The contribution of teacher Inquiry topics to my community of Practice.

The contribution of teacher Inquiry topics to my community of Practice.

How do the two chosen topics relate to issues in your professional practice?

We have has a few new teaching focuses this year and next year we have decided as a staff that we need to consolidate our knowledge. We as a school are continuing our knowledge in Personalised Learning. Our end of year data shows that we need to again focus on writing even though we are above the national standard this is our weakest area that we want to further develop. Google docs were introduced last year also with Prime maths and Maths buddy.

Focus one: Is to use Google Docs to further develop collaboration with a focus on writing and also to include the wider school community. Then to take this wider by including the other features in the Doc suite for planning and at staff level. At the moment we are using docs for planning, staff meeting, collaboration, feedback, must do’s may do’s and share through docs.

Focus two: How to work more collaboratively with our NE buddy class. The parents at parent interviews last night all commented about how working with our younger buddies is so beneficial for the year 6 children. But how do we best do this and also include technology?

The community of practice: What is it?

The clearest definition is Wenger, McDermott & Snyder (2002),p4

“Groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interaction on an on-going basis.”

I value the discussions that I have with colleagues on a daily basis and understand their importance. I really miss our weekly mindlab meetings as we were a group of like-minded teachers.

I didn’t enjoy reading Wenger’s article, but I did prefer the supplementary material. Maybe it was because of where my own mindset is? We have just finished reports, parent interviews and are moving towards appointing a new principal and I am the board rep. So it’s been all go with back to back meetings.

So on reflection, my own mindset has a lot to do with time pressures and do these things contribute to successful collaborative practices? I will have to ask my colleagues.

COP isn’t this what we are trying to achieve through our COL’s? isn’t this the same model or am I off with my thinking?

References:

Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.