After meeting with the management committee of lead teachers it became very apparent we have a group of very dedicated teachers who want to make a difference to children and their development of ICT skills in todays world. We discussed the sustainability of the cluster and the importance of working with the new cluster in Mid Canterbury. A Vision statement was discussed “Networking to make a Difference” This included the values of Enthusiasm, Fun and Ownership.

While at conference it hit me that what were wanting to formulate was a professional learning community (PLC) for the Mid Canterbury area. Something i had discussed with the MCPA 2 or 3 years ago. We were looking at working with multiserve at that stage but the cost issues caused some grief with the principal’s in the area.A PLC is built on Support, Challenge and Relationships and the development of a PLC or groups of PLC’s in Mid Canterbury would help decrease teacher isolation, share responsibility an increase a buy in to purposeful PD in Mid Canterbury. PD that offers staff just in time learning and builds on the development of the New NZ curriculum and the pedagogical challenges of teacher effectiveness.

There are the challenges of the Key Competencies and what delivery model schools will attempt with New Curriculum. Schools can chosse to focus around the Key competencies, the values or the learning areas. Alternatively they may organise themselves around central themes integrating values, KC’s, knowledge and skills. these decisions need to be made.

We are all, however, making the same decisions so we must remember that we are not that different to each other and we need to work smarter to lessen the workload. Why would we consider 22 different models in Mid Canterbury?

Our challenge is to establish a model for the PLC. I believe that a creditable teacher could be released up to 0.2 FTTE to complete the job of facilitation and administration so that the communication between the cluster was set up well. This is a key to maintaining relationships within the cluster. we then need to set challenges for staff and leaders while providing support within the cluster. Mini Clusters that are geographical could be set up for face-to-face meetings and this would reduce travel. We did this in Rakaia with Dorie and Chertsey and hope to do it again soon to look at the Key competencies and how they work. I also network with Sam at Borough and recently we got together to plan staff meetings to look at teacher effectiveness and challenge our staff to make a difference in their teaching practice and their classrooms.

Come on Mid Canterbury. Let’s do something bold and challenging so that people start to visit us in two years time to look at the work we have completed in our schools. Let us become Beacon Schools for PLC development.

Please comment.