It was not long ago that the vast majority of teachers preferred to shut the door and be left alone to teach. As Rick DuFour put it, we as teachers thought of ourselves as independent contractors united by a common parking lot (DuFour, Eakar, DuFour 2005). Thankfully, there has been a shift in pedagogy, in part precipitated by Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), over the last decade or so which has increased teacher collective efficacy through collaboration. This trend is slowly growing around the country and is the message of the sixth principle for Schools of Modern Learning.
Principle #6: Modern Schools see transparency and sharing as fundamental to a powerful learning environment.
Whenever I hear the saying, “making lemonade out of lemons” one of the places my mind goes is to when I was a “traveling” science teacher. For a time, I didn’t have my own classroom and had to travel between science rooms on a cart. This actually took place in three of the four school districts in which I taught. I suspect you can imagine there was a lot of stress involved, as well as extra time needed, to prepare and organize lab materials that could be quickly loaded on and off of a cart which was then rolled through student filled hallways from one classroom to another throughout the day. Although it was a pain, I was happy to have a job, and in looking back I would not trade those years of traveling between classrooms if given the chance to do it again. I know it sounds crazy, but the unexpected opportunities that came up for me to listen to and observe teachers whose classroom I shared provided a window into the power of learning from other teachers. This was especially important for me as a “newer” teacher as it led to conversations about labs, teaching techniques, and philosophical pedagogical differences with my teaching colleagues. I took full advantage of these conversations, asked a lot of questions, shared a lot of material, and liked to think I contributed as much as I consumed while setting up my teaching network. In many ways, even though I was “newer” I connected with more of the teachers than some of the veterans because of the opportunity to be in so many different classrooms. This experience, without question, sold me on the power of collaboration and the importance of learning from each other.
This power of networking and sharing should not be limited to the adults within a school. Learning is a social process and it is important that classrooms provide the opportunity for young people to “network” with their classmates everyday. It has been said that whoever is doing the talking is doing the thinking, so if that is true we need to be sure to provide opportunities for young people to share their thinking with each other both in and out of the classroom. Having students share their thinking inside the classroom is much easier than sharing it outside the classroom as there are very few avenues available. The importance of this was addressed in last week’s blog Connecting to the Community to Enrich the School Narrative, but how this can be done is what principle #6 is all about. Transparency needs to more the norm than the exception in schools and especially so for each classroom.
More and more teachers are tweeting what is happening in their classrooms which does promote transparency. However, I think a more powerful approach is to have young people share their learning and one way to do this is through an online presence in the form of an e-portfolio. Google Sites is a very user friendly way for young people to create an e-portfolio. In fact it is so easy, I have been using it for my own Learner's Portfolio which I linked to my email signature. Understanding how to build an online presence is a valuable skill for young people to develop as “increasingly, there is an expectation from employers that students have built an online portfolio of work that shows creativity, curiosity, collaboration, and persistence” (Richardson & Dixon, 2017, p. 13). It is important for young people to know how to actually build an online or e-portfolio, but the value of the process comes from understanding what pieces of evidence and accompanied narrative young people should provide to demonstrate their understanding of learning. The more adults and young people in schools share their learning, the more opportunities they create to learn from each other. These opportunities provide a window into the classrooms that, like visiting the classroom in person, can promote conversation, generate ideas, and enhance learning between schools, classrooms, teachers, and most importantly young people.
References
DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & DuFour, R. (2005). On common ground: The Power of
Professional Learning Communities. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.
Richardson, Will & Dixon, Bruce (2017). 10 Principles for Schools of Modern
Learning. White Paper from modernlearners.com.
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