CFL Content

During the 2008 Summer Session, a small group of Fellows met daily to discuss and explore the role of writing in their Fellowships. On the final day of the writing group, Fellows selected a piece to share. Even though the pieces still required editing and were not yet complete, each of the Fellows that shared a piece exhibited Courage and Initiative. Some Fellows, like Nicole Tine, have shared their writing on their own blogs, accessible here.

And so they writeâ€¦seeking the voice of practice Ten women gather in a green round room surrounded by a recently manicured lawn. Some sit on the floor; a few on couches or chairs either holding a pad and pen, or cradling laptops; and others at a rectangular table facing computer screens or somewhere deep in space. It is a bright but humid summer day. Other than the sound of an oscillating fan creating waves of chart paper, and the click-clack of the keyboard, the room is silent. The subject of the gathering is the quest to capture and do justice to the writer within. Several of us have written extensively. For some, that writing has been confined to the private and personal. For others, like me, it has centered on the conventional professional genres. This writing feels different. It comes from a place where mind, body and soul are integrated and is informed by a shared curiosity about what we can say about the professional selves we donâ€™t get to share, and sometimes, think about in conscious ways. We share a commitment to uncover the voice of the practitioner and to lend it all the richness and credibility it deserves. We strive to reveal first in our minds, and then in the shared discourse around our thoughts, the fluid and context-laden essence of our craft. We have decided to let the emotions and ideas that lie within to define the genre that will house them, rather than imprison them inside a specific and well defined mold. Stories, poems, portraits, vignettes, letters, essays begin to emerge, intertwined with questions. What do I know that I trust to be true? What do I know that deserves to be known by others? How do I convey the essence of an understanding that continues to unfold? How much of the particular matters to others? I too, ask myself these questions, wondering what could happen to the substance and the style of my writing and work if I decide to have form follow function. It is so much easier to let form carve the way into communication, even though the few instances in which I have given myself permission to let form unravel on its own have been most satisfying. I realize how such permission lies within; how I, like others, trap myself into conventions and practices that narrow the boundaries of my voice and limit my ability to fully communicate my craft. Would those who listen to me learn more about what I know and how I know if I opened the meaning-making world within me? I dare say yes, only because I too would benefit from understanding how other practitioners think about what they know, how they manage the urgent and the mundane, how the rhythm of their routines focuses their attention, how they reconcile obligations, convictions and responsibilities. And so we writeâ€¦

our team

As an organization, Communities for Learning reflects the diversity that is key to its work: Governed by a board of directors whose values, interests and roles provide various educational perspectives that are invaluable in decision and policy making, the organization is further supported by an advisory council with varying skills and points of view, as well as by an experienced, thoughtful and committed staff.

Board of Directors

Communities for Learning is governed by a Board of Directors whose values, experiences, interests and roles provide a unique combination of diverse perspectives inside common goals that is invaluable to the organizationâ€™s decision and policy making.

Jane Bullowa Treasurer, Communities for Learning
Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services

Jaimie Cloud Chairman of the Board, Communities for Learning
President
The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education

Giselle O. Martin-Kniep Founder and President, Communities for Learning
President
Learner-Centered Initiatives, Ltd.

Marcia Welsh
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Towson University

The ARCS Framework

The Communities for Learning ARCS Framework for sustainable school improvement is the breakthrough and elegant infrastructure at the heart of Communities for Learningâ€™s work.

Grounded in many years of research and practice, this framework is a simple and profound set of principles and practices for thinking and acting as an individual, a group and an organization.

The Framework is structured around four core elements - Alignment, Representation, Culture, and Sustainability (ARCS) - which generate the ongoing cycles of individual and group aspiration, dissonance, struggle and resolution necessary for continued improvement. It is flexible, comprehensive in scope, strengths-focused, momentum-building and inspiring in the heads of any and all stakeholders. It enhances those structures, norms, and behaviors that contribute to lasting improvement while limiting or removing those that do not. Organizations that implement ARCS become robust, responsible and resilient.

Our communities

Communities for Learning sites involve individuals from either a single school or educational organization or from multiple educational institutions. Participants hold different roles, responsibilities and positions in their organization. This inclusion of diverse stakeholders, maximizing their different perspectives and expertise, is the hallmark of Communities for Learning. Activities in these communities help members understand and implement the ARCS framework, and help them to examine their connections within their organization, identify their own professional passions, interests and vision, and connect these to their organizationâ€™s needs, vision and goals. Successful sites develop resilient structures, processes and practices that promote and support ongoing, improved learning for everyone.

Our stories

Communities for Learning is leading lasting change in schools, districts and regions across the United States. Our communities have many faces and voices, each with its own identity as defined by the unique vision guiding the work, but all sites are united by the belief that they can make a difference and improve learning for all. Here are some of the voices and faces of our communities.

Products & services

Communities for Learning has published a wide-variety of products including:
â€¢ Books
â€¢ Curriculum and assessment materials
â€¢ Resources on action research and professional development

Many of these products showcase the expertise and experience of talented educators who are committed to capturing their expertise and sharing it with others.

In an effort to assist schools, districts, and other organizations in assessing and monitoring the readiness and work of their learning communities, Communities for Learning has developed a variety of tools for individuals, communities, and organizations.

We also offer a variety of professional development programs including conferences, keynote presentations, skill-development programs, facilitation of learning communities, and certifications for Communities for Learning facilitators as well as endorsements for products and sites.

Support us

Join us in reframing education so that schools where everyone is inspired and committed to learning are commonplace and it is typical to find students, parents, teachers, administrators and community partners sharing their schoolâ€™s vision and working together to make it a reality. Help us support schools in which a constant state of improvement is the only acceptable status quo.

Sites:

ARCS kudos to the Mattituck-Cutchogue school district on Long Island, where Anne Smith is Assistant Superintendent. This district has become a model for integration of the ARCS framework throughout all levels of the organization, from Board meetings to district and school goals and decisions, to exploring community and school culture, teacher and student goal setting and the development of student-centered portfolios, In addition, this district has embraced the leadership potential of its Communities for Learning Fellows, incorporating them into the distributed leadership of the district. Anne Smith is completing her provisional certification as an ARCS facilitator.

ARCS kudos to PS 85, an elementary school in the Bronx, NY where the school has organized its learning inside four cross-role communities, each of which is focused on investigating areas defined and prioritized based on the schoolâ€™s vision. Fellows Ted Husted (principal) and Allison Krenn (curriculum coach) are supporting this work, with Allison, who is completing provisional certification as an ARCS facilitator, teaching and monitoring the application of the framework school wide.

Staff:

Giselle O. Martin-Kniep and Joanne Picone-Zocchiaâ€™s newest book, published by ASCD, Changing the Way You Teach, Improving the Way Students Learn, describes a framework for effective teaching that can be applied to any subject area and grade level. Their detailed review of the structures, processes, and content of effective teaching provides practical tips that can be used right away, and the stories that are woven throughout directly and explicitly relate theory to practice and results. Areas of focus include addressing both the depth and the breadth of your curriculum, questions that engage and support student learning, specific scaffolding techniques, and tips for using student portfolios to both document and promote student learning.

