I am the Literacy Coach at Saltzman East Memorial Elementary School in Farmingdale. I am a wife, mother, marathon runner and lover of learning. I am blessed to work in a district that supports my love of learning; even more blessed to work in a building of teachers who are the kindest people I know!
Every day I get to work with amazing teachers who want to get better at their craft. My room is a think tank for learning! Today was one such day...
We had a follow-up learning day to a Learning Walk. A Learning Walk is a particular type of professional development day that we participate in here in Farmingdale. Learning Walks are opportunities for the teachers to learn from each other. We visit each other's classrooms looking at student learning and teacher lessons. The teachers develop a focus question - something that they want to study together. For example, What evidence is there that the students are writing with stamina, engagement, and volume? This idea came from a teacher who wanted to study Writing Workshop. I shared her idea with our colleagues, and others quickly wanted to be a part of our walk. A Learning Walk consists of no more than five teachers, and we follow specific protocols as we visit each other's classrooms.
After we share our 'noticings' and 'wonderings' about what we saw in each other's rooms, we decide upon a topic to study further. These teachers decided they wanted to read DIY Literacy by Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts and create demonstration notebooks. We spent the day watching the DIY Literacy videos and diving into their book. It was such a great day of sharing ideas and learning from each other.
