Creating and Supporting a Collaborative Community of Adult Learners

DSC/OUSD partnership Social Emotional Learning 20 schools 3rd year of partnership Foundation funding substantive professional development

Questions We Will Explore How can we build trust and develop and deepen relationships across the staff and teams? How can we provide time for job- embedded professional learning? What structures foster conversations and keep the focus on student learning?

Teambuilder Think of a time that you have felt a strong sense of community. Why did it feel like a community? How did it make you feel? What were people doing and saying?

Creating Caring Community – Grounded in Adult Learning Theory* Allowing for Choice Making it Experiential and Usable Making it Meaningful to participants Explaining the Why Providing Time to Practice and Plan * Ed Leadership, 2009

Locations for Learning Individual Learning Partners Small Group Whole Group

Small Group Learning Oportunities Professional Learning Communities Instructional Rounds Consultancies

Instructional Rounds Central Tenents: Adapted from Dick Elmore and colleagues at Harvard Learning to see; unlearning to judge Focus on students and observational data

Small Group Practice: Consultancy What is an issue or problem you have had creating an adult community of learners? OR Share a current situation where a group has not been functioning as an engaged or caring community.

Consultancy Protocol: Groups of 3 Overview of the problem or question (3 minutes) The group talks about the problem presented (6 minutes) The group asks clarifying questions (3 minutes) The presenter reflects back what was heard and learned (3 minutes)

Debrief Consultancy How was this experience for you? - as a presenter - as a participant In what ways would this help to build an adult learning community?

Whole Group: Creating Conditions for Learning

Looking at video in groups of 4 – 4As Protocol What Assumptions does this video hold? What do you Agree with in the video? What do you want to Argue with in the video? What parts of the video do you want to Aspire to?

Video (insert here)

Assumptions, Agree, Argue, Aspire Share your Four A’s notes with your group of four What Assumptions does this video hold? What do you Agree with in the video? What do you want to Argue with in the video? What parts of the video do you want to Aspire to? Discuss with Groups of Four What are the implications for you personally?

Debriefing How does this help build community and learning?

DSC/OUSD partnership - Lessons learned Teacher as Leader structure Instructional Rounds Iterative planning – Basing PD on previous feedback; modeling our own learning Attending to process – holding urgency at bay

Action Step What’s one thing that you’re going to take back? Who is a partner you’ll check in with?