Embedded Files
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” -Helen Keller.
Mentorships provide authentic opportunities to build strong relationships and trust.
Overview
Collaborative professional learning has been demonstrated to reflect a continuous,
high-quality, evidence-based P.D., that is, an ongoing and iterative process grounded in student
data. Including the process of building, refining, and improving a common goal. The goal of
professional learning is to build educator knowledge and skills that will directly impact student
learning: their strengths, goals, and instructional needs. A description of Michel Huberman’s
teacher career model provides strong support and connects to my findings. His extensive and
empirical research demonstrates that school is the organization and career trajectories. Also,
Knowles, 5 Assumptions of Adult Learning is another researcher that supports my analysis. He
shares adults have a higher sense of self-direction and motivation to learn because they want to
or they see the benefit of learning, rather than because they are told to or expected to.
The most important issues that will need to be considered in preparing to co-facilitate and
support a community of practice to engage in collaborative professional learning are practicing
being an active listener, paying attention to self and others, and providing data. I will need to
demonstrate being an active listener by being responsive during dialogs among teachers. Such
as providing more assurances rather than providing solutions. This will lead to demonstrating a
culture of care and willingness to hear a teacher’s voice. It will also assist while providing
actionable feedback when being coached or providing instructional guidance.
This is a graphic that demonstrates how I plan to support and guide my findings.
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” -Michael Jordan.
Overall, the collaborative work was student-centered in improving students’ academic performance and well-being at the same time. It also demonstrated that our educational focus was selected and also corresponded to the school’s vision, mission, and goals. As a result, socioeconomically disadvantaged students at Marianna Avenue are less likely to be prepared for college and/or career-ready than other non-socio-economic disadvantaged students over time.
It was agreed upon that the problem of practice was in the academic performance of math for students who were identified as socioeconomically disadvantaged. This reflects the student’s demographics of 97.48% Latino, 1.2% African American, and 1.2% White. Of these students, 24% are English Learners,17% are Reclassified ELs, and 1% are considered Long-Term English Learners. Also, 17% of the student population qualifies for special education services as
Students with Disabilities, and 8% of the student population has been identified as Gifted and Talented. We also took into consideration data from the CA dashboard, where we were able to analyze and determine that students who were identified as socioeconomically disadvantaged performed lowest in the content area of math during the last three years. It was also agreed upon to have a closer focus with the teachers in 1st to 3rd grade to commit to building a strong network among each other and work collaboratively to stay focused and resilient. This would assist in establishing an emergent beginning to promote across all grade levels. We all had access to the Edulastic (a new formative assessment tool used in our district) data platform to analyze, interpret and utilize it for progress monitoring of the targeted students. I co-facilitated to assist the group by validating all their contributions to the meeting. I also reinforced and praised their student progress. I provided assurance that as a “team” we would all support and assist each other in making their selected decision to improve the well-being of their students as a priority during this difficult time in the classroom. This enables all members of the group to be active agents in building a nurturing environment where students continue to be at the center of our tasks and well-being.
Throughout the Community of Practice, I implemented “Active Listener” of the Norms of Collaboration Strategies from the Adaptive Schools. The collaborative process in how I selected the evidence-based strategy was through building and working cooperatively, sharing responsibility for problem-solving, and making decisions to implement plans for student improvement. For instance, in our second meeting, “Active Listener” permitted every team member to listen actively to what each member brought in to share the evidence-based strategy they researched after meeting #1. As we all listened to each other, we selected one relevant evidence-based strategy that addressed students identified as socioeconomically disadvantaged in math class. We then also utilized the most recent data (Edulastic math platform); we spent a great deal of time having rich discussions about interpreting the data across grade levels. I also utilize the California Math Framework; we read through it and added new learning into our discussions. I did this purposely to bring out key math concepts and anchor standards. We then read three articles from a range of instructional strategies that
support diverse learners, such as the subgroups we are targeting (socioeconomically disadvantaged). We collaboratively contributed to our experience with the explicit instructional evidence-based strategy mentioned because we knew it would improve student learning and the well-being of the identified group of students. Overall, the collaborative process included shared decision-making, inclusion, and engagement.
