Special Education Resources!

Check out the link to my Diigo page which has over 100 resources for the Special Education classroom!

http://www.diigo.com/user/kimweichle

RSA 4: Lessons for Online Learning: Charter Schools' Successes and Mistakes Have a Lot to Teach Virtual Educators

RSA 4: Lessons for Online Learning: Charter Schools’ Successes and Mistakes Have a Lot to Teach Virtual Educators

http://educationnext.org/files/ednext_20112_Tucker.pdf

This week, I found Chapter 8 in Palloff and Pratt’s book to be the most relevant in relation to the article that I found. The focus is on promoting collaborative learning in an online community. Some of the main points in the chapter that I think are crucial to developing a solid online learning community include coming up with a shared goal for learning, posting introductions and learning expectations, setting team expectations and making sure there is shared responsibility for facilitation.

This week, I was able to locate an article that focused more on teacher-student learning which matches the book’s focus. The article by Dillon and Tucker is focused on virtual learning and changing some of the traditional school models. They believe that this will help personalize education for students. They aren’t just focused on an online class or discussion group, they are discussing many models including a completely online public school. Dillon and Tucker stress that there must be accountability within a virtual learning environment so that there is a way to identify effective and ineffective practices. Dillon and Tucker note that focusing on outcomes is one of the most important aspects of setting up a virtual learning community. One of the most interesting quotes from this article is “At present, virtual education lacks a firm understanding of what high performance looks like.” This is interesting because in my mind, I think this should be figured out before anyone really started these online programs.  Dillon and Tucker also mention that there needs to be more data on the effectiveness of online schools, a secure independent oversight of the school and that the schools need to make sure the outcomes are better than the traditional school model.

Currently, I teach two periods of online independent study. Students utilize the program EdOptions to recover credits that have not completed. Therefore, in one class I can have many subjects so I am just supervising the students in the room and grading completed assignments. Some of the students within this program don’t have reading levels that match this curriculum which sets them up for failure rather than success. This is not a good model for learning and does not create community.  I would hope that our district reconsider this program to make it more community like and to really determine expected outcomes and guidelines for placement within this program.

References

Dillon, E., & Tucker, B. (2011). Lessons for Online Learning: Charter Schools' Successes and Mistakes Have a Lot to Teach Virtual Educators. Education Next, 11(2), 50-57.

Palloff, R. & Pratt, K. (2007). Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom, (2nd ed.). San Franciso: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 978-0- 7879-8825-8

RSA3:Toward “Hybridised” Faculty Development for the Twenty-First Century: Blending Online Communities of Practice and Face-to-Face Meetings in Instructional and Professional Support Programmes

RSA 3: Toward “Hybridised” Faculty Development for the Twenty-First Century: Blending Online Communities of Practice and Face-to-Face Meetings in Instructional and Professional Support Programmes

http://www.informaworld.com.cucproxy.cuchicago.edu/openurl?genre=article&id=doi:10.1080/14703297.2010.498177

This week’s reading in Palloff and Pratt’s book walked us through what a learning community should look like when setting up online learning. The intended purpose of the online learning communities seemed to focus more on the teacher-student classroom learning community rather than a professional learning community. Palloff and Pratt emphasized establishing a community and setting up collaborative learning groups. All of their suggestions could be put towards a PLC rather than a classroom setting but would need to be modified slightly to fit the professional development model that was chosen for the PLC. One of the most important things that Palloff and Pratt mention is that everyone in the online community should feel a sense of belonging. Everyone in a PLC should always feel like they belong and if they don’t they need to work to rectify the situation. Everyone in the PLC should be aware of how everyone is feeling and all should feel free to have an open dialogue whether it be online or in person.

In Brooks’ article regarding the blending of online communities to both online and face to face the focus was on school faculty needing to come together to learn specifically about new technology that needs to be implemented in their classrooms. This again doesn’t specifically meeting the typical model of a PLC but parts of this article applied to traditional PLCs. Brooks mentions that the “blended faculty learning community approach…will create a flexible and accessible environment for faculty to engage in sustained critical reflection and discourse about their teaching environment.” This a key part of any PLC. Only after taking these courses in educational technology do I truly realize the importance of having a way to collaborate and communicate through technology. It is important to not only share ideas on the day of the PLC meeting but it is important to share ideas throughout the week.

