Why I Champion This Model

Photo by Brands&People. on Unsplash

It’s the anniversary of my “new” career. The anniversary of my stepping away from the classroom to spread the news and this concept to anyone who will listen. For a year, I’ve been saying, “There’s another way,” and “we were never meant to do this alone!” Teaching is a complex beast, and as your summer holiday winds to an end, some of you are probably feeling the pangs of anxiety rising inside you as you imagine another year of school–alone, carrying every decision, every problem, with no balance in your life. 

I hear you.

I see you.

And I want to tell you what changed for me and why I’m trying to help.

What Changed

Over my twenty years in education, the demands have only grown — individualized learning, social-emotional needs, and the focus on educating soft skills. Add this on top of imparting knowledge, standardized testing, AI, online learning, political tensions, climate change, VUCA, student autonomy, and self-directed learning, and the weight is too heavy for one person to carry. 

Teachers, after all, are human and miss things. But a learning community is designed to combat this. More eyes on every student. 

And when I made this shift in my practice, I haven’t looked back. I know I can’t do it all, I checked my ego at the classroom door, and I invited others to work with me for the benefit of the students.

My Conversion

I didn't start out believing this. Teacher's college taught me the opposite. It taught me to think of school as the way in which I learned — one classroom, one teacher, kids meeting only at recess or a quarterly assembly. An elementary classroom running as a silo was the belief I began my career with, but a shared office space at a small school in Indonesia opened my eyes. Because Maureen and I shared an office space between two classrooms, it was easy to ask questions, ponder solutions, and have blue-sky conversations about a student neither of us could reach alone: "Well, maybe you could."

The accidental ease of talk evolved into shared teaching. And a few years later, the contrast was stark. I moved to a team in South Africa that was twice the size. I lost shared space, and the job started feeling hard again. It was proof that community isn't automatic, isn’t naturally built into schools, and it is worth creating. 

Which I did. ...and it worked!

My Quiet Takeaway

It starts with asking one trusted colleague. If your school isn’t there yet, then you are not trying to orchestrate a full community, just a mini-collaborative group of neighbors who share a common belief. Spend time building a clear shared vision with two or three people first, and invite others to join when they see how it might benefit them and “their” students.

If more elementary teams worked this way, students would have their needs met, and fewer teachers would burn out of the profession. 

People would keep loving the job.

I'm not alone in believing this — here's what some others have to say on the topic:

Learning Communities are Built Through Relationships, Not Walls: How the learning community model succeeds because isolation is intentionally dismantled.

Four Research-Based Solutions to Alleviate Teacher Burnout: How collective efficacy around personal/professional growth and collaboration can help reverse teacher burnout.

An examination of teacher collaboration in professional learning communities and collaborative teaching practices: A study that examined teacher collaboration within professional learning communities, focusing on teachers' professional growth and student academic achievement.

How education has changed in the last 20 years: The evolution of school workplace culture and leadership evolution.

Note: This post was edited with AI as an assistant to refine structure and readability. My ideas, voice, and words remain intact.