Personal Journal Entry #5 : Chapter 10 p.175, Going Deeper

Community of Practice

 

 

Identify some of your own communities of practice. Are you currently in a psychosocial community in which you can explore your culturally proficient praxis? Observe yourself for a few weeks, and notice how (or whether) you invite the learners in your classroom to engage in culturally proficient behavior. What aspects of your community of practice are you considering changing after reading this chapter?

 As stated by Robins, (2006), a community of practice is “any group to which you belong that has specific knowledge unique to that group, a particular way of doing things, and members who are identified by behaviors reflecting this knowledge and way of doing things” (2006, p. 18). The school in which I teach, we explore culturally proficient praxis. It is stated in our schools’ mission that we are a school who hold community as a core value.  My school is organized by teams/committees, in which each team is assigned a lead person by grade-level. Each week teams have three hours of planning time to collaborate with one another. We also have at least one professional learning community meeting each week, where teachers, and administration collaborate and share either in person or virtually through podcasts, various curriculum, and project ideas across our school. We meet five times each year for a faculty meeting to address critical issues and plainly to teach values such as community.

In my classroom is where the strongest sense of culturally proficient behavior praxis displayed.  In the early mornings I meet and greet my students at the door of our designated waiting area. We start off the day by sharing and collaborating on what they learned from the day before and hope to learn from today’s lesson. Sometimes our morning meetings lead into discussions along the lines of diversity and cultural related topics. Second my students are organized in learning groups/communities in which they work cohesively on group projects. Also within my classroom we have small group meetings where we address issues, or concerns about their performance. Sometimes group meetings are just fun meetings where students would share and collaborate with me on things they want to do, or to see me do differently.  

After reading 10 Chapter on Adapting to Diversity, I am considering changing various aspects of my community of practice. In particular, I am planning to use more frequently, other resources other than texts books for study and develop learning activities that are more reflective of students’ background.  Lastly, I am planning to incorporate a new social media program called Engrade into my teaching practices that will enable me to have active discussions with  my  students and their parents. As a culturally proficient teacher, I embrace the concept community of practice because it provides opportunities for my colleagues, students, and me to become more connected.

Reference:

Robins, K.N., Lindsey, D. B., Lindsey, R. B., & Terrell, R.D. (2006) Culturally Proficient Instruction: A Guide for People Who Teach (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc