Module 5 Journal of Connections to My

Professional Community
The professional community I chose in Module 4 was a combination of an online professional education network,
edWeb.net, and my own professional learning community at the high school where I teach, using an online forum called
Edsby.

Attempts to begin “Discussion” conversations and Engage with my Communities

Part 1 – discussions on edWeb.net
What I learned from my attempts to engage with the various professional learning communities on the edWeb.net
network is that it is important to choose your community wisely. For example, I connected with 11 different
communities on edWeb.net, as seen in the screenshot below, and attempted to connect with 4 of them with an initial
discussion post. I received feedback from two of my four posts, and 1 of those responses was only received today (Nov.
21), several days after publishing my post.

Here was my first attempt to engage in conversation, a post published in the “Music in non-public schools” community.
This was met with no response, probably because it is a smaller learning community with a limited niche.
Here was another discussion post that I submitted, this time on the “Leadership and Innovation” community. I was more
hopeful with this one, since it is a larger and more vibrant community. However, no response to this one was seen
either.

Just as I was beginning to get really discouraged, I finally received a few responses on two other community postings I
made. Both discussion posts were similar to the post that I published above in the leadership and innovation page. The
first post was published in the group “Leadership 3.0: Essential Skills for Innovative Leaders”, and it garnered a bit of a
discussion, to which I responded (although no response to my response yet). Here are the screen shots:
There was one more community in which my discussion post garnered a response: the “Principal Leadership: Making a
Difference” community. Here are the screenshots below:
Part 2 – edWeb.net “edWebinar” participation
On Wednesday, November 14, 2018, I participated in two “edWebinars” via the edWeb.net network, to which I was
invited to participate as a member of the edWeb community.

Webinar #1 – Embedding Educational Research from Incubator to Launch: The Iterative Process

The first, entitled “Embedding Educational Research from Incubator to Launch: The Iterative Process” took place from
3:00pm to 4:00pm. Here are a few screenshots of my participation in this webinar, as well as the link to the video and a
brief summary/analysis of my experience.
Computational Thinking: The New Literacy

Creating a systems approach to improve innovation – remaking existing positions and get rid of redundancies and
systems that don’t work, immediately – embrace the iterative process of innovation

My question about “horizontal alignment” and “reaching out to local businesses” was answered – what are some
problems that you face as a business that we could help you with… students go to the company to be oriented, meet
several times with the local business… do a presentation at the end as well…
Examples: Allclad pots and pans – students invented a handle for the pan that was good for arthritic hands – 3D printed;
ways to stack the pans that they could be easily stored

Summary:

Although I was overwhelmed by the content of this webinar (I think the title was poorly constructed – I had no idea from
the title that this webinar was about “Computational Thinking” or “Coding” or a “Systems Approach to Learning”,
nevertheless, I used this webinar as a “test run” for my own ability to interact with peers in this way, and to push my
thinking in new directions. Although I don’t think we have the resources to set up a program like this in our school at this
point, I did come to appreciate the importance of “failing forward” and embrace innovative thinking in our schools, and
as a future administrator this is something I hope to foster moving forward with my own school and colleagues. I was
pleasantly surprised at how I could transfer the concept of horizontal and vertical organization (Ornstein & Hunkins,
2013) in our readings to this webinar as they discussed these concepts and their relevance to the topic being presented.
I was able to ask the presenters a question about horizontal alignment and specifically how they were successfully
reaching out to local businesses and companies and using input from the community to develop their computational
science initiative. I asked this question because it became clear to me that the curricular concept and design embraced
in this setting was an inquiry-based, learner-centred one, and I wanted to know if they had thought about and
intentionally incorporated some “society-based” design into their program. To my pleasant surprise, the presenters
answered my question by highlighting how easy it was to engage with the local community and that they were “turning
businesses away” at the moment. They began by inviting local businesses to come to the school to meet with the
student participants, and asked the businesses for examples of problems they face in the “real world” of their company,
that the student programmers could help them solve. The example that was shared was a local “pots and pans”
company (All-Clad) that was looking for a more ergonomically-friendly handle design to assist those with arthritis – the
students embraced the problem and used 3D-printing to design a new handle for the company which they eventually
took back… what an amazing example of society- and problem-based learning and design!

Link to edWebinar video recording: https://media.edweb.net/edWebinar/?view=20181114edweb59

Webinar #2: Collaboration Impacts Students’ Learning

The second edWebinar, entitled “Collaboration Impacts Students’ Learning”, took place from 5:00pm to 6:00pm. Again,
here are a few screenshots of my participation in this webinar, as well as the link to the video and a brief
summary/analysis of my experience.
School libraries have an impact on student learning and achievement, especially with regard to literacy and reading; but
there is not a lot of research more currently about the impact of modern school libraries

Positive relationship between full-time qualified school librarians and standardized testing scores in literacy

How can a school librarian help you as an educator?

Coordinate Collaboration between different teachers and different departments in a school!! E.g. English and
Social Studies department – writing a research paper…

A sell for a “flexible” librarian schedule, as opposed to a fixed librarian schedule…

Again, talking about “horizontal alignment/organization” between different disciplines (Orstein & Hunkins,
2013)… especially with regards to citation styles, bibliographic processes, etc.

Once again, I was disappointed with the content of the webinar – I thought it was about student collaboration;
instead, it was about teachers collaborating with librarians.
Collaboration Counts!! Teachers make a difference!! If the teachers were collaborative, the students’ success improved.

Data validates the idea that librarian collaboration with classroom teachers improves student achievement!!

