Communities+of+Practice

"Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern of passion for something they do and learn to do it better as they interact regularly. " Etienne Wenger

Part of our task this year is to develop and grow as a community. First within NING and then as trust, comfort, and time allow, you will join other communities in your quest to develop your own personal learning network.

Read the attached article about CoP **(below)** or [|take a look at this blog post on PLCs] or [|this one on PLNs]- or better yet **do all 3!** Are you part of a community of practice or professional learning community within your school? How about other organizations? If so describe how the community relates and functions. Share your community's story.

What do you think is the role of a team in a community of practice? Are PLCs and PLNs different from CoPs- if yes, how so? If not, why not?

Rachel I am incredibly fortunate to have worked with a principal early on in my teaching who visited Rick DuFour's school to learn about PLCs from the get go. Talk about spoiled......we had staff development, meaningful discussion about what PLCs were, and a leader who constructed creative schedules to allow us time to meet regularly to develop these communities. Most of all, at the basis of every conversation, each common assessment we might be picking apart, or stories that were shared was one question: What is best for kids?

The PLCs we developed looked closely at data, both qualitative and quantitative, to drive decisions that drastically improved learning and teaching. (I wonder what kind of data we might use in our projects as we move forward with PLP?)

Later, teacher leaders were developed from this concept, with an even greater PLC developing, and so forth. I loved this experience, and echo the sentiments of Bill Ferriter. Then I became an assistant principal, and I feel like I am starting all over again! That poses some unique challenges, since our curriculum is so broad. (It seemed a lot easier to grasp goals for our PLC when I was a Teacher Leader for Language Arts 9.)

I am left feeling encouraged after our Elluminate session yesterday, knowing and hearing the voices of what I consider my newest PLC... this very group.