It has taken me a bit to get my thoughts and my head around what Communities of Practice (CoP) actually are and to identify if I am even in one.
Thankfully, I am in a CoP and it is just beginning to grow. I really liked the youtube clip by Knox 2009. I liked the way he illustrated CoP's like a garden. This is when it became clearer.
My first authentic inquiry topic is around creating individualised and co-constructed learning pathways for my Year 11 and 12 students in Learning Support. I have 6 students at the moment and they are all on different pathways and needing different credits. I had no idea where to start and how to begin. I have come from Primary teaching, so NCEA is absolutely new to me. So I buddied up with a colleague in the English department who is taking Year 11 and 12 but she is struggling with the low-level learners and needs my help with how to simplify their program. It was a perfect match and the need, passion and enthusiasm has started my first genuine CoP.
My other possible inquiry topic is around gamification for my Year 9 maths in Learning support.I really need to find an engaging way to help these struggling students see maths as enjoyable and achievable. They are on level 2P-3P in the NZ curriculum. Little progress is being made in their learning. I don't have a local CoP established at my school yet. I have been discussing my ideas with a couple of colleagues in the Maths department and I think that they might be interested in pooling our thought and ideas to form a CoP. They have similar issues with their low-level learners. I have joined a Google+ gamification community and will follow them.
Knox said that a CoP needs to have excitement, relevance and value. Teachers always seem so time deprived. To commit to a CoP really means all those three elements need to be ticked. Wenger 2000 defined the three elements more as enterprise, mutuality and repertoire. With both my CoP groups I know that they have been formed out a genuine issue and gap which we want to address. With my English department colleague, we are meeting regularly to keep ourselves on track and in the same direction. She is a third-year teacher and I am able to help her as much as she is able to help me, our trust needs to be mutual and transparent. We are investing a lot into this. What we bring to the CoP in terms of repertoire will be quite a range of the new mixed with the old! I am looking forward to the exchange of methods and ideas. The recent graduate tools and practice, blended with my decades of experience in teaching and also experience as a mother of teenagers. It is exciting and a relief in a lot of ways also.
My hope is that my other possible CoP inquiry focus will quickly emerge and become just as encouraging and worthwhile is my first. It is the camaraderie which really helps also. It is this wealth of knowledge and wisdom which I love to glean...and give.
Knox, B. (2009, December 4).Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk
Wenger, E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization,7(2), 225-246.
Thankfully, I am in a CoP and it is just beginning to grow. I really liked the youtube clip by Knox 2009. I liked the way he illustrated CoP's like a garden. This is when it became clearer.
My first authentic inquiry topic is around creating individualised and co-constructed learning pathways for my Year 11 and 12 students in Learning Support. I have 6 students at the moment and they are all on different pathways and needing different credits. I had no idea where to start and how to begin. I have come from Primary teaching, so NCEA is absolutely new to me. So I buddied up with a colleague in the English department who is taking Year 11 and 12 but she is struggling with the low-level learners and needs my help with how to simplify their program. It was a perfect match and the need, passion and enthusiasm has started my first genuine CoP.
My other possible inquiry topic is around gamification for my Year 9 maths in Learning support.I really need to find an engaging way to help these struggling students see maths as enjoyable and achievable. They are on level 2P-3P in the NZ curriculum. Little progress is being made in their learning. I don't have a local CoP established at my school yet. I have been discussing my ideas with a couple of colleagues in the Maths department and I think that they might be interested in pooling our thought and ideas to form a CoP. They have similar issues with their low-level learners. I have joined a Google+ gamification community and will follow them.
Knox said that a CoP needs to have excitement, relevance and value. Teachers always seem so time deprived. To commit to a CoP really means all those three elements need to be ticked. Wenger 2000 defined the three elements more as enterprise, mutuality and repertoire. With both my CoP groups I know that they have been formed out a genuine issue and gap which we want to address. With my English department colleague, we are meeting regularly to keep ourselves on track and in the same direction. She is a third-year teacher and I am able to help her as much as she is able to help me, our trust needs to be mutual and transparent. We are investing a lot into this. What we bring to the CoP in terms of repertoire will be quite a range of the new mixed with the old! I am looking forward to the exchange of methods and ideas. The recent graduate tools and practice, blended with my decades of experience in teaching and also experience as a mother of teenagers. It is exciting and a relief in a lot of ways also.
My hope is that my other possible CoP inquiry focus will quickly emerge and become just as encouraging and worthwhile is my first. It is the camaraderie which really helps also. It is this wealth of knowledge and wisdom which I love to glean...and give.
Knox, B. (2009, December 4).Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk
Wenger, E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization,7(2), 225-246.
I have resonated with the elements of a CoP which you reference from Knox, excitement, relevance and value. Certainly without these, there is no motivation to put time into an inquiry. When we do things because we 'have to' we are just going through the motions. The two CoPs you are involved in sound as though they have the right motivation and desire to make them successful. I hope your gamification CoP will assist with the maths based CoP you are looking to develop locally. It is certainly an exciting way to explore maths skill. You clearly have a lot to offer your CoPs. It is refreshing to see the enthusiasm and desire to make the time to work with others towards a goal.
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