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.
Welcome, Katie. The structure you describe sounds like an excellent way to learn collaboratively and to use learning to fuel more learning; there's heady momentum there! (Blogging can have a similar virtual vibe, in my experience. I met Kathleen S. many years ago, re-connected virtually in the last two years, and now I've dubbed her Inviter-In-Chief for her ability to bring people into this collaborative world.)
ReplyDeleteKatie,
ReplyDeleteI came to find your blog through Two Writing Teachers. I am an Instructional Specialist in suburban Chicago. I love the idea of the Learning Walk. The wheels are already spinning as to how I can implement this in my own school.
Learning Walks are the best PD days that I have! The teachers get the most out of them. They love learning from each other. Keep in mind, that the teachers who participate volunteer. As word spreads more and more teachers look to participate.
DeleteGreat idea! I am a literacy coach in suburban Nebraska. I want to give these Learning Walks a try next year. Keep sharing your great ideas!
ReplyDeleteWere all the teachers who participated in the learning walk also a classroom that was visited? How did you cover the teachers? Subs, principal?
ReplyDeleteYes, the teachers that participated were the rooms that we visited. A Learning Walk works best with five teachers. Therefore, I booked five subs and then we had time to visit each classroom throughout the morning. It's 11 minutes in each room with a 5 minutes hallway debrief before we go into the next room. Then we have a two hour block after lunch to discuss our noticing and wonderings and then plan our next steps for PD. Administrators are not welcomed to participate in a Learning Walk. It is strictly for the teachers.
DeleteI love this idea of a learning walk - what a great way to share best practices!
ReplyDelete