Summary:

Again, the content of this webinar was not super relevant to my professional context. However, it was again interesting
to see practice being driven by inquiry and the collection and analysis of data; it underlined to me the importance of
“evidence-driven practice” in the educational setting, which is something that I would like to engage more with my own
colleagues. This also ties in nicely with the importance of thoroughly and seamlessly integrating planning, instruction,
and evidential-assessment as discussed in depth by Mcmillan (2014) in our Module 3 Readings.

While it was disappointing to invest 2+ hours of my time into these two webinars which were seemingly unrelated or
irrelevant to my own classroom practice, nevertheless it did open my eyes to the value in the “webinar” learning
experience, and I can appreciate the value in being able to sit down at my device either synchronously or
asynchronously to learn about what others are doing, and in particular successful initiatives taking place in various
different classrooms around the world, assuming the webinar is well chosen and relevant.

Link to edWebinar video recording: https://media.edweb.net/edWebinar/?view=20181114edweb2

Part 3 – Discussion in my own Professional Context, using Edsby
Edsby is a platform that our high school has been using for roughly 5 years now, and it serves as an excellent Student
Management System as well as a communication and collaboration tool, connecting teachers, administrators, students,
and parents/caregivers seamlessly.

On Edsby we (faculty) have created a digital professional learning community amongst ourselves using an Edsby “group”
which we’ve titled “Best Practices”. In reality, I think this would be considered a “hybrid PLC environment” according to
Blitz (2013) as it combined an online discussion forum with face-to-face interactions and discussions (since all the
members of the Edsby group belong to the same faculty at the same school).

My initial engagement with the Edsby “best practices” group with my colleagues came actually not from edWeb at all,
but rather because of a blog that had been shared by another student in the PME class (Tracy Dietrich) – the “Cult of
Pedagogy” blog created and administered by Jennifer Gonzalez. When sharing information in the “Best Practices” site I
received some discussion from my colleagues at ECHS where I teach. Screenshots below:
Besides sharing interesting articles from a meaningful blog, I also wanted to interact with my colleagues in a more
intentional way related to the content of this course, that is, educating my colleagues about shifting philosophies and
conceptions of curriculum and how the resulting various curriculum designs can be seen in classroom practice with
regard to planning, instruction, and assessment. Therefore, I created a post and intentionally asked a few of my
colleagues and my principal to comment and/or interact with the content of the shared material. From the screenshots
below of the resulting discussion, you’ll notice that one of my colleagues made a suggestion that I print off my Module 3
assignment (descriptions of Subject-centred, Learner-centred, and Problem-centred design) on larger paper (11x17) and
lay it on the staff room table with some sticky notes for a more holistic collaborative engagement activity. I promptly
did this; unfortunately, after a few days, the charts and sticky notes were still sitting there untouched…. I guess everyone
is busy in November!😊

Here are the screen shots of my Edsby discussion post on the Best Practices Edsby PLC:

On the next page you will see the responses that I gathered from several of my colleagues who made an effort to
intentionally interact with the material, as well as my responses. I should add that these posts garnered much “face-to-
face” discussion as well, which obviously cannot be easily captured with screen shots.
Interaction with PME 810 Peer’s Work
Early on in Module 5, I noticed that two of my classmates also chose to interact with edWeb.net learning network. One
of them, Meg Baker, posed a question on the “Assessment for Learning” community which intrigued me (I also joined
this community), so I decided to answer her post and get the conversation started. In this way, I was able to contribute
to her community outreach/dialogue as well as learn more about her context of practice and compare it to my own. On
the next page are the screenshots of this dialogue, which has also received a contribution from another member of the
community from a New Jersey school.

In comparing Meg’s and my own context of practice, it would appear that Ontario and British Columbia (where Meg is
teacher) have quite different conceptions of curriculum, especially with the new B.C. curriculum moving dramatically
away from the subject-centred approach and more toward the learner-centred and inquiry-based approach, particularly
at the elementary/middle school level. In Ontario, while we still have a “subject-based” curriculum, there are certainly
elements of learner-centred and problem/society-centred design being incorporated into the curriculum, such that it
appears Ontario is looking for a more “holistic” approach.
Final Reflection
Having now completed several different interactions with colleagues in the PME 810 course, with colleagues on
edWeb.net, as well as with my own colleagues at the high school where I teach, I have learned a great deal about
working with PLC’s to learn from each other and further the conversation with other teachers about how to improve our
daily practice.
I have seen that in many other North American schools individualized (learner-centred), society-based (problem-
centred) and technology-driven (cognitive process, inquiry-based) curriculum conceptions and designs (Al-Mousa, 2013)
are growing in popularity and gaining a foothold across boards, districts, and in the classroom. I also learned that some
of my own colleagues at the school where I teach are experimenting with these ideas as well, while there is also some
resistance and hesitation as well, and some of that is not just a “knee-jerk” reaction to what are perceived as “fads” but
rather entrenched worldview-based and philosophical concerns about the direction that we are moving with
educational practice.

As I transition over the next couple of years into an administrative role (principal) at my school, I will have to actively
wrestle with these tensions as I attempt to take the advice of the Leadership 3.0 edWeb.net community members who
gave excellent examples of how a leader can successfully help a faculty transition into a more innovative mindset of
classroom planning, instruction, and assessment.

References
Al-Mousa, N. (2013). An examination of CAD use in two interior design programs from the perspectives of
curriculum and instructors. Queen’s University.

Blitz, C. L. (2013). Can online learning communities achieve the goals of traditional professional learning
communities? What the literature says. Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs

edWeb: A professional online community for educators. (2018). Retrieved November 21, 2018, from
https://home.edweb.net/

Mcmillan, J. H. (2014). Classroom Assessment: Principles and Practice for Effective Standards-Based Instruction
(6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Ornstein, A. C., & Hunkins, F. P. (2013). Curriculum: Foundations, Principles, and Issues (Sixth Edition). Boston,
MA: Pearson Education, Inc.