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As a former HS algebra teacher, and a current math teacher at the community college on Maui, I loved this books take on professional learning communities, and the realization that often PD events with the best intentions are not the model we should aim for in teaching. I appreciate that the book focused on a "continuous culture of learning"; And that it has useful and specific links to resources that can me direct my own learning at my own pace - to full immerse myself in a peer driven and community based curriculum.I WANT to try new strategies but living on an island makes such innovation challenging at times- so I appreciate the book providing strategies I can try on my own.

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I love the idea of Professional Co-Learning Communities! I am currently reading research on "video clubs," where teachers video themselves/each other delivering real lessons to their students. They then review the recordings and collaboratively discuss and learn together. This is part of my broader interest in peer-driven curriculum, including structured mentoring.

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Pause & Reflect Ch. 1- Christina H.                  Within Chapter One we are introduced to the seven standards for the Educator; Learner, Leader, Citizen, Collaborator, Designer, Facilitator, and Analyst.  I teach Fourth Grade ELA, and I am constantly, analyzing student data, and using this data to drive my teaching and instruction.  One area that I would love to be stronger in is collaborating within my grade level team.  Collaborating with your team has a huge impact on your lesson design and implementation of instruction.  With technology always changing, I am constantly learning and trying new things with my students.  Lots of strategies are being introduced and recommended in education.  But like our students, teachers have to practice these strategies and skills to perfect their craft.  We don't expect our students to get it the first time, no should we expect our teachers, however, we have to continuously practice to get better at delivering instruction to our students.  I push my students to work collaboratively in groups and participate in lots of academic discussions.  I give jobs to each group member, which keeps them accountable within their teams.  Usually toward the end of an assignment groups will have to give a presentation of some sort and this builds ownership as well as collaboration in the classroom.  I think the authors did a wonderful job starting off Chapter One with a focus on owning your professional learning.  I feel like they are basically giving the reader a choice within that first chapter on whether to stop reading or read on because you want to grow as an educator and a learner.  Of course they do a great job of giving the information we need or I guess validation as to how majority of us feel about how education and standards have changed what what that means to the learners in education.  In my opinion the most important way that I can take ownership of my professional learning is through the actually practice and implementation of these standards as a teacher and learner.  I am extremely passionate about learning and how important it is to evolve with the changes and innovations to help guide our learners.   The more I am immersed in education, and the more that I grow as a life-long learner, the more I truly understand how teachers are COACHES for everyone, not just their students but for their co-workers too.   I am constantly using the Educator Standards to reflect on my teaching practice through my T-Tess evaluation system.  I believe by following the Educator standards it will provide the 21st century learning environment for my learners. 

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Pause & Reflect Ch. 1- Christina H.                  Within Chapter One we are introduced to the seven standards for the Educator; Learner, Leader, Citizen, Collaborator, Designer, Facilitator, and Analyst.  I teach Fourth Grade ELA, and I am constantly, analyzing student data, and using this data to drive my teaching and instruction.  One area that I would love to be stronger in is collaborating within my grade level team.  Collaborating with your team has a huge impact on your lesson design and implementation of instruction.  With technology always changing, I am constantly learning and trying new things with my students.  Lots of strategies are being introduced and recommended in education.  But like our students, teachers have to practice these strategies and skills to perfect their craft.  We don't expect our students to get it the first time, no should we expect our teachers, however, we have to continuously practice to get better at delivering instruction to our students.  I push my students to work collaboratively in groups and participate in lots of academic discussions.  I give jobs to each group member, which keeps them accountable within their teams.  Usually toward the end of an assignment groups will have to give a presentation of some sort and this builds ownership as well as collaboration in the classroom.  I think the authors did a wonderful job starting off Chapter One with a focus on owning your professional learning.  I feel like they are basically giving the reader a choice within that first chapter on whether to stop reading or read on because you want to grow as an educator and a learner.  Of course they do a great job of giving the information we need or I guess validation as to how majority of us feel about how education and standards have changed what what that means to the learners in education.  In my opinion the most important way that I can take ownership of my professional learning is through the actually practice and implementation of these standards as a teacher and learner.  I am extremely passionate about learning and how important it is to evolve with the changes and innovations to help guide our learners.   The more I am immersed in education, and the more that I grow as a life-long learner, the more I truly understand how teachers are COACHES for everyone, not just their students but for their co-workers too.   I am constantly using the Educator Standards to reflect on my teaching practice through my T-Tess evaluation system.  I believe by following the Educator standards it will provide the 21st century learning environment for my learners. 