While neither of these writers specifically mention PLC, some of the concepts they discussed are applicable to professional learning communities.

References

Brooks, C. F. (2010). Toward "Hybridised" Faculty Development for the Twenty-First Century: Blending Online Communities of Practice and Face-to-Face Meetings in Instructional and Professional Support Programmes. Innovations In Education And Teaching International, 47(3), 261-270.

Palloff, R. & Pratt, K. (2007). Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom, (2nd ed.). San Franciso: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 978-0- 7879-8825-8

RSA2: Supervisor Transformation within a Professional Learning Community

RSA 2: Supervisor Transformation with a Professional Learning Community

http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ896072 

In this week’s reading, Chapter 10 caught my attention. The charts included in this chapter reflect cultural changes in a PLC. (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker & Many 249-251) These charts are interesting and reflect what is happening within our PLCs a little at a time. It would be difficult to focus on all of the changes in one year. It would be beneficial for PLC groups to use these charts when planning for their PLC year. Each group could pick a couple of areas to focus on and they could plan their work around it.

The article that I found for this week is about a study that was conducted through the College of Education at Texas State University-Sane Marcos. The university recruited six participants for their study of PLCs. The PLC focus was supervision of teachers. The members met for eight sessions with each session being 2 hours. They each brought unique experience with them. The purpose of the study was to watch the transformation that occurred in this PLC. (Jacobs & Hoppey 2010)

I felt that the study that was conducted at Texas State was interesting but I felt they lacked focus in their meetings. The meetings seemed to be focus on whatever the group brought to talk about. There was some structured curriculum they used but it seemed like they were more focused on the dilemmas they were each having in their workplace. In fact, a diagram was included in the study that had dilemmas as the main topic of conversation in the PLC group. I think if the group had used the chart included in Chapter 10 of our text, their discussions might have been more useful. Each participant grew professionally through his or her experience with this PLC but I think it would have been more useful if they had more of a focus within the group. 

References

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. (2010). Learning by Doing: A Handbook for

         Professional Learning Communities at Work (2nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Jacobs, J., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2010). Supervisor Transformation within a Professional Learning Community. Teacher Education Quarterly, 37(2), 97-114.

RSA1: Learning Communities: The Starting Point for Professional Learning is in Schools and Classrooms

RSA1: Learning Communities: The Starting Point for Professional Learning is in Schools and Classrooms

http://www.learningforward.org/news/articleDetails.cfm?articleID=2311

Professional learning communities (PLC) are becoming part of every school’s community. Each school has their own version of the PLC but there are many common themes within them. PLC’s are meant to be collaboration of teachers to improve student learning but also as a means of sharing information between colleagues. PLC groups should have a shared focus and should be working towards a common goal.

In the article written by Lieberman and Miller, they state that learning communities are “ongoing groups who meet regularly for the purposes of increasing their own learning and that of their students.” In their article, they mention five different studies that were done on learning communities. One of the studies that were mentioned brought an English department and a history department together and had them form a learning community. The group started very far apart and by the end of the study the departments were working together and made connections. This study is interesting because currently in our school the majority of our PLCs are all grouped by department and specifically by the curricular area those teachers teach in. It could be a really interesting experiment to see what would happen if two departmental PLCs joined together and worked toward a common cross-curricular goal. The PLC would probably experience the struggles that were mentioned in the study above but some really productive work could come out of it.

The readings from our textbook and this article had some similarities and common themes including collaboration, common goals, routines and vision. Both the article and the textbook agree that in order for teachers to collaborate effectively they need to have a clear purpose and a systematic process for each meeting. (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker & Many 120 & Lieberman and Miller 19) Both also suggest that each PLC should be focusing on an aspect of student learning and achievement. The textbook and article mention many challenges when conducting a PLC but one of the most interesting was that “most learning communities embrace a set of norms and rules that are in direct conflict with the schools.” (Lierberman and Miller 19) They mention they are in conflict because of the schools bureaucratic model. This can present a great struggle when trying to run a honest PLC.

References:

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. (2010). Learning by Doing: A Handbook for

       Professional Learning Communities at Work (2nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Lieberman, A., & Miller, L. (2011). Learning Communities: The Starting Point for Professional Learning Is in Schools and Classrooms. Journal Of Staff Development, 32(4), 16-20.