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Module 4

 

    To be honest, I haven’t really given much thought about the reason why we have Professional learning communities. When I first started teaching, it was a great way to be involved and get to know the staff more. It was a step to being part of something that can implement changes and help improve pedagogy, instruction, planning and assessment.

    As a school, we have decided for our professional learning, we would focus on what Math looks like within our community. In my school, the teachers’ noticed students were struggling with numeracy in Math. They’re able to compute, telling you what 3+3= and 5-2 makes, but wouldn’t be able to show flexibility in their thinking, nor have any mathematical thinking. Therefore, the staff decided to pursue numeracy as our topic for professional learning and development as a school.

I can understand the merits for new teachers and experienced teachers when we have dedicated time to discuss, share and collaborate. New and less experienced teachers are able to learn and plan with experienced teachers and see what they’re doing in their classroom. For me, I enjoy these moments the most when teachers are able to share what is working, what isn’t working and what they have been doing in their classroom. From their experiences, I can learn and adapt to see what works in my classroom and teaching. Because of seeing what others do, it also inspires me to reflect on my planning.

I had the opportunity to do these professional learning workshops where beginner teachers shared their struggles, what they’ve done that worked and what are some questions they have. These discussions happened in-person and it was easier to have people share, talk with people around you and look at resources in front of you. However, the online environment enables teachers from different districts, places and time-zone to share their knowledge (Blitz, 2013). This was extremely beneficial when we had a year-long course and professional learning with Opal Learning School in Seattle, where educators would guide our discussion and share resources and ideas with us. The online environment promoted teachers to do “self-reflection on learning and instructional practices” as it’s more easily accessible and becomes more individualized than collaborative (Blitz, 2013). I feel less judged and restricted when I'm doing professional learning by myself as I am always self-conscious of what others think.

    In these discussions, technology is used to share ideas seamlessly. We have used online discussion boards to compile ideas we have and to be able to visit them more easily after another date and time. For the workshops, they were useful to throw questions and ideas to be discussed. For the school professional learning on numeracy, it was a great way to track progress and development. With a school of over 26 divisions/classes, it is difficult to track how everything is going and what are our next steps. Without social media and digital tools, it makes it even harder to revisit ideas and to collaborate. Very often, we are surprised with the ideas others have and will bring it into our teaching and assessment. An example would be when I first started to make videos and recordings of student’s learning as a document, I’ve noticed that students’ voice were not clear and I had to keep looking for a quiet space to record, such as in the hallway. Teachers had a discussion on other strategies to document student’s learning, such as photos, having a specific recording time in the classroom or remove the cover for the iPad. In my classroom, I was experimenting using microphones to record. In these collaborative and professional learning opportunities, we shared what worked and I shared my idea of using microphone. This resulted to the whole school purchasing microphones and the whole district using them to help record student’s work more easily and clearly. Without the ability to have professional learning time, we wouldn’t be able to share and learn from one another.

    This applies to the math numeracy as our professional learning development as a school, staff and community. We share resources and make note of what is not working. In one of the discussions, we noticed from multiple of evidence provided by the teacher that students do not have the language to describe and explain their mathematical thinking, especially in regards to word problems. We weren’t able to come to these conclusions if it wasn’t for these discussions and online platforms that emphasized what are some difficulties and patterns we noticed throughout different grades. Although students are curious learners, in Math, they don't demonstrate this characteristic within their thinking and explanation.

    For my own professional learning in relation to the school’s numeracy development, I would like to continue to explore how is math and numeracy discussed in different classrooms and around the world. I appreciate what I’m able to learn from these discussions and how much it can help change educator’s planning, instruction, and assessment; thus, I would like to continue to explore what is working in different classrooms in numeracy. I have attended workshops where different mathematical teaching is taught, such as how to do multiplication, division, and place value. I would like to continue my professional learning more on mathematical thinking and numeracy. 

 

References: 

Blitz, C. L. (2013). Can Online Learning Communities Achieve the Goals of Traditional Professional Learning Communities? What the Literature Says. REL 2013-003. Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic.


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