDU 6600 Communication and Collaboration
Reflections
Original Experience
I have always been incredibly comfortable engaging in PLC work, and leading trainings for teachers. I have also been comfortable communicating with families regarding their child’s academic progress, and keeping them apprised of learning goals. However, after this program I have learned that although I have always involved families, I have never truly engaged families in our classroom, and schools. I also have never personally reached out to community members to elicit feedback, or engage them in the classroom. Now, I realize that effectively communicating, and collaborating with a variety of stakeholders truly involves more than just effective PLC work, and communicating with the parents on students in my classroom. While this type of communication impacts my practice the most, it is important to broaden my communication to include more than just my colleagues, and parents of students in my class.
Teacher leaders will communicate and collaborate with a variety of stakeholders
Relevant Courses:
EDAD 6589 Engaging Communities
EDU 6600 Communication and Collaboration
Reflections
Original Experience
I have always been incredibly comfortable engaging in PLC work, and leading trainings for teachers. I have also been comfortable communicating with families regarding their child’s academic progress, and keeping them apprised of learning goals. However, after this program I have learned that although I have always involved families, I have never truly engaged families in our classroom, and schools. I also have never personally reached out to community members to elicit feedback, or engage them in the classroom. Now, I realize that effectively communicating, and collaborating with a variety of stakeholders truly involves more than just effective PLC work, and communicating with the parents on students in my classroom. While this type of communication impacts my practice the most, it is important to broaden my communication to include more than just my colleagues, and parents of students in my class.
New Learning
While collaborating with a variety of stakeholders
involves more than solely my PLC team, my courses through SPU have helped me
fine-tune, and improve my PLC practice to be as effective as possible. This
comes from gaining a much deeper understanding of theories of adult learning,
and collaboration. The PLC structure at my school aligns quite well with my
understanding of the theories of effective adult learning. Zepeda (2012) explicates
conditions that must be in place to ensure effective adult learning. Among
these conditions she states that successful adult learning must “be based on
ownership, appropriateness, structure, collaboration, internalization, and
motivation” (Zepeda 2012).
In order to truly improve student learning through
quality PLC work, it is imperative to have a strong understanding of how
students and adults learn best. As PLC leader, it has always been my paramount
goal to ensure that every member of my team feels well supported and valued and
that there is a strong sense of mutual trust on our team. I thought that this,
along with careful, intentional planning on my end as the leader were the key
ingredients to a successful, and impactful PLC. Now I recognize that these
efforts are only impactful if I also design our PLC centered around how adults
learn best. When adult learning is considered, teachers are more likely to
authentically grow through collaboration. Zepeda (2012) explicates conditions that must
be in place to ensure effective adult learning. Among these conditions she
states that successful adult learning must “be based on ownership,
appropriateness, structure, collaboration, internalization, and motivation”
(Zepeda 2012). As a result, I worked with my teammates to select the work that
is most critical and that we are most passionate about. All teachers on my team
have been empowered to hold a deep sense of ownership and pride in our work,
which creates an internal, and collective commitment to working collaboratively
to create the most meaningful and impactful lessons and interventions to support
student learning. Zepeda also continuously mentions the importance of
establishing a productive, positive collaborative environment. When teachers
feel empowered, inspired, and valued this lays the foundation for an incredibly
productive, positive, and effective PLC structure. This structure leads to
improved educational outcomes for students.
My understanding of
effective collaborative work has been broadened by the concept of
transformational learning which Malik (2016) explains as “learning that results
in a change in how we see ourselves.” Impactful PLC work is an intricate
process consisting of four major components “experience, critical reflection,
reflective practice discourse, and reflection” (Marriam, Caffarella, &
Baumgartner 2013). Effective PLC work is only possible through productive,
authentic reflection. A component of this is being vulnerable and transparent
when sharing data, and recognizing when your specific class data is not as
strong as a colleague’s. Impactful PLC teams empower one another and take
ownership of victories and struggles to work together to improve the
educational experience for our students. Teaching, by nature, is incredibly
personal, yet it is only effective if we can critically examine our data and
instructional strategies with a commitment to mutual improvement.
