CoolandCALM

=Team Cool & CALM=

Team Members:

 * ====Charrai Hunter==== || [[image:charrai.jpg width="84" height="83"]] || ====Annamarie Capaldi==== || [[image:Photo_small.jpg width="75" height="87"]] || ====Lenora Crawford==== || [[image:042809123747.jpg width="84" height="90"]] || ====Michelle McFarland==== || [[image:michelle.jpg width="73" height="82"]] ||
 * || C ||  || A ||   || L ||   || M ||
 * Skype || Charrai ||  || thesquirt ||   || lenoracrawford ||   || michelle.mcfarland77 ||
 * E-mail || cmclaurin_79@yahoo.com ||  || TheSquirt16@comcast.net ||   || lenoraoc@yahoo.com ||   || nypagirl@yahoo.com ||

Weekly Meetings on Skype
Wednesdays 8:00 PM

===9/30 So we met on SKYPE with a few snags but it will only get better. We are going to meet again next week at 7 PM. Should you have any problems with SKYPE or anything else for that matter....please ask your group members. That is why we are here! Have a great week. Talk you Wednesday===

Team Roles
Google Doc Week 1

Week 3-Walk Through Document
We attempted to record the session with Wire Tap Studio. It appeared to have recorded, but there was no audio after saving. we will trouble shoot.



Google Doc Week 3

HOT Evaluation



Analysis of Observation





The community of practice is not an approach, but a philosophy of leadership to create a collaborative family of workers. Community of Practice approach is not only an avenue for professional development, but addresses the whole work environment and offers support and nurturing along with sharing of ideas. It deals with all facets of the environment including duties, emotionality, relationships, and development. The community becomes a safe environment to share and learn without fear of making mistakes. || Employing a community of practice supports professional development for a variety of disciplines within any district. As an urban, suburban or rural district, we face numerous problems that other districts do not. Often there are budget shortages, difficulty with employing highly qualified teachers, retaining highly qualified teachers, language barriers and access to up to date technology, texts, and materials. A community of practice supports differentiated professional development in that it would allow teachers to reach out beyond the school walls to collaborate with other professionals in their content area. This would allow for the establishment of professional learning communities in areas that are especially overlooked or lack a department or group to collaborate with from within their own building. For example, groups that would really benefit from collaboration with teachers from various communities would be English Language Learner teachers, character education teachers, and specials teachers (art, music, technology). All of this could be done using various medium which would accommodate the schedules and needs of many who wish to use professional development to improve their skills and ultimately their student’s skills. || http://www.slane.k12.or.us/files/common/SL_Studio_Final.pdf || Professional Learning Communities - an example of educational communities of practice www.allthingsplc.com Defining communities of practice http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/cop/definitions.shtml || http://www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm Website/Articles Michelle: http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/mf_pdbrief.pdf ||
 * Community of Practice || Section 1 Team A ||
 * How does the approach support the needs of adult learners? || Annamarie:
 * How does the approach support differentiated professional development to meet the unique needs of staff in your school? || Michelle:
 * What elements need to be in place so that the professional development is of high quality and effectively improves instruction? || Charrai:While many factors play a part in the effectiveness of the professional development, the following are deemed most essential:Organization of time, ensuring that there is a set structure for sharing ideas, reflection, and a data base of meaningful resources, and that there is a shared purpose and theme. ||
 * How does the approach support teacher evaluation? || Lenora: This approach allows teachers to collaborate and work together towards common goals and solving pertinent and relevant issues related to the school community. As a result, teachers will evaluate one another through discussion and sharing. The goal of a community of practice is to improve current methods through research, collaboration and practice. In order to improve a school, teacher's current practices must be examined and evaluated for their effectiveness. When strategies and approaches are deemed (or evaluated as being) antiquated or negatively influential, a new practice must be agreed upon, tried and assessed for its effectiveness. Teacher evaluation can also occur through the practice of mentoring and collaborating in professional learning communities (both examples of communities of practice). In essence, in communities of practice educators evaluate themselves and the methods by which they do it. ||
 * Website/Articles || Charrai: http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/mriel/office/papers/whitepaper/teaching.html,
 * Website/Articles || Lenora:
 * Website/Articles || Annamarie:
 * Website/Articles || Michelle: http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/mf_pdbrief.pdf ||