Teachers Teaching Teachers

The model of Teachers Teaching Teachers has been around for a long time.  The idea is that you focus your efforts on a small group of teachers in your building for a particular program or set of skills, then you have them go out and share with their peers.  Thus the learning is passed along to everyone.  So why isn’t this as successful as it should be?

In talking with teachers, there are several factors that indicate that this T3 approach can work.  Here’s what they say can foster such staff development and growth:

·         Providing time for small group learning sessions

·         Providing time for the group to practice the new knowledge

·         Helping to set up Professional Learning Networks (PLNs)

·         Giving opportunities for others to observe model lessons

·         Allowing teachers to “showcase” lessons for the entire staff

·         Providing curriculum support

·         Providing technology support in the classrooms

 

In choosing to focus on Communication and Collaboration in 2012-13, we had in mind the goal of moving from Providing Instruction to Providing Opportunities for students to work collaboratively to Designing challenges that promote collaboration within and beyond the classroom toward an authentic task to formatively assessing authentic tasks where students are engaged in purposeful collaboration…and therefore moving them along a continuum to having students take responsibility for their own learning...using technology and web tools just puts icing on the cake.