Teacher leaders have tremendous potential to affect student outcomes and teacher satisfaction and retention. The meetings and professional learning they lead are key levers in school improvement, building individual and collective educator capacity. And yet, teacher leaders are often tasked with developing and implementing professional learning arcs for their colleagues with little professional development or thought partnership to build their capacity to do so. This community of practice introduces participants to the principles of adult learning theory and professional development design, while applying it to their role and context. Participants should be involved in planning professional learning (department, grade level, PLC, inquiry group, whole school PD, etc.) at some level and be prepared to engage in data collection, feedback protocols and reflection activities.
Participants will engage in practical, job embedded professional learning resulting in a professional learning arc, aligned with adult learning practices. Teacher leaders will build capacity for leading equity-centered, impactful teacher meetings and professional learning sessions in which the needs of students inform the learning needs of teachers. The focus will be on creating conditions for belonging and deep learning. Teacher leaders will have the opportunity to analyze learning conditions in their contexts and gather information about student needs to inform the focus of teacher learning.
This community of practice offers participants the opportunity to:
- Consider context and needs through the lens of both student and teacher needs
- Analyze where professional learning can address equity issues surfacing in the school context
- Develop an equity-centered, adult-learning focused problem of practice, based on contextual needs
- Develop a professional learning arc to address a problem of practice that is in alignment with adult learning theory