Newsflash

2010-2011: Our Vision

A school year where challenges provide opportunities, voices engage as participants, planning results in positive actions, and potential transforms continuous improvement

Communities for Learning Conference

The Promise and Practice of Professional Learning Communities
May 12, 2008, Principal Center, Ulster BOCES

Giselle O. Martin-Kniep and the Communities for Learning staff will facilitate a full day experience for school teams who are interested in exploring the potential of the Communities for Learning framework as it may apply to improving their own school or educational organization.

Communities for Learning staff present at Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development

Communities for Learning staff present at Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Annual Conference & Exhibit Show - \"Reinventing Schools: Courageous Leadership for Positive Change,\" in New Orleans, March 15-17, 2008. Giselle O. Martin-Kniep and Joanne Picone-Zocchia will each present a session on professional learning communities. Join them in exploring the Communities for Learning framework as it supports improving schools and learning.

The American Educational Research Association accepts papers

The American Educational Research Association accepts two Communities for Learning papers for presentation at their national conference in New York City, March 24-30. Giselle O. Martin-Kniep and Brett Lane (researcher, Brown University) and Joanne Picone-Zocchia will present papers on the impact of Communities for Learning on student learning and on the development of a Communities for Learning school site. Featured will be the results of the data from the Communities for Learning Impact Study and the work of PS 205, our first school-based Communities for Learning site.

For more information about Communities for Learning, its Fellowship programs, sites, certifications or professional development, contact us at:

Communities for Learning
249-02 Jericho Turnpike, Suite 203
Floral Park, New York 11001

How do we lead lasting change?

Our inspiration
Imagine schools where everyone is inspired and committed to learning; where students, parents, teachers, administrators and community partners share the schoolâ€™s vision and work together to make it a reality. Imagine a school in which a constant state of improvement is the only acceptable status quo.

Our mission
Communities for Learning supports educational communities, worldwide, in becoming self-sustaining, self-improving, learning organizations empowered to lead deep and lasting change.

Our practice
With the ARCS Framework for Sustainable School Improvement at the heart of its work, Communities for Learning inspires schools to set challenging goals as they aspire to be the very best that they can be; enables them to ask difficult questions as they probe self-identified strengths, issues and needs; supports them with experiences and tools that develop both individual and organizational expertise; empowers them to innovate and take the actions necessary to achieve their vision. Communities for Learningâ€™s Fellowship program, school-based site development, and facilitator training are anchored in the four components of the ARCS framework: Alignment, Representation, Culture and Sustainability.

Publications

In Communities for Learning, Fellows commit to developing and disseminating their expertise by publishing their work. Our publications include books, curriculum prototypes, instructional handbooks, staff development protocols and action research studies. The Fellowsâ€™ work is held to very high standards of quality, ensured through the use of a variety design tools as well as a peer review process. They draft, implement, revise and publish it over time, with feedback from other members of the community.

Who Supports Us

Communities for Learning is a 501c3 partially funded through annual Fellowship fees paid for by the Fellows\' sponsoring organizations and from program fees associated with the facilitation and support for professional learning communities in schools and districts. Additional support comes from financial and \"in-kind\" contributions from individuals and corporations.

Organizational Support
Adelphi University
Caledonia Mumford Central School District
Common Action
Cutchogue-Mattituck School District
Erie 2 â€“ Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES
Fire Island School District
Genesee Valley BOCES
John F. Kennedy High School, New York City
Learner-Centered Initiatives, Ltd
Little Flower Union Free School District
Mattituck-Cutchogue School District
New York City Schools
North Rockland Teacher Center
Patchogue Medford Schools
Penfield Public Schools
Plainedge School District
PS/MS 3
PS/MS 4
PS 24
PS/MS 37
PS 54
PS 79
PS 81
PS 85
PS 178Q
PS/IS 189X
PS 205
PS 310
PS/MS 315
Plainedge School District
Suffolkâ€™s Edge Teacher Center
Wayland-Cohocton School District
Webster Central Schools
William Floyd School District

How You Can Help

To learn more about supporting us, please email, call our office at 516-502-4232, or visit our online donation page

Communities for Learning believes that students are a powerful and untapped resource and is dedicating time and funding during this 2010-2011 school year to helping students see how they can use their ideas, energy and voice to make a positive difference in their school community.

$2,000 can provide a student you know with a scholarship to the Communities for Learning Fellowship program, where he or she can explore what it means to be a student leader, how students can improve schools, and what it means to participate in a strategic action plan for improvement.

$5,000 will support 4 3-hour sessions with groups of 8-10 students, in a school of your choice. During these sessions, students will propose and plan a student-led improvement project.

$10,000 will support 4 3-hour sessions with students, plus 4 3-hour sessions for parents and school staff to help them understand how to best support student leadership efforts.

Imagine a school where parents and students actively work together with teachers and administrators to help the school become the very best that it can possibly be.

Communities for Learning knows that successful school improvement efforts require the perspectives and experience of everyone involved with a school. Donations will strengthen these critical student-parent-school connections.

$2,500 provides a school with an introductory workshop on creating and supporting strong student-parent-school connections

$5,000 provides 4, 3-hour sessions with a school-based cross-role community in which participants will devise a plan to increase the connection among students, parents and the school. Specific schools can be recommended with donations.

$10,000 provides scholarships for a team of 4 (parent, student, teacher and administrator) to participate for one year as Fellows in the Communities for Learning Fellowship program where they will focus as a team on implementing a strategic action plan to strengthen the parent-student-school connection.

Sometimes, a school or teacher profoundly affects us, and our lives are better for the experience. Communities for Learning honors and promotes the expertise and excellence that lies within schools and believes that this is an untapped source in the work of improving schools. Donations to this project will help to support those special teachers, administrators and schools that are at the heart of excellence in education.

$2500 supports a teacher you recommend for one year as a Fellow in the Communities for Learning Fellowship program, where he or she can work with other educators to explore and deepen their own expertise, and learn how to share it as a way of improving education.

$5,000 provides a school with 4, 3-hour sessions focused on helping that school recognize, mine and maximize the use of its internal expertise â€“ and discover avenues for sharing that expertise to improve education. Recommendations for recipient schools may be made when donating.

$10,000 supports a school-based team of 4, enabling them to work together for one year as Fellows in the Communities for Learning Fellowship program where they will focus as a team on implementing a strategic action plan to strengthen the parent-student-school connection.

Scholarship providers will be announced publicly and listed on our website.

Friends, Sponsors and Visionaries will be listed on the website and in all Communities for Learning publications

Sharing Vision

New York City Empowerment Networks
â€œIf people before wanted what happens now, then I want to be the new before.â€ The words of a philosopher?â€¦a poet?â€¦of a humanitarian?â€¦perhapsâ€¦letâ€™s see.

