When teachers and administrators engage in online conversations about professional articles, they are engaging in effective, ongoing professional study that involves members of their learning community. You can use Google Docs to post articles to the entire faculty or to specific departments or groups. Doing this permits you to start the conversation by posting comments and inviting teachers to read the materials and join the discussion. The principal and teachers can read each other’s comments, continually extend the conversation, and enlarge their knowledge of best practices and research on integrating technology into a student-centered approach to learning.
This type of professional study is especially effective for schools with large faculties that do not have regular full faculty meetings or common planning times for teachers. If you are too busy to continually read and post worthwhile articles, invite a department chair, lead teacher, reading specialist, or school librarian to support you. When teachers learn and enlarge their knowledge of best practice, they can improve the learning of the children they teach.
Evan Robb, Principal Johnson Williams Middle School and author of: The Principal’s Leadership Sourcebook, Scholastic, 2007.
Follow Evan Robb on Twitter: @ERobbPrincipal
