This week the power of relationships seems to keep coming up among adults and students. It is through relationships where learning always begins, whether we are talking in families between parents and children or large organizations like a school setting. No significant learning can take place without significant relationship. That is why the buzz now is about "Professional Learning Communities." Before you roll your eyes, read on: the reason these work is not because it is trendy. It just makes sense. Learning happens best when a sense of community is fostered. Simple. Professionals need opportunities to learn just as much as children do. Simple. Why not put all three together? Seems simple to me.
To inspire means to breathe life into another. The goal of positive relationships, personal and professional, should have inspiration at the center.
AVID seeks to inspire students and educators through relationships. Two ways we do inspiring is through the method of tutorials and the family concept. Students are ready to take on harder coursework because they know they have a community of support behind them in their new endeavor. Ask them, and they will tell you the truth: without the family behind them, they would not still be in school, determined to succeed, or they would not have achieved as much as they are without it. Moreover, AVID students learn the power of professional learning networks through tutorials. Each week they get together in small groups to grapple with confusing parts of their coursework. It is AVID's way of teaching them to study and use their resources (tutors, their teacher, other teachers, the internet, etc.). They come in with a Point of Confusion and hopefully leave with the process and steps toward a solution. That is all a PLC really is, if you boil it down to its bare parts.
This year I have come to appreciate as they say on Twitter "the power of the PLN: professional learning network." The idea behind the hashtag #neverstoplearning is all about professionals in any industry harnessing the power of relationships in their community but also in a more expansive network of professionals. As teachers, most of us loved school, and hopefully we loved learning in school. We also had to be pretty savvy about managing massive amounts of data. A PLC/PLN is a powerful way to use resources at your disposal (human or otherwise), and turn that learning into real life application.
In AVID site team, we are reading The Eighth Habit by Stephen Covey. This has opened the doors to create deeper connections among the family of educators and has also helped us dig deeper into the leadership opportunity we have as a teacher. As a school, we are reading Becoming a Great High School. I believe this will also open doors for fostering more authentic relationships and thereby weightier movements toward the Spirit of Excellence!
I'd like to leave you with some integral teachings I have gleaned from reading The Eighth Habit and today's intro to Becoming a Great High School. I am encouraged by the power of my professional learning network and communities. I am not alone, and neither are you. Together is always better.
The Eighth Habit:
Becoming a Great High School:
Have a great week and get by with a little help from your PLC/PLN! We have to grow ourselves before we can help others, including our students, colleagues, and families.
To inspire means to breathe life into another. The goal of positive relationships, personal and professional, should have inspiration at the center.
AVID seeks to inspire students and educators through relationships. Two ways we do inspiring is through the method of tutorials and the family concept. Students are ready to take on harder coursework because they know they have a community of support behind them in their new endeavor. Ask them, and they will tell you the truth: without the family behind them, they would not still be in school, determined to succeed, or they would not have achieved as much as they are without it. Moreover, AVID students learn the power of professional learning networks through tutorials. Each week they get together in small groups to grapple with confusing parts of their coursework. It is AVID's way of teaching them to study and use their resources (tutors, their teacher, other teachers, the internet, etc.). They come in with a Point of Confusion and hopefully leave with the process and steps toward a solution. That is all a PLC really is, if you boil it down to its bare parts.
This year I have come to appreciate as they say on Twitter "the power of the PLN: professional learning network." The idea behind the hashtag #neverstoplearning is all about professionals in any industry harnessing the power of relationships in their community but also in a more expansive network of professionals. As teachers, most of us loved school, and hopefully we loved learning in school. We also had to be pretty savvy about managing massive amounts of data. A PLC/PLN is a powerful way to use resources at your disposal (human or otherwise), and turn that learning into real life application.
In AVID site team, we are reading The Eighth Habit by Stephen Covey. This has opened the doors to create deeper connections among the family of educators and has also helped us dig deeper into the leadership opportunity we have as a teacher. As a school, we are reading Becoming a Great High School. I believe this will also open doors for fostering more authentic relationships and thereby weightier movements toward the Spirit of Excellence!
I'd like to leave you with some integral teachings I have gleaned from reading The Eighth Habit and today's intro to Becoming a Great High School. I am encouraged by the power of my professional learning network and communities. I am not alone, and neither are you. Together is always better.
The Eighth Habit:
- Unleashing human potential requires leadership governed by these principles: affirmation, unification, providence of resources, accountability, and stewardship.
- Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they have come to see it in themselves.
- "Leaders are concerned with what things mean to people; managers are concerned about how to get things done" -Abraham Zaleznik (You lead people and manage things.)
- The intersection of Knowledge, Attitude, and Skills is HABIT. If we can hone all three into positive habits, we are headed in the right direction, from effectiveness to greatness.
- In turbulent white water, every single person must have something inside them that guides their decisions.
- We must swim upstream against the tremendous resisting forces of tradition, lethargy, indifference, and low trust.
- Focus our hearts and minds upon what truly matters and then live with integrity to do it.
- When you regularly communicate with another person/other people, you reach a new level of understanding that almost runs by nuance.
- Implicitly commit socially to live what you teach.
- Every teacher becomes a student, and every student becomes a teacher.
Becoming a Great High School:
- Don't be dead-set on certainty in times of complexity.
- 6 + 1 Model - One attitude = We expect success! Six strategies = Developing Clear Instructional Goals, Developing a Common Vision of Effective Instruction, Using Frequent Formative Assessment, Tracking of Student Progress, Providing Timely Intervention for Struggling Students, and Celebrating Student Success!
Have a great week and get by with a little help from your PLC/PLN! We have to grow ourselves before we can help others, including our students, colleagues, and families.