Q & A About Learning Teams

Q: What is the purpose of the learning team?
A: The purpose of a learning team is to:
• Provide the opportunity for differentiated professional learning
• Allow staff to drive their own professional learning
• Create ways for staff to stay connected
• Be job embedded and should enhance those skills and knowledge sets that are used in day-to-day practice

Q: Can the information and documents on my team’s Ning be used by my supervisor for evaluation?
A: No. A supervisor will not have access to a team’s Ning. A team’s Ning is to be used for sharing documents and information between and among team members.

Q: What are the expectations around Nings?
A: A facilitator may set up a Ning and share it with their team members or a team may use learning team time to use the tutorial to set up a Ning together. The facilitator is not expected to be the expert on Nings. The intent in setting up a Ning is to provide staff with the opportunity to explore technology. Teams may choose to use the Ning on an ongoing basis to share documents or they may choose to use another form of technology that meets their team’s needs. Please contact Wendy Robinson if you need additional support in setting up your Ning.

Q: I heard that we are going to have the opportunity to share in the spring. What will be shared and how will this happen?
A: As your team meets and learns together on a monthly basis, start collecting “evidence” that naturally is generated through your meetings, such as reflections or protocols used for processing learning. Save these documents on your Ning or your chosen method for sharing. Evidence of learning could be an end product of your learning, such as a checklist, a lesson plan or findings from your study.

The specific logistics for where sharing will occur have not been finalized. You determine how you will share. The process of sharing may be done through the use of technology, chart paper, hard copy of documents, pictures or whatever reflects progress toward your goal (may even include lessons learned along the way).

Q: Does the trained facilitator facilitate all the meetings for the learning team?
A: No, that should be a shared responsibility among all the team’s members. One person should not have to carry the full load. The facilitator role should be rotated.