Support Circles: Creating a Culture of Care

by | Oct 7, 2020 | Community of Practice, professional learning, Support Circles, Twitter, Twitter Chats | 0 comments

As human beings we are wired for connection. Beginning with our first family and then adding to our connections through friendships and relationships, we create an intricate network of people who are there for us through celebrations, challenges, sorrows and triumphs.  Connected initially by common interests, our networks contain people who we can count on to be there for us. They are our support circle.

We need our support circles in education now more than ever.  This year has brought significant changes to the “way we do business” and as a result, we need each other.  By putting questions in the center of the circle that we all wrestle with, we can share our experiences and collaboratively develop solutions.  Circles naturally function as a “yes, and” rather than “either, or” and allow a stronger sense of community to be built.  We will start the circle conversation on Twitter in order to reach as many people as possible.  Each Saturday at 9 AM EST, we will pose a series of questions around a topic and use #plpnetwork to encourage others to join in the conversation.

Following the initial circle, we will come into our “walled garden” of the PLP Hub to dig deeper into the trends that surfaced.  This will allow for the honest and authentic dialog needed to effectively respond to the challenges we all face.  A transcript of the initial circle conversation will be posted so that anyone unable to participate can read through the ideas and anyone who was able to participate can review.  From there – we encourage community members to create posts on what resonated with them, share additional resources, dig deeper into ideas that they heard.  Together, we can create a culture of care to support and lift each other as we navigate the school year.

Sit with us in our circle.  Join us on Twitter, Saturdays at 9 AM EST.  Join our community at https://plphub.plpnetwork.com. Let’s support each other.

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Theresa Gray

Theresa is a Community Leader and Leadership Coach For Powerful Learning Practice who counts education as her second and true career. After practicing as an attorney for a short time, she knew she could make a bigger impact teaching and started her career co-teaching middle level Social Studies. She then moved on to facilitate professional learning regionally and earned her M. Ed. In Educational Leadership and has her permanent certification in School District Leadership in NYS. Most recently she has served as an Assistant Superintendent for a small city school district where she supported the implementation of 1:1 technology, developed and implemented school improvement plans and created professional learning communities in several areas including curriculum, student support and parent/family engagement. She is passionate about supporting leaders in all positions and in engaging students in authentic learning.
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