Module 5 – Connecting to Professional Communities

Tracy’s Digital Journal

In our previous module, I joined the online community for Cult of Pedagogy and began following
Jennifer Gonzalez, the site’s creator, on Twitter. After joining the community, I received an initial
welcome email followed by two orientation emails providing me with additional site navigation
tips. Using these tips, I found myself better able to access the content most applicable to my
teaching situation.

November 14, 2018

I discovered a blog entry and associated podcast entitled “5 Ways College Teachers Can
Improve Their Instruction”. This post resonated with my own experience of entering the college
teaching field. Often, people tasked with teaching college students are subject experts in a
specific field, hired to share their expertise but receiving little or no training concerning teaching
methods. My own teaching career began with facilitating 16 hours of instruction per week with
only the previous year’s syllabus to guide my way.

College students enroll in programs that interest them, therefore college curriculum could be
considered a learner-centered design. However, college programs are separated into specific
subjects and disciplines, suggesting a subject centered curriculum design. Hiring subject
experts with no teaching experience also supports a subject-centered approach.
In the blog post, Jennifer Gonzalez summarizes 5 tips for college instructors discussed during a
podcast interview with Norman Eng, an advertising executive turned teacher. The post
concludes with a bonus tip about designing meaningful experiences, including one statement
that gave me a reason to stop and think. Gonzalez says “We’re all trying to cover the
curriculum, and you’ll never have enough time for that.” While the tips provided in this post were
fantastic for my practice, this statement caused me to wonder if we are relying on increased
student engagement to fill the holes. That is, by being more engaged are students also more
likely to independently seek out the information that was omitted to make time for the
meaningful learning experience?

November 15, 2018

I retweeted the blog post along with the
question “When designing meaningful
learning experiences, will increased student
engagement be enough to avoid creating a
shadow curriculum through omission?
November 16, 2018
I have not yet received any reply or
interaction from Jennifer Gonzalez
or Norman Eng, but I did get a ‘like’
from a fellow teacher at my school
who followed up with a reply o my
tweet about her appreciation of the
tips. I promptly advised her to
check out the rest of the website.

About one hour later, I had a new follower; Brandon Johnson, a principal and educator from
Texas! In addition to following me, he ‘liked’ my reply to check out the Cult of Pedagogy website
for additional teaching tips and strategies.

To enhance my engagement with this Professional Learning Community, I have followed both
Brandon Johnson and Norman Eng on Twitter.
I also decided to send an email directly to Jennifer Gonzalez, thanking her for creating this
online space and making the content so accessible. I have found myself looking forward to the
weekly emails from her highlighting various tips and strategies; even when directed at a K-12
group, I can see transferability to my own class.

November 18, 2018

A flurry of activity today! This morning I received a reply to my email 
By lunchtime, I had
received alerts from my
Twitter account
indicating both Jennifer
and Norman Eng had
‘liked’ my initial Tweet.
When preparing to get
the screen shot for my
journal, I realized that
Mr. Eng had also
replied to my Tweet.

I am beyond thrilled;
based on my previous
PLC experience I had
resigned myself to be
satisfied by the
increased personal
desire to explore the
content made available
by this community. I
was not actually
expecting any
responses or direct
interaction. Perhaps
Mr. Eng is following his
own advice on
engagement by
interacting with me
directly, in an effort to
keep members
involved with the
community. Even so,
my reaction to his reply further supported that this level of engagement is very effective in
keeping a learner interested in the content. Between the navigational tips, the direct contact,
and the ability to work through the available content on my own timeline (the blog I shared was
from early 2017), being a member of this PLC will be a permanent fixture in my teaching future.

My critique of this PLC would be that collaborative opportunities, a true ‘fifty-fifty’ sharing of
ideas and inspiration, are quite limited. Aside from supporting existing content by sharing and
commenting, contributing fresh information seems heavily regulated. Guest posts must be
created by experienced educators, then go through a seemingly rigorous approval process
before being published. Requests for collaboration on any specific projects requires similar
procedures. Although I received a response to my personal thank you email, I can certainly
foresee how a new member might get discouraged from trying to contribute.
November 19, 2018
Another day, another follower and
another retweet!

Moving forward, I am going to

take the time to source additional
posts to assist in enhancing
student experience within my
program. I will continue to work
my way through the content
already available from Cult of
Pedagogy as well as other resources.

The program that I coordinate is heavily subject centered, although on non-traditional subjects
like emergency resource management and crisis communications. Due to the College’s focus of
producing a job-ready candidate, I feel I have an excellent opportunity to mix a subject-centered
curriculum design with a learner-centered approach to planning, instruction and assessment.
When a student enrols in a college program, assumptions are made that prior knowledge of the
subject in question exists. On the first day of school, I ask my students “what made you decide
to take this program?” Often the answers show a common thread of knowing someone who is a
front line responder (e.g. police, firefighter, or paramedic). My purpose in asking this question
has been to give an indication of what previous experience or interaction they have had with
emergency communications. Using backwards design to create a more effective learning
culture, I will be rewording this to say “tell me what you know about 911 communications”. This
will enable students to share their prior knowledge of the field with each other, in a mediated
environment to ensure separation of myth from fact, providing me with a stronger pre-
assessment.

My program already utilizes several assessment strategies discussed in the literature, such as
rubrics, oral assessments and student self-assessment. I am using these strategies as
formative assessment, so it is important to understand the purpose, measurement,
interpretation of results and use with regards to evaluation. For a formative assessment to be
effective, the student needs to understand the feedback. Providing a feedback legend of “rubric
codes” as described by Gonzalez (2017, p. 10) will clarify rubric criteria and additional short
hand comments, enhancing the student’s comprehension. The results of these assessments will
drive subsequent lessons to ensure delivery of the content.

As I reflect on this journey through module 5, I feel I could have made a stronger output. As
such, I have issued a redesign from my personal blog and sent it out into the Twitter-sphere.
The learning
journey is
continuous 
References
Blitz, C. L. (2013). Can online learning communities achieve the goals of traditional professional learning
communities? What the literature says. (REL 2013-003). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education,
Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance,
Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic.

Eisner, E., & Vallance, E. (eds.).(1974). Five conceptions of the curriculum: Their roots and implications
for curriculum planning. In E. Eisner & E. Vallance (Eds.), Conflicting conceptions of curriculum (pp. 1-18).
Berkeley, CA: McCutchan.

Gonzalez, J. (2017, March 26). 5 Ways College Teachers Can Improve Their Instruction. Retrieved from
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/teaching-college/

Gonzalez, J. (2017). 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half. Retrieved from
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/cut-grading-time-in-half/

McMillan, J.H. (2014). The role of assessment in teaching. In Classroom Assessment: Principles and
Practice for Effective Standards-Based Instruction (pp. 1-20). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

McMillan, J.H. (2014). High-quality classroom assessment. In Classroom Assessment: Principles and
Practice for Effective Standards-Based Instruction (pp. 57-64, 74-88). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Ornstein, A.C. (1990-1991). Philosophy as a basis for curriculum decisions. High School Journal, 74(2),
pp. 102-109.

Sowell, E. (2005), Sections from Chapter 3, 4, 5. In Curriculum: An Integrative Introduction (3rd ed.). (pp.
52-61, 81-85, 103-106). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Watson, C. (2014, February). Effective professional learning communities? The possibilities for teachers
as agents of change in schools. British Educational Research Journal, 40(1), 18-29.