Message from President Sue Elliott
Welcome to Learning Forward BC: Who is LFBC?
Who Are We?
With the mission of providing opportunities to engage in professional learning that focuses on improving student engagement, learning and achievement in the province of BC, we are a cross role, cross district network of educators interested in planning, designing and facilitating quality professional learning. We are affiliated with Learning Forward.
What Guides Our Work?
Our work is guided by the framework of quality professional learning as outlined in The State of Educators’ Professional Learning in Canada [2016]. Key components:
- Quality Content,
- Learning Design and Implementation, and
- Support ad Sustainability.
The Learning Forward Standards of Professional Learning also inform our work, especially:
- Leadership [conditions for success], and
- Learning Design [elements for transformation].
A framework of our sessions focuses on a lens of Context, Content and Process:
- Context – the what and why of our work, the programs, system’s culture and structure;
- Content – what do learners need to know / learn, and
- Process – what kind of design? The strategy that works for the context and content.
What Are We Proud Of?
LFBC sponsors sessions on their own and sponsors the work of others. Our ideal is to work with a district team to co-design and support the team in a quality professional learning experience.
For many years we held successful networking dinners, where district cross role learning teams shared their stories of success, evidenced by an uptick in educator and student learning. The design of the network sessions was intentional:
- participants could take the structure of the session,
- infuse the content of their choice, and
- utilize the strategies/tool/protocols that were used for participants to connect/process and transfer their learning.
- Paired and small group conversations, followed with a report out to the whole group, were core aspects of the sessions.
Through a focus on First Peoples’ Principles of Learning, we utilized the Power of Story to share powerful learning. Equity, diversity and inclusion have been foundational to our conversations. Pivoting to virtual learning this year, the rich stories of cross role teams sharing their learning experiences has been exciting, especially as they share the research base of their work.
Through offering a series on Designing Quality Professional Learning in the Virtual World with Fred Brown [staff of Learning Forward staff – our ‘parent’ organization], many school districts teams drew on the successes of the year as they planned their professional learning for next year. The time put aside for district teams to be coached through their work, and sharing among and between districts during the series, reinforced what we stand for: quality professional learning that is enhanced by networking.
Next Steps:
Reflections from some of the teams in our series has led us to value what we have learned in a blended and virtual learning year, and to examine the successes from the year. This is a powerful time in education and learning – we have the opportunity to:
- toss out what has not worked,
- examine what engages students, and
- be intentional about student agency.
As we plan for next year, questions we are looking at right now are:
- What are we inviting students ‘back to’?
- How are districts planning for a blend of trauma informed work, social emotional learning, and academics?
- How are we learning from our clients what they value and what they would like to see chance? What is possible? How do we nurture those possibilities?
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