Events and Activities

Example from New England:  

Every two weeks over Zoom.  These were initially organized by the leadership team, but now are grassroots organized with a shared spreadsheet -- anyone can sign up to host, and the host then chooses the time, chooses a theme (if any), and posts a Zoom link to a shared schedule spreadsheet.  

Example from IBLINC: 

In April of 2020 we initiated a weekly lunch series, encouraging participants to come during their lunch hour and to feel free to bring their lunch. Many participants ate with their cameras off before, while others found a different time to eat so that they could be fully present. But the stage was set for an informal gathering, where you could eat or snack in front of the camera and even take care of children or be interrupted by your pets. These initial meetings didn’t require any agenda: participants started by sharing some news about impacts of the pandemic, especially when there was math or teaching involved. Then we moved into immediate concerns that participants brought up with their newfound teaching modalities. These discussions often resulted in scheduling course observations, which were simplified by the fact that no travel was involved (previously we had tried to create a database of course times and locations for observation, but the community had not yet been successful in establishing a routine of visiting in-person courses). 

In the summer we transitioned to monthly lunches. With most people socially isolating and not travelling, these lunches were a way to break the isolation in the summer. We announced topics for these meetings, in advance, such as “Being Better for Black Students and Colleagues and Practicing Equitable Teaching” in June when the country was beginning to face a racial reckoning. Most months the topics were unneeded, as the group already came with much that needed to be discussed and unpacked.

In the fall, after a member survey, we transitioned to two different times to ensure maximum availability to participants. Each meeting was biweekly, so that overall we had one lunch per week. While the 10am Tuesday lunches often only had a couple participants, the noon Thursday lunches were better attended. 

These informal lunches are most needed when there is a specific demand. For example, a community with many new practitioners may find a desire for group mentoring or group brainstorming. Our community was new to online teaching, so we had an intense need for group brainstorming to develop new resources. When such a demand is lessened, there will still be some members who desire this sense of camaraderie, group mentoring, or group brainstorming, and indeed it is difficult to know how many without offering these informal events. Targeted programming, such as by announcing a discussion topic in advance, by starting a book group, or by organizing a Japanese Lesson Study, can fill that need for new practitioners while simultaneously continuing to provide a valuable and engaging experience for established community members. 

• Example from New England: Faculty who are willing to be observed sign up on a Google spreadsheet, and potential observers check this list and make individual arrangements to visit and have a conversation afterwards.  The community awards a mini-grant for those who complete the visit and follow-up discussion, and write a short reflection for the community blog.

• Being observed can be uncomfortable.  The goal is not to be perfect. Do what you do and have good conversations about it.

• In the virtual environment, the observer can stay with one group or can follow the instructor as she jumps between groups.  If the observer is staying with one group, the instructor may want to describe characteristics of the different groups and offer a choice of groups to observe.  Or the instructor may want to learn more about the dynamics of a particular group, and ask the observer to stick with that one.

• You may want to use an observation protocol (see Further Resources, below)

• See also the Equity Issues During a Peer Classroom Visit vignette, below.

Example from New England:  Experienced faculty serve as coaches.  Faculty who want to be coached submit an application to become Faculty Fellows.  The Fellows are assigned a mentor. See more details on the New England website.

Example from Upstate New York: Applications were solicited in the Spring/Summer for novice practitioners of inquiry to join an intensive August workshop and then be paired with a mentor for a semester. Intermediate and expert practitioners were given training to serve as a mentor by an external expert who was visiting to give a keynote talk at the Fall MAA Seaway meeting. Mentor-mentee pairs met weekly via phone, videoconference, or (if possible) in person over the course of the semester, to discuss the class, identify possible red flags early on, and provide a range of possibilities to deal with inevitable challenges. When possible, these weekly meetings would occur immediately after one of the scheduled class meetings. Each mentor would visit their mentee's class at least once during the semester, and each mentee would visit their mentor's class at least once. No observation protocol was used, but notes were taken during the observations to stimulate discussion.

A professional learning community is any small and consistent group of practitioners coming together regularly to learn together about a specific theme. 

• One example could be a group of instructors meeting regularly to reflect on and plan a common course. 

• Here is an extensive list of Professional Learning Communities that New England has run. 

• There is also a detailed blog post about their "Doing Math Together" group. 

• Another example is a Learning Community for Inclusive Teaching run at the Unversity of Michigan Department of Mathematics.