Communities of Practice

I've always had a special CoP from both my undergraduate and graduate years. In my graduate years, this group grew exponentially as I was working towards a Master's in Education, with an emphasis on Urban Education. I didn't know them as a CoP. They were my friends. They were activists I admired. They were people I called "my own". In our second year of grad school, a group of us left our sites of Student Teaching (where all of us had been offered jobs) and went en masse to the first new public school in Los Angeles in 30 years. We covered our bases - there was at least one of us to cover each academic course. Opportunities like this - to open a brand new school with a core group of people who believe in what you do and who share the same work ethic - rarely come along, so we took it. I worked with these people for the greater part of a decade, the greatest years of my career. How blessed was I to have a job that I adored and to work with my friends, my family.

And then I moved to San Diego.

And became drastically alone.

I struggled for quite some time to find a niche, to re-build a family. To find a group of passionate, activist educators. I didn't find it at the first job I landed...nor in my first program (though there were some wonderful individuals).

Now I'm in a different doctoral program and share in a cohort of 13 people, what I now label as my Community of Practice. I miss my L.A. CoP (which I never called them, nor still do...but understand that is who they are. I continue to call them Family.)  But I have a greater understanding of who they are, and even what a CoP is, because regardless of distance, we still work together. True, I rarely see them. Yes, they still send me pictures of my old classroom and reminisce on all the good time. But, yes, we also still e-mail, text, and call regarding advice on teaching and resources; we reach out when trying to network with someone else; we share articles and new tools. A couple others have been in other programs or are now, so we continue to share what we find. They will remain my CoP for life.

But this new CoP of mine, my cohort, is so meaningful in another way. I love that I have found a group I can continue to learn from, with people whom I admire, who even serve as mentors. They support my growing professional learning network, connecting me to whom and where I need to go.

Our Domain: A cohort of educators dedicated to making positive, progressive, and sustainable change in all levels of our educational system. We're all educated, experts in our field, and active in our daily work towards making these goals true.

Our Community: Not only does our cohort, our CoP meet for regular class sessions, we support each other through sharing articles, blogs, and research, over distance and time. We support each other in networking and job acquiring. :)  We serve as sounding boards for one another, to bounce ideas off, and give backing when having to make difficult situations. We spend necessary time to support each other's research and to develop ideas and plans for improving our organizational systems.

Our Practice: All members of our CoP are practitioners - administrators, teachers, counselors, directors, curriculum developers, mentors, and more. We continue to hone our expertise, collect data and knowledge, and share those resources with others for the continued improvement of our field. Everyday we work together in varied ways, whether directly, or indirectly through sharing information via the virtual world. The bottom line is, we work together, support each other, and never stop learning, all for the shared purpose of improving education.

I'm grateful for my cohort, my CoP, a necessary professional network that provides a support structure for both my work and school arenas. The implications are far-reaching. The model of a CoP can show students how working together with common goals can benefit them beyond the classroom. Small Learning Communities encompass this by trying to group students by like interests, allowing them to share in multiple classes and learn together. This model can serve for great direction to teach students how to work together, that there is strength in numbers and that collaboration can strengthen communication and social skills. The growth in social capital can show students that a Community of Practice can enhance their learning and living.

Now that I am at a school for Independent Study, I hope to work with the Administration to implement CoP's. I'd like to see them within 3 divisions of our school: K-5, 6-8, 9-12 grades. Our students, parents, and staff could work more effectively by collaborating more often. As much of our students' learning involves home schooling, all could benefit from sharing: teaching methods and resources, struggles and concerns, knowledge and understanding. And there's no reason to stop at our school. What our groups can learn is that a CoP extends well belong home base. We can network and build with other schools, both near and far. Skyping with a classroom on the other side of the globe will open a wealth of learning opportunities!

As a Digital Learning Resource Teacher, I don't have a choice but to be open to learning available through technology. Not allow can I learn useful tools for my own research and pedagogy, but I can learn useful resources for the learning of my staff and students. I hope that I can better utilize my blog, and also continue to use Twitter and LinkedIn as tools for strengthening my global network and sharing information. I do learn everyday from reading a post on Twitter, or finding a new article to read. I cannot imagine life with the Godsend of technology, nor can I barely remember life before it...how did we survive..???  Ahh....will save that one for another day. ;)