This year the EL Team focused their learning around the essential question, "What difference can we make by working together?" The team participated in four sessions facilitated by Alyson Carpenter of Alyson Carpenter Consulting.
Each of the four sessions encouraged each EL teacher to reflect and grow in these areas:
Establish a culture and mutual level of respect among EL teachers as colleagues
Provide effective EL teacher collaboration structures and support at the district level
Grow understanding of adult learning practices and coaching
Equip EL teachers with a basic toolkit of effective adult learning/coaching strategies for general education teacher and leader support at the school level
Grow reflective thinking and practices among EL teachers
One of the favorite sessions was learning skills in the area of cognitive coaching. After learning about the technique, teachers were able to practice with colleagues. As a culminating activity, teachers created their own scenarios(real or imagined) and peers were tasked with using newly learned skills to address each scenario.
In the last session teachers explored three types of data(satellite, map and street) and considered their use with colleagues. They then considered how using protocols for looking at student work can serve as a powerful data source and impact both teaching and learning.
Each of the sessions engaged teachers in reflecting on partnership shifts and encouraged the teachers to connect and grow as a team of learners and leaders.