My practice within the community

 Wenger (2000) defines a Community of Practice as a group who share a passion or concern for something they know how to do, and who learn how to do it better as they interact on a regular basis. 
In his 2009 video The Landscape of Practice Wenger compares Communities of practice to Hills of Competence, where members choose to follow the paths of knowledge up the hills based on their level of interest and expertise in the purpose of the hill community. In this way we can develop a trajectory that makes sense for ourselves. 

My Communities of Practice. I am lucky enough to belong to many groups or "Hills of Competence" who have a shared passion and who regularly meet to improve our skills. I belong to musical groups, school communities, and of course our Tāupo Mindlab group, whose support and advice I value greatly. However, the Community of Practice I would like to reflect on in this blog is the Innovative Learning Team (ILT) I am part of. 

Our ILT is a new team. We are a group of 3 who have been selected to teach in a new build, 3 class open learning space next year. I avoid the phrase Innovative Learning Environment (ILE), as I still believe ILE is a pedagogy, not a building. It is my genuine hope that as next year unfolds, out team will become a true ILE. 

Our shared domain of interest is that all 3 of us are dedicated to ensuring our vision and purpose for the new enviroment is clear to ourselves and our wider community. While we are 3 very different individuals, our commitment to the project is absolute.

Community From the moment we knew we would be working closely together in the new building, we made a commitment to meet every Thursday to unpack the project. We all have the shared understanding that we cannot share our plans with parents or even our colleagues until we are crystal clear about it ourselves. Although our meetings sometimes become organic as we sidetrack on to other aspects of the project, we always decide on what the focus for our next meeting will be. We have organised experts to visit us to discuss aspects of the project and we have visited experienced professionals outside of our own community who have offered advice about aspects of the programme we want to run. 

Our Practice The 3 of us are very different: I am in my early fifties and have been teaching for nearly 30 years; one of my colleagues is 36 and has been teaching for 14 years; the other is mid 60s and has been teaching for just 6 years. Our levels of experience and differing educational interests are what drew us together to begin with. One of us has strength and ability in The Arts, another has strength and ability in Physical Education and Whanaungatanga, while our third member has a strength in delivery and planning in the core subjects. In our meetings, we refer to these as our Superpowers. 
The greatest strength we have is that we are all flexible and we are open to each other's contributions. We all came to the team with our own perceptions of what the project would look like, but we have all compromised in some way, and will undoubtedly continue to do so. 

My role within our Community of Practice began as leader/facilitator. I bought the blueprints for inspection and began a scrapbook in which we are recording our meeting notes, etc. Since the first meeting however, we have all become equally contributing active members. 
Many aspects of our community echo Knox's analogy of a community of practice as a garden (2009): We are not rushing - we are allowing our professional relationships to find their feet while developing the pathways that will ensure success for the project and outstanding outcomes for our students. While we remain focused and systematic, we are fostering not forcing the process.

Reference:
Knox, B.(2009, December 4). Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk