Bringing in Experts

By: Clarence Fisher
A vital part of the PLP experience is the period of time where outside experts, what we call “experienced voices,” are brought into the cohort and bring with them fresh ideas and new perspectives.
In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia cohort, we have recently been enjoying conversations with three people: Tom Barrett, Barbara Barreda and [...]

Oceans of Possibilities

By: Lani Ritter-Hall
Two face to face meetings –
A number of Elluminate sessions –
Sheryl and Will’s guidance and mentorship –
School teams mapping an interdisciplinary unit, planning together –
And recently on the PEARLS cohort Ning and the web, mini inquiry units begin to chronicle the ever evolving journey of teachers and students into 21st century standards based, [...]

What Do You Value?

By Karl Fisch
When educators talk about schools and technology, there’s a natural tendency to look forward, to a time when schools are “better,” with technology often part of the perceived solution. In fact, this is often a technique to try to focus on that elusive “vision” of what it is we do and what that [...]

What is meant by transparency?

By John Pederson
Many of our PLP cohorts have teams that are starting down the path of their culminating action research projects.  The TriState PLP cohort recently wrapped our third Elluminate session where a few teams gave early updates on their status.
Among the feedback that we provide is the importance of making your personal learning and [...]

We are going to help each other learn

By Lani Ritter-Hall
From the PLP Handbook—
Team leaders—

lead and motivate their school team, organize meetings, and push action research project development
serve as a facilitator and “encourager”
engage team members in regular inquiry-oriented professional learning community (PLC) meetings that help to develop teacher professional knowledge

In the PEARLS cohort in New York City
Brian Licata, from St. John’s Lutheran, a [...]

Playing Together

By Clarence Fisher
Just about every school (and office) for that matter that I’ve been in has had some sort of system for filtering the content that comes in from the internet. Now, I don’t want to debate the pros and cons of these filters (believe me, I REALLY don’t want to do that), but I [...]

A “buzz” in the room

By Lani Ritter-Hall
Administrative expectations, pacing charts —
Students engaged in inquiry project based learning—
PEARLS PLPers – cognizant of the tension of expectations and needs of their students– gather in their virtual learning community supporting, nudging each other—delving into the issue of “time” for project based learning—an issue raised in an Elluminate session by some community [...]

Conjugating the Verb “to Ning”

By Karl Fisch
We’ve had some interesting discussions in the ADVIS Cohort around the idea of “lurking” (reading, but not contributing) in online communities. There have been lots of thoughtful responses and discussions, but I thought this comment by Karen Johnson from Trevor Day School was a great way to look at it:
I’d suggest the term [...]

What About the Parents?

By Clarence Fisher
As the Archdiocese of Philadelphia cohort has begun this year, there have been a number of interesting issues raised in the discussions. Among these has been a healthy discussion about the role of parents in helping their children learn about new technologies and in guiding their growth. As well, schools have debated how [...]

It Should Be Part of What We Do

By: Karl Fisch
PLP.
Powerful Learning Practice.
I always refer to it as PLP, but sometimes I’m reminded of what those letters actually stand for. One of the great things about PLP is the ability to communicate with other caring educators at schools that are sometimes very similar, and sometimes very different, than our own. Through the [...]