Results
Some of the improvements for student learning that resulted in the problem of practice were
identifying and prioritizing long and short-term learning goals. This is an essential component in
monitoring the problem of practice because there are consistent opportunities to collaborate and
share frequently what is changing and what is not. It also provides systematic design instruction
toward a specific goal. It describes and gives the opportunity to adapt curriculum tasks and
materials for specific goals. The group also expects the selected instructional evidence-based
strategy will measure specific needs that require more explicit instruction that require more
lesson planning and progress monitoring. Preparation experiences must include well-supervised
opportunities for all members to practice with feedback about what they are learning in
coursework. Field placements should be carefully selected to reinforce what members have
learned in the problem of practice. “To move in the direction of tightly structured learning
opportunities for teacher candidates, scholars in general and special education (Ball & Forzani,
2011; McLeskey & Brownell, 2015) have argued that teacher educators need to identify a critical
set of practices that are essential to improving student learning”.
I will co-facilitate the group by assuring that all members have equal and multiple opportunities to share their experiences, findings, and interests. I need to implement the Norms of Collaboration that we selected as a collaborative and assure that they get carried throughout each meeting. It is important for me to ensure that I establish a safe space throughout the meetings. I want all members to feel comfortable and validated for the contributions that they bring in. I think this is how I would be able to address the importance of the explicit instructional evidence-based strategy and demonstrate to all the members that we are all making a commitment to improving student achievement including addressing the students' needs. I am concerned about potential implementation implications and/or challenges that might occur as all members could encounter such barriers as low student attendance, which would hinder the data results. Nevertheless, I also feel that a continuous progress monitoring strategy will assist all stakeholders and be productive in determining an ongoing process to improve student achievement including the students' well-being during this difficult time inside classrooms. I feel that promoting and demonstrating collaboration skills enable you to successfully work toward a common goal with others. They include communicating clearly, actively listening to others, taking responsibility for mistakes, and respecting the diversity of your colleagues. The group and I will monitor and analyze the initial results on a consistent basis. We will meet virtually and regularly to ensure the support system that we want to promote among each other. We will develop an agenda with outcomes for each meeting to provide a sense of guidance and assistance in targeting our objectives for each meeting. We will also create a collaboration tool to create a virtual drive folder to insert any new resources, materials, and tools that could assist any of the group members.
Reflection
One aspect of school culture that influenced co-facilitation was a commitment to lifelong learning. This was evident in the dedication they each made to stay focused on the community of practice. They demonstrated an ability to be engaged and focused on the community of practice. They provide authentic insights and expertise to every meeting. Another aspect of school culture hard-working teachers are always at work, either helping or hindering learning. This was influenced by the co-facilitation of the community of practice. It influences every decision and action at the school, from the leadership style of the principal to the way teachers choose curriculum materials and interact with students and care for their well-being. One member of the group gave impactful insights from both teachers and administrators on how they want to support and build this particular learning experience. In addition, working continuously with families and the community, we serve to make an impactful effort to provide support to the students. Our teachers and staff also share many responsibilities in which they share several roles throughout the school. Our school leaders are very dedicated and committed in every event, committee, and decision-making process. The upper grade teachers play multiple roles in creating, supporting, and bridging learning throughout their classrooms to ensure their students are ready for the transition to middle school by working with counselors and other school support staff. These examples build credibility from being passionate about what you teach, about being a teacher, and about helping each of your students succeed. Some aspects of the school context that were influenced in the co-facilitation of the community of practice were culture and positionality. All the members represented the majority of the student population. This help build commonalities with families and the community. The positionality varied, we had members that were out of the classroom looking at school-wide performance. Others who have are classroom teachers and others who are learning from teachers and coaches. This influenced the co-facilitation to a more purposeful and meaningful community of practice
CAPES -1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 3A, 3C, 4A, 5A, 5B, 5C
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