When it comes to taking part in communicating with parents, this is an area that I am also incredibly passionate about. I send home weekly newsletter, call parents regularly, and keep all families apprised of their students’ progress with personalize progress notes. While this is important, I have noticed at our school while parents are lovingly welcomed to be involved, but overwhelmingly do not have a seat at the decision-making table. They take volunteer roles under the guidance of the teacher in all classrooms including my own. From what I have seen, we do not solicit parent feedback on school policy, community, academics, or enrichment activities. Our administration and teachers would be extremely welcoming of parent ideas or feedback and would be happy to meet with parents at any time regarding their student, or ideas however they are not formally asked to provide feedback on any consistent basis. Parents attend conferences, communicate with teachers regularly, and most express that they would like to be partners in their children’s education, however at this point in time, it seems very much like parent involvement is at each teacher’s discretion. From the Engaging Communities course, I have learned that it is important to engage families rather than just communicate with them. It is important to also solicit input and get feedback so that parents can take an active role in their child’s learning.
Impact
As a leader, I have
the ability to positively empower and influence teachers to take on this critical
collaborative work effectively. I believe that this collaboration is achieved
through my team’s intentional PLC work. In Teacher
Leadership, Hilty states, “well-composed and well-functioning teams can
exert substantial social and normative influence over their members, shaping
their thinking, beliefs, and behaviors” (Hilty, 2011, p. 275). This concept has
motivated me to create documents and protocols to maximize the effectiveness
and productivity of our PLC work to ensure that it leads to increased student
achievement. My thinking has changed largely in how I approach the trainings
that I lead. Now that I have a deeper understanding of how adults learn, I will
alter my delivery approach to best meet those needs. My new knowledge of informal
or incidental adults learning, and the profound impacts of this type of
learning has shaped the ways I will approach PLC work, as well as teacher
trainings to strengthen this component of my practice. When planning a training
or setting a PLC agenda, currently I plan every solitary minute to ensure
maximum productivity. I prewrite our discussion questions, and dictate the
direction of our conversations prior to each meeting. While is many ways, this
is the work of an effective PLC team, it also, could potentially take away from
opportunities for incidental learning, or for our team to construct knowledge
collectively. While I will still plan an agenda that addresses the most
critical tasks, and data analysis, I will also create opportunities for
incidental learning to occur. In teacher trainings, this could surface through
teachers exploring lessons or using manipulatives independently to construct
knowledge, rather than to directly model to train them. Based on what I
know about the value of learning in context, I will also ensure that teachers
have an ample amount of time to interact with new content, and to practice new
skills. I will allow teachers to practice each skill, and support their
learning as active participants.
While I am truly inspired by our positive
efforts, and warm environment, which welcomes all family, moving forward, I
would like to do much more to promote familial engagement rather than just
involvement. Our information tends to go from the school to the parents,
without feedback requests, or familial influence. While I can guarantee that every
family feels welcome at our school, I do not believe that they feel as if they
are part of the decision-making process, or that their input is valued.
Collectively, we seek to provide access to all families to all families, and
explicitly target underserved populations, however I believe that we should
shift our parent involvement model to more of a parent engagement partnership. My Community Engagement Project highlights some goals for
that specific aspect of my practice.
Artifacts:
References
Hilty, Eleanor Blair. (2011). Teacher
Leadership: The "new" Foundations of Teacher Education.
Reader. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Hirsh, Stephanie, and Hord, Shirley M.
(2010). Building Hope, Giving Affirmation. The Learning Forward Journal, 31(4). Retrieved from
http://learningforward.org/docs/jsd-naugust-2010/hirsh314.pdf?sfvrsn=2
Inclusive Schools Network. (2015). Ideas for
Engaging Families.
Malik, M. (2016). Assessment of a Professional Development
Program on Adult Learning Theory. Libraries
and the Academy,
Zepeda,
Sally J. (2008). Professional Development: What Works. New York: Eye on
Education.
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