Itâ€™s 8:30 AM, and teams from eleven schools filter into a large room, finding space for themselves at tables where they will spend the rest of the day. From the start, this is a different experience, as the teams include people who do not usually collaborate in quite this way - parents, teachers, administrators and students, all knowing they are there to learn and work together, but not quite sure what that means.

Students giggle, parents sit quietly, teachers and administrators chat about events and situations that they donâ€™t often get to discuss. At one of the tables, two students sit together at one side, while the adults sit on the other, separated as much physically as they are by generations. They smile when asked about moving closer, jiggle their chairs a little bit, but basically remain where they are, talking across the space that divides and protects them.

As the day wears on, the distance between the participants lessens, visibly and perceptibly, as individuals move closer in order to better share their thinking and work. As priorities, hopes and images of excellence are described and recorded, visions begin to emerge at each of the tables, ephemeral at first, and tentative, but stronger and more pronounced as they are spoken and molded by all team members together. In the end, diverse perspectives blend and combine to create a single, encompassing vision for their school at the very best that it can be.

At 2:30 PM, during time dedicated to the teams sharing insights and pieces of what they each developed, the following text is read aloud:

My vision for my school:
I want to be where it is peaceful
Friendliness and kindness even when people are down
Friendships with everyone and not to have enemies
Everyone puts their hearts into learning
A place where I can make new friends without any fighting
Everyoneâ€™s on the road to success and planning their future
Nobody is failing and people are helpful
Things are fun and we are still able to learn
Everyone feels comfortable
If people before wanted what happens now, then I want to be the new before.

The words of a philosopher?â€¦a poet?â€¦of a humanitarian?â€¦perhapsâ€¦

These are the words of adolescents, written by a seventh grade student at the end of a Communities for Learning day - a day that began with distance defined by generations, experience and position at a table, but a day that ended withâ€¦a vision.

Dispositions at Work

West Islip, NY
A classroom curriculum unit designed to expose 6th grade students to the world of marketing, from market research and advertising to sales and finances, took an unexpected turn when students were faced with the reality of an unscrupulous business vendor. Their supplier skipped town. The classesâ€™ teachers, both Fellows in Communities for Learning and committed to student-centered learning, resisted the temptation to intervene, offering support in the form of space and time for consultations and meetings, but allowing students themselves to grapple with how to respond to the crisis.

The student â€˜corporate leadersâ€™ called an emergency meeting of the fifty (student) members of the corporation and presented the issues to the group. The students took turns posing questions and brainstorming solutions. After hearing a financial report from the accounting department, it was determined that most, if not all of the increased cost would be absorbed by sales price, though it would require a much higher sales volume for the corporation to break even and move to making a profit. The decision came down to whether to cut losses and cancel the rest of the sales week or buy directly from the manufacturer and absorb a substantial increase in shipping costs, likely leaving the corporation without profit and perhaps even slightly in debt. Before the determining vote was taken, one student requested the floor to make a final statement.

â€œWeâ€˜ve spent a week advertising our product and prices. We committed to a week of sales. We have a responsibility to the people who are now planning to buy our candles, based on our advertising. How can we cancel? How can we talk about changing our prices? That would make us liars. We have to go through with this sales week, even if it ends up costing us money. We made a commitment. If it means that we all give money at the end to pay our debts, then thatâ€™s what we should do. When we thought we were going to make money, we were all about how we would share it. Itâ€™s no different now. We share the responsibility, we share the debt, just like we would have shared the profits.â€

All fifty students voted, and unanimously supported approving the additional costs and continuing with the sale, citing the responsibility that they had to their consumer as the main reason for moving forward.

School to Community

PS 205, Bronx, NY
Alex â€œThis was a good conversation. It really made me think hard about what I believe. We picked the same strengths and had many of the same questions. Even our examples of evidence were almost the same. Some of what I heard her say helped me to think about my own ideas differently, and we were able to discuss questions that we had in common. There were even a few things that she said that I know will stay in my head and change the way I think.â€

Maria â€œAs Alex and I spoke, it was amazing how much we shared. Though his perspective is different, Alex actually has many of the same questions and concerns as I do. We both are dealing with what happens when you take a stand on something or when you are the person who has to make a decision that will affect others. In discussing these things, we discovered that, even though weâ€™re not in the exact same position, we approach situations in much the same way. It was very helpful.â€

Spoken during the debriefing of a self-assessment activity at PS 205, a Communities for Learning school in the Bronx, NY, this exchange clearly illustrates much that is common about a Communities for Learning experience, especially when we consider that Alex is a fifth grader and Maria is the school principal.

Before becoming a Communities for Learning school-based site, PS 205 (a K-5 elementary school) was already a good school. Teachers taught, students learned and parents felt comfortable that they were sending their children to a safe environment. Administration of the two-building school was precise and efficient, with a leadership team that worked well together making decisions and solving problems. There was a history of professional development targeted to the needs of the staff and, when possible, members of the school received training and were then asked to share their learning with their colleagues. The school fostered partnerships related to the schoolâ€™s commitment to technology and the arts. The principal was the undisputed leader, respected and admired by staff, parents and students.

At first their new Learning Community was suspect: teachers were suspicious of the professional learning community as another layer, yet another requirement, yet another example of temporary professional development. Students were confused by the opportunity to work and interact with adults in a learning community setting. Before, the principalâ€™s vision was her own, private entity.

But all that has changed. Today, students, teachers and parents have responded to and embraced their Learning Community as their shared vision, and actively create the paths for helping it to become reality. Today, the responsibility for decision-making is shared. Teachers, students and parents engage in problem identification and action planning, and monitor the results of their actions.

Once an â€˜Aâ€™ and a â€˜Bâ€™ building separated by a block, a zip code and daily routines, PS 205 is now comprised of Upper and Lower schools that share activities and resources daily. Where in the past, visits between the two buildings were rare, students and teachers now trek regularly back and forth for â€˜eventsâ€™ like assemblies or extra-curricular activities (participated in now by parents, teachers, staff and students), as well as opportunities to engage in â€˜buddy readingâ€™, shared professional development and class visitations. Based on data collected and analyzed, the Community has identified differentiation as its learning focus for the year. Members of the Community that Leads are participating in collegial inquiry, developing an understanding of how this process may be used to promote learning while also deepening their own learning around differentiation and language development.

Finally, the belief that this was all â€œtoo good to be trueâ€ has been replaced by a sense of pride and investment in the school, its learning and its work, and a determination to sustain and deepen the community long into the future - and conversations like that above, between Maria and Alex, are common and sought after experiences.

Advisory Council

The Community is supported by an advisory council with varied and extraordinary educational and professional development expertise.

