According to Wenger-Trayner 2015, communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor. In doing these readings I have realised just how many communities of practice I belong to. Some of which I hadn't really thought of as Communities of practice before this. However the Comunity of Practice that I will write about is the one that takes up most of my life, my school.
Within my school I am involved in many Comminuties of Practice. My school as a whole and being a part of the staff is obviously the overarching Community of Practice. We are all working together towards the same goal...to give our children the best chance at creating successful futures for themselves. We meet at least once a week as a full staff for professional development opportunities, discussions about students needs and for administrative purposes. Some of these meetings could be streamlined or completely done away with in my opinion.
I am part of a vertical syndicate where we share ideas, data and discuss how we can improve our practice to cater for our chidlrens needs. We meet once a fortnight to discuss data or to participate in Learning Talks with a view to improving practice.
I am the leader of our Digital improvement team, charged with faciltating PD and the implementation of digital technologies across the school. We meet to discuss needs of staff and students then plan each terms best course of action.
Our ILE is the Community of Practice where I focus most of my energies. It is a small Community of Practice involving myself and my co-teacher. I would say that she takes more of a lead role as she has been a team leader in an ILE before and this is my first official ILE. We meet at any and every opportunity to discuss the childrens needs both academically and socially. Because of other meetings we have to grab morning tea's, lunchtimes or after school on non-meeting days. We are constantly talking during the day also.
We spend a lot of time after hours online communicating also via email and our shared planning docs. I find this is easiest for me as I have time to reflect but it is also a more relaxed situation. I feel that we complement and learn alot from each other.
I have learnt to be more organised and to try to prioritize better as I have found that being in an ILE, you are so much more acocuntable not only tot he chidlren but to your co-teacher. I have a difficult time seeing how that I have helped my co-teacher as she is so knowledgeable with all things curriculum and is well up to date with best practice. I often joke that I've brought her to the dark side a little by getting her to be a bit more relaxed, hopefully not been too much of a bad influence.
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