Learn

Day 23 of #btbc16
Learn

     I found this awesome little sign at the Target dollar spot this week, which happened to be the week that most of my summer PD sessions fell.  They had one that said TEACH, and one that said LEARN.  And, as I was preparing for those sessions, I definitely felt myself learning as I prepared to teach.  Isn't that the goal we can have for ourselves as teachers?  It was $3, but sends such a great message.

Teachers are learners.  

All the time.  

     Every student, every coworker, every article, even every mistake we make, helps us learn something new.   I love that about our profession.

     This week, I got to spend my time with dedicated teachers who gave up time in their summer to learn something new.   That's a pretty phenomenal way to spend some time.  

(Don't worry, I have been doing lots of summer things, too.)

     My first session was on Balanced Literacy.  Teachers and admins discussed the "balance" in Balanced Literacy, and then we looked at each possible component and what those pieces could contribute to our literacy plates in the classroom.  

     My next session was on Sketchnoting in the Classroom.  I channeled Mike Rohde and we practiced some sketchnoting skills before we made some sketch notes ourselves.

     Next up was a session of Differentiation.  This was a thoughtful group, ready to take on the work of Carol Ann Tomlinson.  We know that differentiation is a long term way of thinking, not just a set of strategies,  and we sure got ourselves thinking about our students and their needs.

     My last session for the week was on the new ISBE Social Science Standards, this time paired with +Rachel Letizia.  We talked about the standards, and inquiry, and challenged our participants to change the narrative by adding social studies into their classrooms.  Thanks, Rachel, for all your ideas and help!

     I also had the pleasure of working with some talented middle school ELA teachers as they come together across two schools to work on Single Point Rubrics.  They unpacked the standards, and we worked to get their curriculum map ready for 2016-17.  I don't have a picture of them, but they were pretty awesome to work with.  I'll just call them Team Awesome.

Teachers learn, even in the summer.  

Thanks to all who chose to learn alongside me this week.

Thanks, +Sue Butler, for getting the Summer Sched up and going this first week of #d100PD, with a  shout out to +Jennifer Boyajian for keeping us all organized in the process!