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    Expanding Excellence

    Teachers cross district lines to learn with peers.

    By Ben Owens
    June 2016
    Vol. 37 No. 3
    On the day her colleague Kathy Gray came to observe a lesson, Kimberly Worley was introducing an idea for projects to her 10th-grade biology students. Noticing students’ lack of enthusiasm, she closed her slides and asked them for suggestions. “Today is a good day for the team leaders to lead the discussion,” she said, “so I will step aside.” Three students moved to the front of the room. One asked, “OK, folks, how can we study plant cells and make our project more interesting?” Over the next 20 minutes, the students brainstormed ideas, finally deciding to base their inquiry on the novel The Maze Runner, which they had read the year before. They planned a project that would enable them to describe the cells that

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    Authors

    Ben Owens and David Strahan

    Ben Owens (ben.owens@cherokee.k12.nc.us) is the 2016 North Carolina Center for Science, Mathematics, & Technology Outstanding 9-16 Educator, a TeachStrong ambassador, and a mathematics and physics teacher at Tri-County Early College High School, Murphy, North Carolina. David Strahan (strahan@email.wcu.edu) is the Taft B. Botner Distinguished Professor of Middle Grades Education at Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina.

    References

    Bambino, D. (2002). Critical friends. Educational Leadership, 59(6), 25-27.

    Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2014). Teachers know best: Teachers’ views on professional development. Seattle, WA: Author.

    Burns, D. & Darling-Hammond, L. (2015). Teaching around the world: What can TALIS tell us? Stanford, CA: Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.

    Crowley, B. (2014). 3 steps for building a professional learning network [Blog post]. Available at www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/12/31/3-steps-for-building-a-professional-learning.html.

    Fernandez, C. & Chokshi, S. (2002). A practical guide to translating lesson study for a U.S. setting. Phi Delta Kappan, 84(2), 128-134.

    Kardos, S.M. & Johnson, S.M. (2007). On their own and presumed expert: New teachers’ experience with their colleagues. Teachers College Record, 109(9), 2083-2106.

    Killion, J. (2014). 3 principles for authentic PLCs [Blog post]. Available at https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning_forwards_pd_watch/2014/05/3_principles_for_authentic_plcs.html.

    Learning Forward. (2011). Standards for Professional Learning. Oxford, OH: Author.

    OECD. (2014). TALIS 2013 results: An international perspective on teaching and learning. Paris, France: Author.

    Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy. (2014). Making space: The value of teacher collaboration. Boston, MA: Author.

    TNTP. (2015). The mirage: Confronting the hard truth about our quest for teacher development. Washington, DC: Author.


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