Up the bumpy, bumpy road

We continue the development of our professional learning communities in a small school of singleton teachers. I am reminded daily of how difficult this process is and why so few schools commit.  It is a journey, and I am excited to see the results in the future.  Tonight after reading a few books to my daughter, one of them got me to thinking.  It is a book about a journey of a baby hippo.  A pulled a few of the lines out of it below.

"Through the squelchy, squelchy mud."

It is difficult to see clarity in the beginning, and it is often as clear as mud.  It makes it worse when all we want is to see the end product and especially difficult when you do not share a common theme.  Our teachers do not share the same grade and subject.  Instead, we are focusing on finding a common denominator.  If your school is in our position, take a look at Teacher as Assessment Leader.  There is a good chapter in there regarding what Adam Young is doing at White Pine High School, a singleton school.

"Around the bumpy, bumpy rocks."

There are so many hurdles in the way, the first major one is providing time within the day to collaborate.  The next is to take an active role in leading your learning community around the distractions that naturally come with collaboration.

"Through the long, long grass."

We are making our own path to make our school more successful.  The conversations and items that have been developed so far have been impressive.  There is no better feeling than hearing the conversations that are occurring in these teams.

We will continue finding our way through the squelchy mud, around the bumpy rocks, and through the long grass in our quest to ensure all students learn.  We cannot think of it as something that will get finished, it is a journey and the answers will come in time.