Sharon Raimondi
Chair of Doctoral Studies
Special Education
Buffalo State University

Staff

The staff is committed to supporting, developing and sustaining the work and learning of Communities for Learning programs and sites.

$\"Giselle$ Giselle O. Martin-Kniep is the President and Founder of Communities for Learning: Leading Lasting ChangeÂ® and of Learner-Centered Initiatives, Ltd. She is the co-developer of the ARCS Framework.

$\"\"$ Joanne Picone-Zocchia is the Vice-president of Communities for Learning: Leading lasting changeÂ® and Learner-Centered Initiatives, Ltd. Her work includes school, district, regional and statewide programs in leadership development, strategic planning, curriculum and assessment design, visioning, restructuring and organizational development. A co-developer of the ARCS Framework, Joanne is a primary trainer and certifier of ARCS facilitators.

Joanne is actively engaged in exploring connections between systems thinking skills and processes and issues of systemic educational reform, and is committed to a focus on sustainable improvement. An educator herself for twenty-two years, her background includes elementary, middle, secondary and special education.

Joanne is a published curriculum designer, has co-authored the article, â€œUsing Curriculum and Gap Analysis Maps to Assess What Teachers Do,â€ and is the primary author of the book Supporting Mathematical Learning: Effective Instruction, Assessment and Student Activities, K-5, published by Jossey-Bass. Her latest book, Changing the Way You Teach, Improving the Way Students Learn , co-authored with Giselle Martin-Kniep, was published by ASCD in May 2009.

Diane Cunningham provides facilitation support for the Communities for Learning Fellowship Program. In this role, she co-faciliates the summer institute, conferences with and provides feedback to Fellows\' on their work and learning, supports publication and dissemination efforts by helping Fellows to publish and present their work, mentors Fellows on their use of the ARCS framework and coaches Fellows as they design and implement action research around their practice.

Ms Cunningham is also is the Director of Consultant Support for Learner-Centered Initiatives, Ltd. and has recently published an ASCD Action Tool titled Improving Teaching with Collaborative Action Research. She has also published work related to portfolios and action research in Why Am I Doing This?: Purposeful Teaching Through Portfolio Assessment and Becoming a Better Teacher: Eight Innovations that Work. Finally, Diane has a background in elementary education and reading education and a Masters Degree in Writing from Northeastern University. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Curriculum and Teaching at Hofstra University.

Fellows

Fellows include stakeholders from all levels of a school organization, including students, parents, teachers, administrators, Board members, and community partners. Coming from urban, suburban and rural settings, they bring a vast array of knowledge, experience and perspective to the Fellowship program. Fellows are bound by a passion for learning and a desire to make lasting improvements to their school, district or educational organization.

Learning Link

ALFI: For those interested in best practices related to the facilitation of adult learning, Learner-Centered Initiatives, Ltd is hosting the Adult Learning Facilitation Institute (ALFI) 2-day conference Apirl 30 and May 1, 2009. Giselle Martin-Kniep and Joanne Picone-Zocchia will facilitate ALFIâ€™s spring conference: Engaging, Challenging and Teaching the Adult Learner at CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan. Mark your calendars for the ALFI summer Design Retreat, July 27-30, 2009, in Beaver Hollow, NY. On-line registration is now available.

Dispositions of Practice

The dispositions of practice are abiding tendencies that reflect the values, commitments, practices, and professional ethics that influence behaviors and actions.

Communities for Learning promotes six dispositions, each of which represents, assesses and guides the work of the individual who participates in learning communities and the organizational contexts that support that work. These dispositions influence how these individuals and communities see themselves, approach their work, and define their roles and responsibilities. They inform the kinds of interventions that can be designed to create learning communities in schools and other organizations. Finally, the dispositions provide the foundation for the norms and processes that learning communities engage in and support.

1 Commitment to Understanding Pursing questions and developing ideas related to teaching and learning, accessing multiple perspectives, and using research and evidence.

2 Intellectual Perseverance Considering ideas or questions for a period of time to improve our work; revising and revisiting our practices and thinking to improve them and to reach high standards; and withholding the need to finish work before itâ€™s the best that it can be.

3 Courage & Initiative Discussing uncomfortable topics or issues, including our own values and questions; accepting the discomfort that stems from the need to change; seeking or accepting new or unfamiliar roles, responsibilities or challenges.

4 Commitment to Expertise Refining and expanding our current professional knowledge and skills; disseminating knowledge and expertise within and outside our own organization; engaging in learning and work that addresses organizational or professional needs.

5 Commitment to Reflection Sharing our thinking to develop and evaluate it; thinking about our thinking and learning to set goals, assess and understand ourselves, our work and our organization; producing work that results from goals, actions and strategies that are grounded in the analysis of past learning.

6 Collegiality Learning with and from others; acting on the belief that learning and working with others increases our expertise; producing work that results from engaging in collaborative learning and problem solving.

Our Framework

The Communities for Learning framework is grounded in many years of research and practice. It includes four core elements: Alignment, Representation, Sustainability, and Dispositions.

Framework of the Core Elements
Alignment â€“ Processes for making explicit and seamless connections between organizational and individual vision, expertise, and action

Representation â€“ The expectation of cross-role inclusion, actively engaging the perspectives of students, administrators, teachers, parents, university, community and business partners, etc., in the learning and work of the community

Sustainability â€“ A three-tier learning-leading-lasting structure that promotes and develops the expertise, leadership and sustainability of the community

Dispositions â€“ Six â€œDispositions of Practiceâ€ whose development support and deepen the communityâ€™s ongoing learning and work

Sites

Schools and districts interested in becoming ARCS sites enter into collaborative partnerships with Communities for Learning and, over the course of two to five years, learn to use the ARCS Framework to deepen their capacity to improve and sustain change. The sites implement the following actions, all of them involving and tapping the expertise of multiple stakeholders:

Initially, Communities for Learning staff members are the primary site facilitators, however, as members of the site become more comfortable with the Framework and proficient in using it, the staff facilitator assumes a supporting role, training in-house facilitators.

Single-sites

A single-site is a school or any other single educational organizational. Communities for Learning schools and single-sites use the ARCS framework, processes and related tools to enable them to identify and negotiate both individual and organizational needs; support continued inquiry to discover, develop and distribute their own expertise; and improve learning for all of their members.

PS 205
An elementary school in the Bronx, NY, PS 205 is comprised of two buildings, housing approximately 1000 students in kindergarten through 5th grade. A site since January of 2007, its work was initially funded through a Wallace LEAD grant.

Pursuing the vision of PS 205 as a school where everyone wants to be and learn, a strategic planning group, made up of teachers, administrators, students, parents and community partners, adopted the identity of \"Interim Community that Leads and Lasts\" and began their work by identifying and prioritizing several organizational needs. Their first task was the identification and implementation of strategies to reduce the distance between the two buildings, resulted in school-wide goal setting and the generation of action plans. Subsequent actions included activities for engaging every parent, student, school-based professional and community partner in the schoolâ€™s learning and work.

