The Future of Learning and Sleep-in Mornings - Guest Blogger

Wednesday mornings are beloved by students as “sleep-in days” because classes start at 9 am rather than the usual 8 am. I suspect that we have many Appleby families who assume that it is also a “sleep-in- day” for the teachers. And while faculty may also love Wednesday mornings (okay, okay perhaps a bit of hyperbole there, but they certainly appreciate it,) it is not because of sleeping in, but rather, the hour is provided to them as an opportunity for professional development and collaboration. Each week there is a different focus. One week it may be linked to department meetings dealing with cross-grade initiatives within disciplines, and another may relate to PD around the use of IT in the classroom.

On a regular basis, the Wednesday morning sessions are dedicated to Professional Learning Communities – teams of teachers across divisions and disciplines working on innovative models for learning. These groups meet, share ideas, plan how to implement creative new initiatives, and evaluate them. Some are very practical and others more conceptual.

A couple of Wednesdays ago, some of these were presented in small seminars for all teachers to sample. I was able to stop in to about 6 of them, and was blown away by the variety of initiatives – everything from online learning models, to the modern application of Socratic methods, to exploring how we define inclusivity. They are powerful idea s that will have a great impact of Appleby. Just as importantly, the ability for Appleby to provide this flexibility allows us to attract and keep great teachers. Appleby is a place where very good faculty have the support and opportunity to become even better. As a people-based organization, this is a huge strategic priority and advantage.

I invited Graham Altham-Lewis, our Director of Learning & Teaching Innovation, who is the leader of these programs to guest blog about that session …

 

On 29 May, faculty had the opportunity to share their best practices and projects with other faculty.  Many faculty volunteered to present and we had a mini conference named Faculty Networking Breakfast with 12 different sessions, with faculty choosing three sessions to attend. 

Sessions included:

·       Creating a multi-faceted interdisciplinary projects to both teach the curriculum to Appleby students, and for Appleby students to create a product that will educate other students such as children in hospitals.

·       How collaboration on a creative and contextual assignment grew to include real world and virtual display with twitter, vine and augmented reality.

·       How to use technology within Microsoft one-note to give better feedback for student’s work using video and audio feedback.

·       2 sessions from different perspectives using TIGEd Global platforms to set up virtual classrooms for students to connect with other classes in other countries and learn together.

·       A cross curricular project that combined English and Computer Science with grade 8 students hiring the grade 10 and 11 students and working collaboratively to achieve their interdisciplinary project.

·       Grade 9 ASCENT Project Day; faculty sharing 5 different authentic, collaborative and cross curricular projects that grade 9 students will do one of their choosing during their ASCENT end of grade 9 assessment.

·       Using the software Socrative technology to enrich learning in the classroom; students have reacted very positively to this online platform that allows very quickly to gauge student learning as well as allowing students to collectively create class content.

·       Using the idea of a flipped classroom where content and knowledge is learned at home and in class the more complex problem solving and applications take place.

·        A session about inclusivity and acceptance; following a true story of a boy with Tourette syndrome and how society treats him through his life, and what this means to us at Appleby as we create an inclusive environment for the whole community.

·       How to develop leaders of character and help Captains of sports teams to be deliberately developed; giving all students the opportunity to develop these skills.

The variety of presentations on offer was impressive indeed, and is testament to the creativity, innovation and dedication that the faculty possess to improve the learning experience for our students.  Thank you to all faculty who presented and the feedback from the sessions from other faculty has been extremely positive with faculty learning from their peers!