Weekend Workshop with Dr. Giselle Martin-Kniep – Communities for Learning: A

Weekend Workshop with Dr. Giselle Martin-Kniep Communities for Learning: A Framework for Improving Schools from Within September 20-21, 2008

Schools, by their very nature, should consistently be model communities focused on learning—places where people know and respect one another and, in turn, honor the wisdom and expertise of their community members and nurture their learning. However, schools are also incredibly complex systems and, in the midst of complexity, focus can, at times, become blurred.

On September 20 and 21, forty-three professional educa tors representing five countries and eleven international schools gathered at Ruamrudee International School for an EARCOS sponsored workshop. The goal was to explore the notion of professional learning communities under the facilitation of Giselle Martin-Kniep—a teacher, researcher, author, and highly respected educational consultant for Communities for Learning. Through significant questions such as “who belongs in professional learning communities?” “what do learning communities require and do?” and “what do we stand to lose without professional learning communities?” the participants explored the dispositions of prac

tice that support communities of learning and assessed individual and organizational capacity to develop and sustain learning com munities.

As a group of 43 who came together for a short time to focus on professional learning, participants were enthused about both Giselle as a presenter as well as the foundation from which she presented. In the words of one participant, the workshop “. . . gives me a framework to successfully build a more robust learning cul ture in my school.” – a clear focus.

We are already looking forward to exploring more fully the work of professional learning communities as well as the condi tions that sustain them when Giselle returns for a second EARCOS weekend workshop on January 24-25, 2009.

Christie Powell

EARCOS Future Conference Calendar

ETC 2009 Teachers’ Conference, March 25-28, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia GIN2009 Global Issues Network Conference, March 20-22, International School Bangkok, Thailand Spring Heads’ Meeting 2009, April 25-26, Myanmar EAC 2009 Administrators’ Conference, October 31 to November 3, Manila, Philippines