As they continue to work toward achieving their vision, PS 205 leans on its strong culture of collegiality, reflection and commitment to understanding to support them as they push themselves to address questions and needs around Representation and Sustainability. An exploration of systems thinking tools and processes as well as thoughtful strategic planning has resulted in the continuation of the communityâ€™s learning and work beyond the parameters of the initial funding.

Multi-sites

Communities for Learning multi-site communities are comprised of cross-role teams or individuals from different schools or educational organizations (regions, districts, networks, etc). Similar to school-based sites, their time together as a Community for Learning is spent engaged in inquiry and focused on activities designed to define and deepen individual expertise as it relates to organizational goals. Learning to use the ARCS framework in the context of exploring issues that affect their place and influence their organization, members begin to develop an understanding of how they may best influence change.

Different from a school-based site where the professional learning community is housed inside the school itself, multi-site participants leave their organization to become a community with people from other organizations. While some of the processes, tools and structures are the same as those used with schools, specific attention is paid to the fact that members of a multi-site community bring a variety of diverse experiences and perspectives to the community. Structuring time and creating opportunities to share this diversity through formal and informal discourse as well as sharing of learning and work are especially powerful in multi-site communities.

The work of a multi-site community may take various forms and be accomplished in a variety of different ways, but the ARCS framework provides a common focus. Some members may pursue ARCS facilitator certification, developing their own understanding of and expertise in the implementation of the framework so that they can bring the framework back to their own organizations. Others may focus their learning and work in individual interests or professional passions related to the specific needs of their organization. Still others might decide to delve deeply into issues concerning student and/or adult learning, depending on the organization and its goals.

In any case, there is constant attention to the relationship between the learning and work of the individuals in the Communities for Learning multi-site program and the needs and interests of their supporting organizations.

Communities for Learning in Empowerment
In 2007, eleven schools in two New York City Empowerment Networks came together to form a Communities for Learning ARCS multi-site community. These schools were represented by cross-role teams, including students, parents, teachers and administrators. They spent the year steeped in visioning, identification of internal expertise and strategic planning activities as well as self and organizational assessments around the Dispositions of Practice and other readiness factors. As this new community grew, it addressed questions around broadening and deepening itself, its learning and its work.

Years later, the Empowerment Networks are no longer structured in the same way, but the affect of the Communities for Learning work lingers. Three schools adopted the ARCS framework, and in 2010, one became an endorsed site. Three team members were supported as Communities for learning Fellows, and one of those three will be among the first certified ARCS Framework facilitators. Members of other teams have become leaders in the NYC school system, and they carry their understanding of the ARCS framework with them into their positions.

Fellowship Program

Communities for Learning supports Fellowship programs in two geographic areas: one in the greater New York City metropolitan area (including Long Island) and another in Upstate New York. Together, these two programs comprise a single community whose members â€“ its Fellows â€“ step out of their sponsoring organization to participate in a twelve-day per year experience.

This program brings together a diverse group of teachers, administrators, staff developers, students, university faculty, and other educators, who carry with them their organizational and personal needs as well as their interests, passions, expertise and questions. Participants in both Fellowship programs come together in their commitment to improving adult, student and organizational learning. Their time in the program enables them to learn about the ARCS framework for continuous improvement, to deepen their areas of expertise, and package their learning â€“ and use it all to improve the lives of people who work in and for schools.

The program itself takes place over seven full days during the school year, a one-week summer institute and an optional one-week writing academy in the summer. During this time, Fellows engage in a variety of experiences, including:
â€¢ vision development
â€¢ strategic planning
â€¢ exploration of a learning focus, inquiry and research work
â€¢ design activities
â€¢ writing for publication

Depending on their roles, needs and interests, Fellows may also select to participate in the ARCS Framework certification strand.

Being a Fellow

Individuals who want to become Fellows can contact Communities for Learning for an application. On the first day of their participation, they complete a baseline assessment of the Dispositions of Practice and are introduced to the Fellowship portfolio. The portfolio contains the questions and work-in-process that guide the Fellowâ€™s work, and serve as a documentation system that:

â€¢ reveals assumptions and thinking related to participating in a professional learning community at the beginning of their Fellowship

â€¢ documents work and growth as part of a professional community capture the ongoing journey of the Fellowship

Fellows include students and educators of all sorts: coming from urban, suburban and rural settings they bring a vast array of knowledge and experience to the Community.

Fellowship Outcomes

Fellowship in the Communities for learning program is a multi-year commitment that is renewed yearly. Though the work and learning of Fellows is guided by individual and organizational needs, the Fellowship itself is structured around expected outcomes and indicators. Fellows monitor their progress toward these outcomes throughout the year, gathering evidence in a portfolio and presenting it during a yearly interview with Communities for Learning staff or certified Fellows. As a result of the interview the Fellowâ€™s achievements are celebrated, alignment between their learning and work and that of their organization is assessed, and goals and a plan for meeting them are proposed.

Learning and Work
Outcome 1: Fellows will investigate and disseminate their learning and work

Outcome 2: Fellows will embody the Dispositions of Practice that support Communities for Learning

Fellowship/Organization Connection
Outcome 3: Fellows will promote their schoolâ€™s vision and goals

Communities for Learning Connection
Outcome 4: Fellows will support their own and othersâ€™ learning and work

Locations & Calendar

Upstate Group Meetings
December 14 and 15, 2010
March 2 and 3, 2011
June 15, 2011

Downstate Group Meetings
December 9 and 10, 2010
March 3 and 4, 2011
June 16, 2011

The New York City/Long Island program meets at the Suffolk Teacher Center, Western Suffolk BOCES, Wheatley Heights, Long Island.

Summer Institute - Upstate and Downstate Groups
Monday July 18, 2011 - Friday July 22th - 2pm

Books

This collection of books captures a range of best practices and processes that support teaching and learning and the development of professional learning communities. from content-specific to curriculum design to the structure and work of professional learning communities. Written on a variety of topics, each book is grounded in both current educational research and the realities of the daily lives of educators.

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â€œFrost tells us \'The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.\" Professional Learning Communities laboring to actualize educational reform are brought significantly closer to their goals with this book. We are reading the words of a seasoned veteran, but we are not getting war stories. Nor are we seduced into cynicism. Rather we are given an articulation of values, a range of strategies and a set of assessment tools that can make a real difference in transforming our educational institutions into communities that learn. Communities that Learn, Lead and Last is an exquisite combination of ethical and operational intelligence.â€
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Paul Ryan
Associate Professor
Media Studies
New School
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Communities that Learn, Lead, and Last offers practical guidance for schools and districts on how to develop â€˜professional learning communitiesâ€™ that instill educational ideals, share wisdom, improve practice, and enhance capacity across the system. Comprised of any combination of teachers, school leaders, staff developers, district personnel, parents, and students, professional learning communities offer a forum to help educators learn from each other and collaborate on common projectsâ€”ranging from classroom-oriented lesson planning and assessment tasks to broader issues of policy, leadership, and organizational improvement.

