A School's Professional Journal: A Tool Promoting a Culture of Collaboration and EfficacyBy Jim Pliner, Principal, Oregon High School Elevating and celebrating staff voice is important in establishing a collaborative culture that is focused on learning for both students and staff. One such vehicle is a professional journal written by staff members at Oregon High School. In early April, OHS released the third edition of Forward magazine. The articles focus on the work that is being done at Oregon High School to forward our Theory of Action. They illustrate our values in action and are a wonderful way to learn from the experiences of our colleagues. As we learn more about each other’s practices, we grow closer as a community and are more and more convinced that the experts we need to improve are in our midst. The project itself models the collaboration that we value so much. Our instructional coaches, Brad Breunig and Andrea Anderson work with staff who wish to develop their ideas and practices into a piece for publication. The coaches help with the editing process and then pass the articles to, principal, Jim Pliner for layout in MS Publisher. The journal goes through several stages of development before being published by a local print company. We then have a release party with discussion protocols that are structured in a “meet the author” format. The discussions are rich and affirming. The work that we are committed to here at OHS is always focused on “better”. This is one way in which we continue to shine a light on our learning community and celebrate the journey that we’re on together. Forward! |