~Newport-Mesa USD Adult School ~
A dynamic community of learners and leaders!
Our Blog as an ePLC
The Adult Education Matters blog is an e-PLC (electronic Professional Learning Community) created and sustained by adult educators at NMUSD Adult School.
We conceived the idea of an e-PLC for our adult school in October, 2007, after attending Rick DuFour’s Professional Learning Community Conference in Anaheim. Inspired by the PLC principles (supportive and shared leadership, collective creativity, shared values and vision, supportive conditions, shared personal practice), we work to bring these principles to practice…at Newport-Mesa Adult School and beyond.
Blog Description
Adult Education Matters provides articles (”blog posts”) on the unique issues that matter most to adult educators. Articles include useful, practical ideas, with the research to contextualize them and the resources to implement them.
Our e-PLC is an open-dialogue format so that we can share ideas, offer tips, and ask questions in order to improve all learning (student, staff, community, and beyond…)
Blog Vision
Empowering a Learning Community ~ Transforming our World
Blog Mission
We share to impart, impact, improve and empower.
Blog Goals
- to provide the WHY… current research and articles on the matters of adult education
- to offer the HOW…useful, practical ways to put the research into practice in the field
- to give the WITH WHAT…hyperlinks, templates, step-by-step guides, best-practice videos, digital tools, and revisable files you can take and make your own
- to build the WITH WHOM … a learning community among adult educators, providing an e-forum in which we can collaborate and grow professionally
Themes
Use the corresponding images to help you find articles related to main blog themes: Images: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Professional Learning Communities
Technology-Integrated Instruction
Continuous Program Improvement
…and look for the bulb for ideas & tools
The Author
Martha Rankin is an administrator, teacher, and perpetual learner at Newport-Mesa Adult School. She is thrilled and humbled to be a part of such a creative and committed learning community.
Martha sees education as “the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” Paulo Freire
With collective creativity and shared leadership, Martha deeply believes that we can transform ourselves, our schools, and our world.
Guiding Quotes
Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. Paulo Freire
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats
Martha, What a wonderful resource for sharing information about adult ed instructional strategies and the like. It hasn’t been up all that long and it’s gratifying to see the extent to which it’s actually being used by teachers in the field. Thanks for taking the initiative and making it happen. Take care, Steve S.
Thank you for this creative and valuable PLC! I am impressed with the scope of information and resources. Adult education has the power to change our world as we know it. I truly believe that the whole is greater than the sum of our parts. This PLC is a resource for adult educators to effectively communicate and raise the standard of excellence.
Good work,
Debra Jones
Henry Ford…
Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success.
It’s very helpful having the course outlines readily accessable on the Weblog.
Well done!
Martha,
Excellent Site! If you have a second visit my blog that covers similar topics at http://www.enmurabe.blogspot.com.
“Education is not preparation for life, Education is life itself.”
Respectfully,
TDK
Martha,
I like the site you’ve put together. You have a lot of good information, all of which is easily accessible to adult educators. I recommended your site to StumbleUpon to spread the word to other teachers.
Keep up the good work!
Chris
Martha,
What a wonderful project! Thanks for presenting at CATESOL (even though you told us you are an introvert). I met you at the morning session, then attended the afternoon TELL forum event.
I am in the first stages of my blog for professional development. At the beginning did you train all of your teachers in using a blog? Or did they have to figure it out independently?
Thanks!
Kelly Kulzer
Taft College
Hi Kelly,
Thanks for your comment! It was great meeting you at CATESOL and good to hear from you again. Thanks for stopping by our blog!!
To answer your question — yes, we did an initial training for our teachers. All teachers had an assignment on the blog (share their 2007-2008 IDP goal(s) for increasing student persistence) in October…when we launched the blog. Prior to the assignment due date, our tech peer mentors met with groups of teachers and demonstrated how to 1) find the blog, 2) find the persistence article in which they needed to comment, 3) submit their comment.
http://adultedmatters.wordpress.com/2007/10/08/persistence-a-key-focus-for-success/
We also provided another follow-up training in March. You can see an article about it here: http://adultedmatters.wordpress.com/2008/03/24/safe-and-sound-blogging/
I think it’s very important to give your teachers the training they need to feel comfortable on a blog. A blog’s organization is unique. The biggest concern I hear from my teachers is not being able to find what they’re looking for, which is why I created the home page and right sidebar to serve as navigation tools — not a typical blog structure, I know.
I’m working on better categorization on my part and more training for the teachers. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s a continuous learning experience for us all!
So glad to hear you’re starting up a PD blog for your school. I’d love to hear more about your successes…and challenges. I think you’ll really like how the blog opens up communication and collaboration.
Let’s keep in touch!!
Martha
Martha,
Congratulations. I really enjoy reading all the wonderful educational materials in your weblog.
Thank you for all the time you spend updating it. Tech Tips are great.
Martha:
I am happy to find your blog. I like very much what you are doing there at NMUSD. I especially relate to your thoughts on building and nurturing learning communities. As one of the few blogging instructors at my school, Towson University in Towson, Maryland (just north of Baltimore), I am working on building and maintaining a learning community as well with my blog, More With Les.
I really like the guiding quotes. May I borrow them, with proper attribution, of course?
I look forward to returning to your blog often, Martha. Great job!
Les Potter
Hi Les,
Thanks for dropping by our blog! I love your blog name “More with Les.” Clever!
Yes, of course, you can use the guiding quotes. I love the constructivist flavor from both quotes.
My best to you!
Martha