Everett's Professional Learning Community

Many of the Everett PLC technology focus group members have blogged about continuing our technology group next year. I hope this will be the case. I have been reading a lot of research articles about professional development models lately, and have come to realize many things about professional learning.

One of my professors in Florida sent me a project report she has just finished working on with two other colleagues, exploring peer coaching. Dr. Dawson's work revealed many different types of peer coaching to me. I never really thought much about it before, but there are many different ways that it can be done. This is something that I would like to explore as we plan our Professional Learning Community activities for the 2006-07 school year.

Peer support is vital as we seek to grow and learn as educators, but even moreso as we look for ways to integrate technology into the curriculum. I want to include an excerpt from the literature review done for the Peer Coaching report. This helps me focus in on what our goal needs to be if we are to continue.

Prolonged engagement is particularly important when peer coaching is used to support technology integration (Bradshaw, 2002; Margerum-Leys & Marx, 2004) because it takes at least 3-5 years for teachers to become effective technology-using educators (Becker, 1994; Sheingold & Hadley, 1993). During this time the teacher progresses through a series of stages that begin with using technology as a curricular add-on or personal productivity tool and culminate with using technology as a tool to fundamentally alter teaching and learning pratices (Hooper & Rieber, 1995; Ringstaff, Sandholtz & Dwyer, 1997; Moersch, 1995).

Barron, A., Dawson, K., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2006). Peer Coaching.

Some people have commented also about how far they have come, but how much more they have to learn. Did you read the same things I just read? THREE to FIVE years!!! One down, a couple more to go!