Too often it seems as educators we find ourselves “at the mercy” of professional development that is last minute, impersonal, and of which we are just passive recipients.  One of the things I admire most about the work that colleagues Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson have done is that they’ve “taken the reins” of professional development, so to speak, by creating their PLP (Powerful Learning Practices) professional development venture.

Realizing the problems in terms of professional growth with one-time PD opportunities, they created a model that embedded professional development within a district with groups of teacher cadres who worked together throughout a year, not only forming a nearby physical network, but learning to network with others beyond their environment as well.  And recently they’ve expanded their venture to provide e-courses and learning opportunities for administrators as well.   One of the best things about their work is that it is so grounded in their philosophy that we need to be preparing students of the next century to be passionate self-learners, and that we as educators need to learn alongside them.

Now they have started a new venture,  one to enhance the voice of passionate educators around the globe, called Powerful Learning Press — a new publishing venture that will highlight the voices of  real, on the ground educators.   PLP Press will be publishing works written by you about the work that you do–and you will retain the copyright to your work.

It’s profound that their press is going to give a voice to the many educators around the country who are doing such good work.   It seems such a struggle at times to get those “real” voices heard out in the news cycle, education fields, and policy arenas.  Having this venue will give real educators the opportunity to share their expertise, but also to potentially impact policy decisions and beyond.

As Will Richardson says on their website: ““Since our inception…our goal at Powerful Learning Practice has been to help bring a different lens for learning to classrooms around the globe.”   Hearing from teacher-learners is a different lens much needed.

Seeing over the arc of the last few years how educators across the networked community have “grown” their work to have larger scale impact has been such a powerful experience for me.   I”m so excited to follow this new venture (and hopefully to write for them myself).

Check out their writing page, and think about what your voice can contribute!