Vision


 * Initial Vision** (drafted September, 2011)

Each GROW cohort will provide faculty members with a set of shared experiences that will broaden and deepen our practices as teachers, inviting us to live more fully the traditional Quaker dimensions of our classrooms while leading us to vibrant experimentalism with new pedagogies emerging through our Teaching and Learning paradigm. Ideally, GROW will model the practices of learning we see as defining a Friends School education.

As we develop this program, we begin with some shared aspirations. Specifically, we intend to


 * Remember that each GROW cohort is a living classroom, organic in its evolution and responsive to the highly individualized needs of all faculty learners;
 * Honor the differences among the disciplines we teach (recognizing that each brings a specific body of pedagogical content knowledge) while keeping these differences in balance with our shared paradigm for teaching and learning;
 * Remain purposefully transparent about the methods and practices we engage as learners in each GROW cohort.

Our development of this program is also guided by some essential questions:


 * How do we design learning experiences that are immediately applicable in ou rclassrooms?
 * How do we design learning experiences that shift our understanding of ourselves as learners?
 * How can we move away from a hierarchical model for learning and develop a truly collaborative model for learning?
 * How will the program help each of us to explore and understand the role of collaborative media and other technologies in our teaching and learning?
 * How can this program be a catalyst for ongoing transformation at Friends School of Baltimore?