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Thoughts about chapters 1-3: Diana Vigil

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Thoughts about chapters 1-3: Diana Vigil

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I had truly had a lot of great take aways after reading the first three chapters. I did not think this book was going to be as engaging as it ended up being, partly because I do not enjoy reading. Although, it had me hooked from the very beginning! I love how in chapter one it compared our learning to the learning that we expect our students to be doing. I never viewed it in this perspective and it truly made me reflect on the learning that happens at PD workshops and how it is so different to the expectations we set for our students. I also completely agree that the classroom needs to be the location for our professional learning because of the authentic experiences day in and day out. My last big take away was in chapter 3 which said to "model the love of lifelong learning we want to see in our students." We know how important and valuable modeling is but we forget that we need to be co-learners with our students and model what authentic learning looks like.

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The Pause and Reflect in Chapter 2 asks “How would you define the difference between professional development and professional learning?” I think the difference is that professional development benefits mainly one person, the person undergoing the PD. We typically go through PD workshops to make ourselves more valuable in our career or to advance somehow. It is more about oneself than others. Professional learning benefits everybody, the teacher and the students, and can lead to benefiting the school or department as a whole. Professional learning is a cycle that continuously involves making the teacher and students better little by little every day. Professional development differs because it is typically a once in a while stop we make but we do not spend a lot of time there and usually do not go back for more.

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Annemarie Howard - I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the key components for professional learning. Reflecting back on some of the more insufferable PD sessions that I’ve had to attend, I see that one or more of those components was absent from the day. In those sessions, I don’t even recall the content of the sessions. However, some of the best PD sessions I’ve attended had ample opportunities for professional learning to take place. At the most recent PD I attended (I am a Preschool teacher), for the second part of the day, we were able to travel around the room in groups to different centers and complete the tasks together. Not only was the session enjoyable, but I also took away several new resources that I am already implementing in my classroom. Just because we are now the teachers doesn’t mean the way we learn should change!

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Courtney White

One of the major take away I had was learning described as coaching. This is huge for students to see us as a coach and not someone trying to "ruin their lives" as some middle schoolers would describe it. Also the idea in chapter 2 that discusses the idea we should model the life long love for learning. It is so crucial that we not only teach students about content but a love for learning. Students start to feel that education is forced and a job instead of appreciating the opportunities. It is our job as teachers to have passion about learning and sharing with students that even as adults we are still curious about so many things and learning never stops. We also have to help students find what sparks them to learn more and help them pursue their passion.

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MODELING THE LOVE OF LEARNING
The most important takeaway that resonated with me is the following sentence from chapter 2: "...model the love of lifelong learning we want to see in our students. One way of to do is by actively engaging in professional learning, sharing what you know with your peers, while gaining new knowledge from them" (p.17). I always believe that actions speak louder than words and as long as we follow the saying " Do what say, not what I do", we cannot build deep learner-teacher relationships and  we cannot benefit from the wealth knowledge of people around us  including our learners'. Being an expert learner means being ready to learn lifelong since knowledge is an endless ocean and there is always water to swim further and dive deeper. By actively engaging in learning, we will be able to demonstrate young generations learning itself has value and joy, and there is no test or evaluation which can measure it! Nevertheless, we should also appreciate the value of assessments since they will help us identify our starting points and guide us better in reaching our goals. Knowing that " it's not going to happen overnight" is a big motivation to "wade in"!

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While it might seem like a minor takeaway, one thing I really noticed was the beginning of chapter 2 where it dove into the difference between professional development and professional learning. I feel like we always discuss PD as teachers and the sessions and training we are supposed to receive from administration. However, we aren't really recognized for all the professional learning we do-- that informal study and discussion among our colleagues. I like that it discussed the value in developing ourselves as educators through PLNs and other experiences aside from traditional PD.

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Lydia Ugwu - There were two key points from chapter one that resonated with me. First, learning was described as coaching for both the student and the teacher. Secondly, teachers were urged to assume the role of co-learners with their students. I think this is a very important shift that needs to occur because teachers – to a great extent – still assume the role of the sage on the stage. But, everyone comes to the classroom with a wealth of knowledge and the mutual sharing of knowledge can only occur if the teacher sets the right precedent.  From my personal experience, when you present yourself as a coach as opposed to an almighty expert, they are more comfortable to share their knowledge and experiences.

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One of the Pause and Reflect sections in Chapter 2 has a reflection prompt of "As an educator, what is the single biggest thing you've changed about your teaching in the last two or three years? How did the change come about?" Well, a quote in Chapter 1 really stuck out to me and got me thinking about how my views on instructional design and teaching have been changing over the past few years - "...iterative inquiry processes are inherently messy." I feel like I have become more open to embracing this messiness in recent years. Part of it is in the planning of instructional experiences so that there is a structure in place in which messy learning can happen in meaningful and productive ways, and I am able to relinquish control gradually to the learners so that they become empowered, purposeful, and self-regulated. A key part of this has been UDL, which offers that planful, proactive structure that supports productive, messy, authentic learning. UDL is in many ways an ideal, and I'm excited to share this journey through Dive into UDL because it offers concrete direction in regards to UDL implementation.

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Say HI, and post some thoughts and/or links that connect to the Introduction and Chapter one of DIVE INTO UDL.