Becoming a NOVICE LEARNER for a day!

Yesterday, after some careful planning and logistical tap-dancing, our full faculty enjoyed a home-grown professional learning day focused on passions. Teachers were invited to offer presentations on something they were passionate about to their colleagues.

Here's the list of what we had to choose from:

• iMovie Basics

• Planning and Integrated Inquiry Unit

• Sharing gratitude

• Maximizing SmartBoard use with Notebook Software

• Introduction to Lego Robotics

• Cooking: Chinese Dumplings

• Supportive and Investigative Teaching

• Woodshop - Build yourself a stand!

• Learn to Tie Asian Knots

• Basic Drawing & Shading

• Coaching the Mental Game

• Tech-Infused Formative Assessment

• EAL Resource Website

• Strength training and conditioning

• Photography 101

• Cooking: Unrefined Sweets

• Fitness Room 101 - Strength and Resistance Training for Beginners

• Photoshop Basics

• Let's Bboy (and Bgirl)

• Juggling 101  

• Pumping Up Our Reading Culture

• Jazz Dance Routine

It was one of the best days of Professional Learning I have participated in in nearly 25 years of working in schools!

For the first time this year, every teacher in the building was truly transported into the role of the student. The NOVICE learner. The student who truly knows very, very little about the topic and is expected to listen, learn and demonstrate their understanding at the end of the day.

There was struggle! For the life of me, I just could not fold those Chinese dumplings right. Too much filling. Not enough filling. Clumsy fingers. Ugly Jiaozi!

There were teachers who for the first time were donning protective eyewear as they ran lengths of timber through a table saw. Noise. Fear. Danger. Sawdust. Triumph! The look of satisfaction on the faces of those same teachers who left with a wooden creation of their own making was so inspiring!

There were teachers who had always wished they could juggle but had never taken the time to try, standing up at the end of the day to perform feats of juggling for their peers! The balls were dropping left right and center but the smiles were so big that everyone in the audience cheered!

And there were teachers breakdancing. Yep, BREAKDANCING!

The juggling was led by an English teacher. The Woodworking was led by the Elementary Principal. The Fitness Conditioning was led by the Kindergarten teacher. The Jazz Dance was led by a Korean teacher. The Lego Robotics was led by the Biology teacher. The Breakdancing was led by the Chaplain!

It was truly inspiring to see so many of my colleagues stand in front of their peers and teach something they truly love doing, that previously we had no idea they knew anything about. I mean, a breakdancing Chaplain!!!

So what are the takeaways from the day???

• Any school can run a day like this - your colleagues have secret talents!

• For a teacher, becoming a NOVICE LEARNER for a day is a very, very valuable perspective shift

• Our culture of learning just received an enormous boost

• Professional learning is as much about "the act of learning" as it is about what is learned

• Smiles. Everyone left smiling!