The Mobilities of Teachers' Professional Learning Communities as Supporters of the Development of Tartu Jaan Poska Gymnasium

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The upper secondary school Tartu Jaan Poska Gymnasium (henceforth JPG) values creativity, innovation and digital learning, which is supported by the use of digital devices at school. The aim is to give special attention to providing individual approaches to students and supporting students with special educational needs, including the needs of gifted students. JPG is continually searching for new ways for achieving these goals and, thus, in January 2019, the school initiated the project "The Professional Learning Communities of JPG" (henceforth "PLC"). All the teachers and a group of student representatives at JPG are involved in the project and the ultimate goal of the PLCs is collaborative learning and the development of the teaching staff with the advancement of the school and supporting the students in mind. The areas of improvement for the PLCs stem directly from "Tartu Jaan Poska Gymnasium Development Plan until 2021" and in the long run will provide the basis for the writing process of JPG's new development plan which will focus more on the acquisition of the general competences, cross-curricular integration, project-based learning and international relationships. The more specific goals of the PLCs are cross-curricular approaches to teaching and collaboration, teachers' emotional intelligence, students' learning motivation, improving media competence, and collaboratively creating a new elective course across different subject areas.

The goal of the current mobility project "The Mobilities of Teachers' Professional Learning Communities as Supporters of the Development of Tartu Jaan Poska Gymnasium" (01.08.2019-31.07.2022) is to support the PLC project at JPG. The priority areas are collaborative learning, improving cooperation, utilising coaching techniques, supporting students in accordance with their individual needs, advancing inquiry-based learning and the use of ICT tools. The theme that unites all the mobilities is the establishment and continuation of international relations with various institutions. The school gives considerable attention to activities directed outside the school and to involving the community. In order to reach those goals, the school actively engages its alumni, the parents of students and other education establishments. International collaboration is also actively pursued by hosting European colleagues.

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Six teachers will take part in the current Erasmus+ project by attending six different training events in Ireland, Italy, Iceland and Portugal. One of the participants is the coordinator of the faculty of foreign languages at JPG and the other participants are teachers of various subjects at JPG. Five PLCs were created within the school development project in JPG and there is at least one member from each of the PLCs taking part in the Erasmus+ project. The main activities during the project are teachers' transnational mobility activities. The partners of Tartu Jaan Poska Gymnasium in this project will be Europass SRL, Istituto per la Formazione l‘Occupazione e la Mobilita’, PMS Erasmus Plus (PMSE+) and Erasmus Learning Academy SRL. After each mobility there will be teacher-to-teacher training sessions where the participating teacher can share their experiences, acquired skills and obtained materials with the entire staff. All the collected materials will also be made accessible to the staff in the study information system Stuudium. The wider public will have the chance to learn about the main takeaways of the mobilities through the school's official webpage (at www.jpg.tartu.ee) or the school's social media pages.

The expected effects of the project correspond to the aims of the JPG development plan on a broader scale and to the achievement of each of the PLCs' goals on a narrower scale. After their respective mobilities, the participants will give their colleagues guidelines on how project-based learning, ICT-tools and methods improving communication, collaboration and motivation will help to unite the school community, make the learning process more effective, support the individual development of each student, and improve the motivation and emotional wellbeing of the students. Generally, the result will be a more unified school community, where there will be collaboration between highly motivated teachers and students, the latter of whom will appreciate the better emotional support, greater learning motivation and broadened learning opportunities offered by the school. In the long run, the benefit of the mobility project lies in fulfilling the aims of the school development plan and implementing various new innovative practices befitting the school. JPG will achieve the wide-spread and goal-oriented application of ICT-tools in the classroom and by supporting inquiry- based learning, the school will hold steadfast to the ideas of the flipped classroom and project-based learning. One important result of the mobility project will be JPG's advancement of international relations.

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