Communities of Practice

Dream It, Design It, Do It

Engaging Teacher Leaders in a Process of Collective Learning

Teachers connect in the spirit of learning, knowledge sharing, and collaboration by:

• Developing professional capital
• Connecting practice to personalization
• Reflecting and sharing
• Fostering innovation

What are Communities of Practice?

Kid-friendly communities of practice engage teacher leaders who share a common concern, a set of problems, or interest in a topic. Participants focus on sharing best practices and deepening their expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Three teacher leaders from each participating elementary school and middle school and four teacher leaders from each participating high school will form the kid-friendly communities of practice.

Kid-friendly teacher leaders will work in face-to-face meetings as well as web-based collaborative environments to communicate, connect, and conduct activities.

Together, Teacher Leaders will:

• Increase knowledge and understanding of student-centered learning.
• Develop and use innovative next practices.
• Plan and facilitate learning experiences in personalized environments.
• Problem-solve, create links between learning and practice, and develop a shared repository of resources.

kid∙FRIENDLy’s Three Domains of Learning