Professional Learning Communities

     As a matter of course, I have always sought ways and opportunities to better myself professionally and personally. In former positions as well as in areas of personal interest, I have engaged in trainings and joined groups and professional organizations that have afforded me opportunities to network with peers and to learn from them.  Even as a student-teacher, I have participated Caravel Middle School's "professional learning communities" or PLC's as they are known, in which teachers of related subject areas gather weekly to discuss their respective goals.  These PLC's are a great way to review curricula, gather student data, and discuss ways to enhance student learning.   I also participated in the Bangor School System's "Teacher Academy" training days in which teachers participated in district-wide information sessions then broke out into grade-level instructional groups to discuss goals, much like Caravel's PLC's.  These types of gatherings are a great opportunity for schools to align their goals and priorities to better coordinate instruction for students.

     In April of 2006, I attended a conference hosted by the Penquis Community Action Program entitled, "T. Berry Brazelton, M.D.: Building Communities Around Families."  Dr. Brazelton is a noted pediatrician, child advocate, national speaker and researcher of child development.  The focus of Dr. Brazelton's presentation was to encourage professionals who work with children  to increase the competence of parents and to help strengthen child-family relationships, particularly during early childhood.  By helping parents understand normal developmental stages and regressions, we can help them foster a better sense of how to parent through those stages successfully and emerge with a well-balanced child.

     In May of 2006, I attended an event sponsored by the Maine Children's Cabinet called "A Day with Dr. Ross Greene."   Dr. Ross Greene is a leading child psychologist, researcher, author and hero to struggling children everywhere.  His approach, called collaborative problem solving, calls for a paradigm shift in the way adults and children interact and has enormous implications for the field of education, especially for children whose behavior or cognitive needs create problems between the teacher and the student. 

     Dr. Greene's approach requires the adult to acknowledge the child's perspective (show empathy), explain her own perspective (define the problem), and then invite the child to help solve the problem (invite collaborative problem-solving).  In most adult-child relationships, the child is left out of the decision-making process, increasing frustration that exacerbates the child's explosive or uncooperative behavior.  The entire premise of Dr. Greene's philosophy of behavior management is that when children are given an opportunity to be part of a solution, they are naturally more inclined to buy-in to it and grow up to be better problem-solvers themselves. By letting go of the old paradigm of adult authority and control we are able to form better, more productive relationships with our students and be far more effective educators.