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Showing how such communities can improve teaching and learning while promoting and sustaining educational innovations, the book maps out the community-building essentials, providing guidance, tools, and carefully crafted rubrics in the following areas: developing individual and organizational capacity and dispositions for learning, facilitating, assessing and managing learning communities, enhancing the outcomes of professional learning communities, and evaluating the work of community participants.

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Blending theory of â€œbest practiceâ€ with classroom reality, this handbook focuses on the development and use of effective instructional techniques and practices in K-5 mathematics. Including concrete problems, lessons and activities that are rigorous and engaging, it explores the topics of diversified assessment, establishing and communicating explicit criteria, using various questioning strategies to support and extend math learning, and the role of problems in providing context for teaching and learning math skills. One chapter, comprised entirely of lessons, provides examples of teacher and student centered learning experiences, as well as suggestions for differentiating lessons to meet studentsâ€™ diverse needs. Each section concludes with a series of processing and design options to help teachers apply the material to their own context.

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Book review published by NSTA
Science Scope, November/December 2004 $\"\"$

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Developing Learning Communities Through Teacher Expertise, published in November 2003 by Corwin Press, is available to the public. The book explores the importance of professional learning communities and the varied vehicles for creating such dynamic, compelling communities. Included in the text are multiple samples of practitioners\' work that model each of the vehicles for capturing teacher expertise: Curriculum and Assessment Design, Data-Driven Inquiry and Action Research and Professional Portfolios. The book\'s five chapters are:
1. Developing Learning Communities
2. Standards-based Curriculum and Assessment Design
3. Data-driven Inquiry and Action Research
4. Using Professional Portfolios to Document Expertise
5. Developing an Action Plan

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To view more books by Communities for Learning staff, visit Learner-Centered Initiatives, Ltd.

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Curriculum Products

The Communities for Learning curriculum units were created by Fellows to capture and contextualize all the elements of standards-based, learner-centered education.To order copies any of these units, please contact us for ordering information.

Kindergarten students are mathematicians, artists, model makers and researchers in this interdisciplinary unit focused on community. As students learn about the people, places and transportation in their community, they explore questions such as What is a home?, What makes a community? and Are all communities the same? Samples of student models, paintings and maps show that young children can create authentic products and engage in authentic processes. The pre/post assessment, done with the teacher, demonstrates just how much growth is possible in a unit like this one.

In Americans, fifth graders learn about other cultures in the Western hemisphere. This unit guides them in completing a long term research project which culminates in the writing of a book for a particular audience. Not only must students write an original story, with a story line, a setting and complex characters, but they must embed what they have learned from their research into the story. Americans provides the structure and specific criteria that allow students to successfully author books while working toward standards in social studies, language arts and the visual arts.

Students explore physical, biological, mathematical and literary structures in the context of creating several museum exhibits, designing buildings and writing in various forms and genres.

A Quiet Garden is a unit that clearly fosters scientific thinking and builds critical thinking skills. As students consider the essential question, \"Is anything more constant than change?\" they learn about weathering and apply their knowledge as scientists would. Students work toward important science and English language arts standards as they investigate weathering for a real purpose, this being the design of a pond in the school courtyard.

Changing Consumption Patterns
An Integrated Curriculum For High Schools (Grade 9-12)
by The Sustainability Education Center and Communities for Learning

This unit helps students gain an understanding of sustainability, and provides them with a thorough exploration of consumption as an international issue and as a facet of their own lives. The unit can be used as a stand-alone activity, or can enhance a Model UN CSD simulation (with consumption as the Agenda 21 issue to be explored).

In Childhood, middle school students study what it is like to be a child in various regions of the world, as they grapple with the essential question, \"What does it mean to be a child?\" The unit provides the guidance, structure and tools to allow students to successfully conduct group research, plan and execute presentations for their peers and community, and create various artistic and technology-based projects to demonstrate their understanding of the concept of childhood.

Rick Hinrichs has designed a unit that naturally integrates social studies content and English language arts skills. The learning experiences in this unit not only tap the multiple intelligences, but they engage students in meaningful individual and cooperative group projects. As sixth graders study ancient civilizations, work together to make connections between our civilization and past civilizations to answer the essential question, \"Can a civilization last forever?\"

Can second graders engage in rigorous research? Expertise shows how they can be taught to use various resources, take notes and use technology to gather and report information. In this unit, students become experts in paleontology, design museum plans for exhibits in dinosaur halls, and give oral presentations. Their work is assessed and refined with criteria in rubrics that both the students and the teacher use.

Global Hunger
by The Sustainability Education Center, Communities for Learning, and Just Food.

The unit, From Global Hunger to Sustainable Food Systems, enables students to discover the root causes of hunger, connects them with the real food systems that exist in the world today, and provides them with opportunities to develop informed opinions and to create a more healthy and plentiful world.

The unit, designed for middle school and also useful for both younger and older students, provides a rich and diverse set of activities: listening exercises, oral history, calculating a \"food footprint\" (the amount of space and resources used to feed the student\'s family), modeling food systems, a reading/discussion that engages students with the connection between justice and sustainable food systems, among others. Through analyzing cartoons, ads, photos, poems, fiction and non-fiction sources, students also answer two \"document-based questions:\" What are the causes of hunger? How are our decisions about food shaped? Crucial understandings about the use, relevance and reliability of various kinds of documents are developed along the way.

In this English language arts prototype, students draft, revise and edit both written and oral presentations that focus on literary merit. The process used in this unit highlights the value of clear criteria, constructive criticism and feedback in process. Group Shares proves that students can thoughtfully reflect upon their own performance and provide their peers with valid and helpful feedback.

Can fourth graders think critically to form an opinion and support it? They can and do in Human Rights. This unit integrates social studies and English language arts standards naturally and meaningfully. Students work in cooperative groups to explore the meaning and value of our human rights. By the end of the unit, they have investigated the rights of a specific interest group in our country and have written persuasive letters to real audiences.

Are laws always considered truths? Are truths always considered laws? These questions guide middle school students in an exploration of an unknown substance. In Laws of Science students use the scientific method to design experiments, test their own hypotheses and hold a scientific convention where they debate, as scientists would, the laws of the substance they investigated. As Hayley, a student says of her experience in the unit, \"We are scientists because we talked and disagreed, we had different answers, we made comments, we asked questions, we were doing an experiment and we were writing notes.\"

What better way to make sense of the history of this country than to study it through your own family history? In My Personal Connection, middle school students learn about immigration as they create genealogy charts, photo albums and autobiographies based on research into their family\'s history and the history of the United States. Students work toward important social studies and English language arts standards as they strive to answer the essential question, \"What is our personal connection to History?\"

This is no ordinary art unit! In Renaissance-Like Paintings students understand and use elements and principles of design as they research a renaissance painter and create a painting of their own. They are asked to reflect upon their work in journal entries and self-assess their work using checklists and rubrics. At the same time, students explore what it means to be a renaissance person and grapple with the essential question, \"Can a renaissance be possible amidst specialization?\" This unit fosters creative, reflective and critical thinking processes that will serve students well beyond their school years.

