Let's start with the end.

WHAT WE WANT... For a moment, let's let "we" mean educators and students. All players in the K-12 educational system--students, teachers, principals, support personnel, et al.--want two things that are intuitively human:
-successful supported learning
-choice and autonomy in the learning journey

FROM A SCHOOL SYSTEM ... These two human traits would thrive in a school system that supports all participants as learners who when well-supported, want to make, can make, and will make good decisions about their learning choices.

IS TO BE THOUGHT OF AS LEARNERS... We are talking about students and teachers in the same breath. Arguably, educators are "grown-up" students still learning and honing their identity in relation to others--and students are developing "teachers" (... parents to-be, active citizens-to-be, etc.) -- exercising authority and power in countless indistinguishable ways. Read more about students as learners and teachers http://ow.ly/xuNZl. Students and teachers are not so different after all. Young and old are learning and choice-making. Read more about self-determination theory (SDT) in students http://ow.ly/xuOGd and in teachers http://ow.ly/xuPDa (p. 19) to decide the extent of the similarities between teachers and students with respect to autonomy, self-efficacy ...

WITH UNIQUE NEEDS... There is another challenging but delightful condition of human nature: everyone learns in different ways and at different rates. This is where the practical stuff comes in.

REQUIRING COORDINATION... Coordinated planning is needed in well-supported learning and choice-making systems. Choice and autonomy are real when there are meaningful and authentic choices and autonomy to be had--and systemic opportunities to practice choice-making and independence. This deck is mostly about teacher learning--albeit inspired by desirable student and citizen outcomes. Read more about how "choice is good, but relevance is excellent" http://ow.ly/xuQl0.

AND GOOD PLANNING... As long as there are institutions called schools, there will likely be coordinated professional learning for teachers. The question is the extent and depth of reflective, responsive, intentional forward-looking, backward-planned coordination.

ESPECIALLY FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING... This deck closely highlights Thomas R. Guskey's wisdom in his May 2014 Educational Leadership article entitled, "Planning Professional Learning." Here is the link to this current article
http://ow.ly/xmWuq.

YOU SHOULD KNOW... The author of this HaikuDeck interprets Guskey's ideas through an educational renewal lens in a jurisdiction that decidedly favors competencies. Competencies would be defined as the "know-act response" of a citizen being able to respond to multiple contexts by mobilizing and combining available resources with the appropriate attitudes, motivations, knowledge, and skills. Read more about competencies at http://ow.ly/xmW0P (WNCP Guiding Principles, 2011). Competencies are further contextualized in another HaikuDeck entitled, "Deep Learning". See it at http://ow.ly/xmVPT

THAT YOU HAVE A CHOICE TO GO FORWARD into the heart of Guskey's ideas--to go to the next slide--or continue reading more below about the Northwest Territories' journey with competencies.

OR LINGER... In the Northwest Territories of Canada, a government process is underway called Education Renewal and Innovation--or Ed Renewal for short. Learn more http://ow.ly/xmWcP. At the heart of this process is the attention education is paying to the qualities or capabilities of a competent citizen throughout an individual's lifespan. K-12 is just one part of a person's lifelong learning journey and definitely must do its part. In the spirit of Thomas Guskey, we should start with the most complex thinking first when we think of building professional capacity in education--by starting with the end. "End product" from an educational renewal perspective is the qualities or "competencies" of a capable person--not just a K-12 student. In effect this deck, standing on Guskey's shoulders, asks first, what are the competencies required of a Northern educational professional? Again, this question grows out of Guskey's position that you need to know what learner outcomes you desire in the end--and start with them at the beginning.

AND LOOK ACROSS THE FIELD... Considering competencies with such umbrellic significance, places professional capacity building in a field vitally related to other significances: learning environments, government curriculum and local programming with it, student and teacher health, the development of what competencies are required, ... Advisedly, teacher learning lives in an ecosystem of interdependencies that increasingly requires leaders to look across the field. Education systems are starting to talk of repatriating the pieces and parts.

TO SEE YOURSELF AS BOTH A STUDENT & TEACHER CITIZEN... This deck is prepared especially for grown-up students called teachers--learners who have power over and responsibility to younger learners. Let's start with five big adjectives. Intentionally ...