The second cohort of The Educators’ Cooperative met at USN from June 12 – 16, 2017, only a couple weeks after the last days of school. This new cohort of nearly 30 extraordinary educators from schools all over Nashville worked together to find solutions to real instructional dilemmas, experience the joy and learning found in the design thinking practice, share their insights, experiences, questions, and perspectives in an unconference, participate in a discussion with local mindfulness-in-education leaders, and create small discussion groups across all school types, disciplines, grades, and experience.
Fifty Cooperative teachers are now plugged into an active network of support and development with access to other like-minded professionals working in classrooms all over the city. To foster the type of trust required to expose vulnerabilities, seek support, share best practices, and create working groups focused on tackling specific issues and topics, we meet for an intense week-long workshop in the summer. Click here to learn more about what teachers do in the week-long summer Cooperative workshop.
Once the week is over, Cooperative teachers enter the second phase of the Cooperative: monthly meetings in schools all over the city and online conversations, continued connection, and support. Cooperative teachers share resources, provide professional support, and share experiences and best practices in teaching and learning in a private online workspace. Sometimes that’s seeking information and resources for planning a lesson or activity while other times it’s sharing a success from the day or week. We also meet monthly for coffee and conversations in schools in neighborhoods all over Nashville. Click here to learn more about the Cooperative’s continuing collaboration and support throughout the school year.
Many Nashville principals, division heads, department chairs, professors from local universities, and education leaders came to see it all for themselves and were full of questions and interest in what they were seeing. Cooperative teachers appreciate the access to the experience and perspectives of the profession all over the city, and principals are grateful for the new avenue of teacher leadership the Cooperative provides. Plans for thoughtful, continued growth are strengthened by the connections and support from all over the city.
Applications for the 2018-2019 school year will be accepted starting on Dec 1, 2017. We will be accepting 32 teachers in the Cooperative.