The essential question framing this six-week unit is \"When is War Justified?\" Middle school students are guided through an array of learning opportunities, individual and collaborative, that help them appreciate the complexities of war and the reality that there are often underlying reasons with multiple causes for war. With this unit, students understand that explanations should be investigated, not taken at face value and that conflicting points of view need to be carefully analyzed. Five recent wars are studied: World War I, World War II, Vietnam, the Gulf War and the War on Terrorism. The learning opportunities include: Document-based questions, comparative studies of contemporary songs, a U-shaped debate, round table discussion, Socratic seminars and a concluding Symposium.

Solving meaningful problems through technology design - this is the task at hand for second graders who participate in this unit titled, Technology in Our Lives. While working with the traditional science content of simple machines, students tackle important science, technology and language arts standards as they use the scientific method to design, build, test and market classroom inventions. This unit demonstrates how to guide students through technology design as it is done by real scientists.

What do you stand for? is both the title and essential question in this integrated unit originally inspired by students\' curiosity and need to understand bullying. The unit is designed to help students do in-depth research into a topic that they are passionate about. Students generate hypotheses and questions, design and administer surveys, conduct field research, analyze and interpret data and work collaboratively to process and share their learning with the school community in authentic ways. Though it was implemented in a third grade classroom, this unit is rigorous enough to be adapted for upper grades.

Professional Development & Action Research

Geared to those who facilitate adult learning, Communities for Learning Fellows created these protocols to explain specific and practical processes for using student data to inform instruction and improve learning.

Developed by Jeanette Atkinson, this protocol uses a case study of one upstate New York district\'s use of a protocol for unpacking state test data to inform and improve instructional practices. The protocol answers the questions: \"What do standardized assessments tell districts about student performance and instruction?\" and \"In what ways can instruction be changed specifically to address these identified student needs?\" and is a useful resource for staff developers and instructional leaders.

How do Writers Write?
by Vicki R. DeRue
Preview pages: 7, 10, 11, 35, 36, 72 $\"\"$

Teachers everywhere are working toward strengthening student writing. One component of this work demands that teachers understand the writing process from the inside out so that they can effectively guide their students through it. In this professional development prototype titled, How Do Writers Write?, teachers construct and deepen their understanding of the writing process in order to more effectively guide their students through the process. As teachers carry their own writing through the various stages of the process, they reflect upon and refine their classroom practices. Vicki DeRue shares many teacher-centered approaches and strategies for helping teachers to design tasks, lessons and assessments that maximize the use of process in the classroom.

How Does Classroom Assessment Practice Affect Student Writing?
By Shirley Glickman

This action research protocol focuses on the power that explicit criteria and self-assessment can have on student performance in writing. Using the NYS ELA writing task, it provides impressive qualitative and quantitative data that supports the practice of engaging students in identifying and using criteria to improve the quality of their writing.

Site Licenses

Site licenses which include professional development support and access to multiple copies of the resources are available for educational organizations who want to use large quantities of the handbooks. The cost of each site license is $3,000. This license is good for one year and includes: 1) Permission to make copies of the handbook for district personnel or educational organization representatives 2) 10 published copies of the handbook 3) an accompanying CD 4) one-day professional development for teachers or other interested personnel. To purchase site licenses please contact us.

Handbook of Writing Strategies
by Jeanette Atkinson and Vicki DeRue with various contributors
Directed and edited by Joanne Picone-Zocchia, Giselle O. Martin-Kniep, Ph.D.
Preview pages: 1, 6, 7, 8, 146-161 $\"\"$

The handbook is designed as a learning and resource tool for teachers, K-12. It is organized around eight dimensions of writing that are central to helping students use writing as a tool for meaningful communication: planning, developing ideas, organization, use of language, voice, mechanics and conventions, comprehension and genre understanding. The handbook includes an overview of the writing process as well as practical lessons and lesson adaptations that illustrate how to use specific writing strategies with students K-12. Lesson design templates are included for teachers to revise sample lessons or to write their own lessons using the strategies described in the handbook.

Tools & Measures

Communities for Learning has developed a number of processes and measures to assess a schoolâ€™s capacity for continuous improvement. These measures include a Baseline Measure (with customized forms for educators, students and community members); an online Survey of Professional Interactions for school staff; and an online Survey of Organizational Capacity for professional staff.

In additional, Communities for Learning offers assessment tools for students, teachers, administrative staff and community members, as well as others best suited for the assessment of learning communities and educational organizations.

â€¢ Assessing the Community that Learns
â€¢ Assessing the Community that Learns and Lasts
â€¢ Assessing the Community that Learns and Leads
â€¢ Self-Assessment of Degree of Involvement in Professional Learning Community
â€¢ Individual Readiness and Capacity for Professional Learning Communities
â€¢ Student Capacity for Professional Learning Communities
â€¢ Organizational Capacity for Professional Learning Communities

Surveys and Reports
â€¢ Survey of Professional Interactions
â€¢ Survey of Organizational Capacity
â€¢ How Have We Grown As A Learning Community?
â€¢ Individual Self-Assessment - Participating in a Professional Learning Community: Learning, Leading or Lasting?

Scales
Assessment of Organizational Support for Professional Learning Communities

Checklists
Assessment of Program Design Using the Dispositions of Practice
(Click to see excerpt) $\"\"$

Curriculum Products

The Communities for Learning curriculum units were created by Fellows to capture and contextualize all the elements of standards-based, learner-centered education.

Students explore physical, biological, mathematical and literary structures in the context of creating several museum exhibits, designing buildings and writing in various forms and genres.

Changing Consumption Patterns
An Integrated Curriculum For High Schools (Grade 9-12)
by The Sustainability Education Center and Communities for Learning

Global Hunger
by The Sustainability Education Center, Communities for Learning, and Just Food.

Professional Development

Communities for Learning offers ARCS Framework awareness, readiness, skill-building, capacity building programs, as well as school and district site development, facilitation certification and the Communities for Learning Fellowship Program. All experiences focus on the question, â€œWhat does it take to develop a culture of continuous improvement?â€ and unpack the ARCS framework inside that challenge.

Keynotes and Awareness Workshops introduce concepts and activities of the ARCS Framework, and help participants make connections to themselves and their own schools.

ARCS Framework Implementation helps schools to apply ARCS activities as they consider ways to improve learning.

Communities for Learning Fellowship Program is an intensive, multi-year approach to building the leadership capacity of individuals so that they can become change agents within their system. A diverse group from many sites (currently 48 teachers, administrators, staff developers, students, university faculty, and other educators), Fellows share their interests, passions, expertise and questions as they explore and address organizational and professional needs.

