We are a family and tribal species.
For millennia, human beings lived and worked in groups—they shared the load of work for survival, shared the joys and the tragedies and then told each other the stories of those experiences and wisdom gained.
We are often at our best with the support of others. What are ways we know to hang in with each other, to share the load of work for survival, share the joy to give us energy and encourage our continued engagement in the effort for kids? tell the stories of our experience with wisdom and new perspectives— to each other and beyond.
Here is some encouragement and wisdom.
If schools are to be places that encourage new teachers, causing them to see teaching as an interesting and unique career, they have to be intellectually and socially challenging environments in which teachers read together, reflect on practice, develop curriculum with a local situated quality, and become conscious about the development of a learning community. Vito Perrone
How smart an organization or community is reflects the kinds of conversations that people have with one another, taking conversations in a broad sense to include all sorts of interactions. David Perkins
When collaborating with others to start a project, the person brings to the table not fully developed ideas but trial balloons or sacrificial plans held loosely to avoid the danger of early retrenchment. David Perkins
One can think of working together as powerful, but only when other high-demand elements are in place. In other words, there has to be some driving focus to what people are interacting about. Michael Fullan
A teacher leader may be seen as a person in whom the dream of making a difference has been kept alive, or has been reawakened, by engaging colleagues in a true community of practice. Linda Lambert
There’s no use in trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. Lewis Carroll