Week+2+-+Summary+Paper

What we did today:
Today, we spent a lot of time rehashing logistics from the previous week, and, actually, in the process, were practising being a professional learning community, which was the topic of today. We established a process of facilitation, such as a schedule for the next few weeks, topics and themes, and clarified other roles. We identified some of our strengths as a group, such as we all seem to listen when someone speaks and everyone wants to contribute to the responsibilities of the group. This allowed for effective progress in exploring concepts and discussion.

Tom and Elise were the facilitators for today and prepared a jigsaw puzzle activity revolving around the paper "Relational Trust, the glue that binds professional learning communities" by J. Cranston. We divided into pairs each taking a couple pages of the paper, read it and identified the key points. We then came back to the group and presented each part, each building on the previous pair's contribution. In this way, we came to an understanding of the paper and concepts surrounding a PLC together. We established from the paper that "trust" is an incredibly important factor in establishing personal rapport. Further, we concluded that it in the principle's influence which greatly contributes to the establishment of this sort of productive PLC environment.

The article also revealed some of the conditions necessary to develop a culture that can support a professional learning community including; common goals; an environment where it was safe to fail and strong relationships between principle and teacher as well as teacher to teacher. We also explored situations where trust and a supportive culture was not present and what that looked like. The discussion took on an reflective nature as we compared the conditions that promote the development of a culture in a school to that of which is being developed in within our group. We understood that our group came together by individual choice and as such we generally aligned in attitudes and values. What requires further development is better defined goals, methods (process) and evaluation of our efforts. This is a work in progress, as our unique background experiences frames our perceptions of trust, support, commitment, etc and we must put in the time to come to any sort of consensus.

After the jig saw exercise and discussion, the group was split on where to prioritize efforts the options being completing the rubric and completing the group paper. We split the group in two subgroups and each worked on one aspect. Some pertinent issues surfaced during this discussion regarding the purpose of group time and whether that should be used to complete the output tasks or rather for interaction. Other issues arose regarding the silencing of voices within the group due to the large nature of the group, varying personality types and structure of our discussion which could be better structured to provide equal voice for everyone. This should be an issue that is revisited next week and discussed further. Other questions emerged regarding leadership and what might be best way to approach this given that we are essentially a 'collective' with no formal hierarchical structure so to speak. While we have designated facilitators for each week, but the broader discussion becomes what are specific responsibilities for the facilitators and to what end. This is still in flux as we evaluate and learn week to week.

The group working on the rubric seemed to have a made strides in how to we might evaluate our group discussion while simultaneously provide a forum for change. This will be unveiled and implemented during the next meeting. Interesting to note that the rubric group seemed to encounter similar issues of leadership, and equity within the group as they worked through their activities. Personally reflecting on how things have gone to date highlights a comment made by Ben, conceptualizing how the focus of our group has been largely on process and how this should shift to the more intriguing exploration of how phys-ed and art integrate as we 'put in the time' to learn how to be effective in this setting. Amidst the hustle and bustle, don't forget to pause, take a deep breath and look back to see how much ground we've already covered...

Thanks group, it's been fun and interesting so far! Looking forward to seeing what comes....