Sustainability PowerPoint

Courage and Initiative

Collegiality

Commitment to Reflection

Commitment to Expertise

Intellectual Perseverance

Courage and Initiative

Conferences

Disseminating and networking expertise to improve teaching and learning is part of the practice of Communities for Learning and its Fellows. This is accomplished in large part through participation in local, regional and national conferences where Communities for Learning Fellows and staff share their latest thinking and work, and hold it to public scrutiny. Sites are also encouraged to share their thinking and work by making presentations and participating in panels. Through these forums, Communities for Learning shares and celebrates its commitment to continuous improvement.

Certifications

Certification in the ARCS Framework can happen through two primary paths, which often coincide: certification as a Communities for Learning ARCS site and certification as a Communities for Learning ARCS facilitator.

A site can demonstrate the internalization of the ARCS Framework by providing evidence of its attention to and use of the four components to provoke questions and actions that result in dynamic and ongoing improvement. This evidence includes documentation of the application of the framework components and resulting questions, decisions and actions, as well as the activities of internal, certified framework facilitators from various stakeholder groups, promoting the use of the Framework throughout all levels of the site. With this evidence, the site can apply for and be certified as a Communities for Learning ARCS Site.

An individual stakeholder can become certified as an ARCS Framework facilitator by completing a training curriculum comprised of workshops and practicum, and providing evidence of their ability to lead Framework-related activities and apply the Framework components in a variety of circumstances, real and simulated. Successful completion of all course and fieldwork earns certification as a Framework Facilitator.

Finally, though all certified sites must have internal, certified ARCS Framework Facilitators, it is possible to become a certified ARCS Facilitator without belonging to a certified site.

While certification requires evidence of the use of all four components of the Framework, it is also possible for sites to receive endorsements for exemplary use of particular Framework components.

A site that focuses on changing their Culture by attending to developing the Dispositions of Practice would show evidence of the dispositions woven into organization wide communications and policies that promote and support the development of the dispositions in administrators, teachers, staff and students. It might also have curriculum units that support the development of the dispositions in students, or explicitly teach the dispositions in a classroom setting. Students and adults in this site might be using dispositions to self-assess, set and monitor goals. In this case, the site could apply for ARCS Culture endorsement.

Similarly, an individual might focus on using a particular ARCS component in their learning and work â€“ and they could apply for ARCS endorsement of a product that they create or a process that they develop that supports and deepens this component.

Item 2: Fall Splendor by Giselle Martin-Kniep, photographer (11x14, framed)

Item 3: Pure Gold by Giselle Martin-Kniep, photographer (11x14, framed)

To bid on this item, please send an email to office@lciltd.org with your bid and item number by 6 PM, Sunday December 14. Be sure to include contact information. If your bid is successful, you will be notified on Monday, December 15.

Item 3: Pure Gold by Giselle Martin-Kniep, photographer (11x14, framed)

Web Lead form

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Questar III

Below are the links to the handouts and PowerPoint shared on August 5 at Questar III BOCES. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about accessing the files.

Questar III

Below are the links to the handouts and PowerPoint shared on August 5th at Questar III BOCES by Giselle Martin-Kniep. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about accessing the files.

PowerPoint
Handout

donate

Terms and Conditions

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Communities for Learning: Leading lasting changeÂ® owns and operates the Communities for Learning website and web pages that are accessible to the public. Access to the Communities for Learning website is offered to you solely upon condition of your acceptance, without modification, of the terms and conditions of use contained herein (the \"terms and conditions\"). Your accessing, browsing and/or use of any Communities for Learning website constitutes your acceptance of all such terms and conditions.

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The Communities for Learning website may contain links to third party websites (\"linked sites\"). Communities for Learning has no means of control at its disposal for such linked sites and it is not responsible for the contents or availability of any linked site, including without limitation any link contained in a linked site, or any changes or updates to a linked site. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by Communities for Learning of the linked site or any association with its operator. Communities for Learning does not guarantee that a linked site will work appropriately and will not contain computer viruses or other bugs that could harm your Internet-access device.

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Not to use nor allow others to use any Communities for Learning website to gain unauthorized access to facilities or services nor for any activity with any of the following objectives or consequences:

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You may purchase online certain publications and other products as set out on the Communities for Learning website (\"goods\") on the following terms.

After you have completed the electronic order for any of the goods, you are required to visit the Checkout and review your delivery and payment information, clicking the button labeled \"Continue\" to proceed. On the payment information page you are given the opportunity to link to the terms and conditions page. If you do not tick the check box confirming you have read and agreed to the terms and conditions, you cannot proceed with the order process.

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The information, software, products and services included in or available through the Communities for Learning website may include inaccuracies or typographical errors. Communities for Learning: Leading lasting changeÂ® reserves the right to make changes to the Communities for Learning website and to the information therein.

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Below are the links to the handouts and PowerPoint shared on August 25. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about accessing the files.

Surveys

Sustainability

NSDC 2010

Below are the links to the handouts and PowerPoint shared during our NSDC session. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about accessing the files.

Commitment to Expertise	Commitment to Reflection	Commitment to Understanding
$\"expertise_round_small\"$	$\"reflection_round_small\"$	$\"CtoU_round_small\"$
Collegiality	Courage and Initiative	Intellectual Perseverance
$\"coll_round_smal\"$	$\"courage_round_small\"$	$\"IP_round_small\"$

Commitment to Expertise	Commitment to Reflection	Commitment to Understanding
$\"expertise_round_small\"$	$\"reflection_round_small\"$	$\"CtoU_round_small\"$
Collegiality	Courage and Initiative	Intellectual Perseverance
$\"coll_round_smal\"$	$\"courage_round_small\"$	$\"IP_round_small\"$

Commitment to Expertise	Commitment to Reflection	Commitment to Understanding
$\"expertise_round_small\"$	$\"reflection_round_small\"$	$\"CtoU_round_small\"$
Collegiality	Courage and Initiative	Intellectual Perseverance
$\"coll_round_smal\"$	$\"courage_round_small\"$	$\"IP_round_small\"$

Commitment to Expertise	Commitment to Reflection	Commitment to Understanding
$\"expertise_round_small\"$	$\"reflection_round_small\"$	$\"CtoU_round_small\"$
Collegiality	Courage and Initiative	Intellectual Perseverance
$\"coll_round_smal\"$	$\"courage_round_small\"$	$\"IP_round_small\"$

Commitment to Expertise	Commitment to Reflection	Commitment to Understanding
$\"expertise_round_small\"$	$\"reflection_round_small\"$	$\"CtoU_round_small\"$
Collegiality	Courage and Initiative	Intellectual Perseverance
$\"coll_round_smal\"$	$\"courage_round_small\"$	$\"IP_round_small\"$

\r\n \r\n

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