Dean of Teaching and Learning Joanna McDonough walks us through a recent learning opportunity for faculty in her latest Deans' Den Blog post:
During the faculty’s first day back from Spring Break on March 26, Brooks School’s teachers had a chance to learn from one another.
Dean of Faculty Tim Benson and I asked a few colleagues to present something exciting that they are doing in their class and connect it to our school-wide competencies: communication, creativity and innovation, critical thinking, problem solving and analysis, collaboration, learning agency and social justice responsibility. Teachers broke into four groups that each rotated among classrooms in the academic building every 30 minutes to hear from, and workshop with, their colleagues.
First up for my group was Director of Theater Meghan Hill (above on left). The theater teacher led a handful of us in a collaborative, circuit-building exercise that highlighted all of our school competencies. Hill had her colleagues laughing and playing along, learning about each other along the way.
Our next stop was Director of Computer Science Craig Gorton’s classroom (above). He took us through a coding sequence that I admit had us puzzled at times! Critical thinking and problem solving were at the heart of the lesson and we needed a bit of creativity, too, to get the computer to draw what we wanted.
After a short stroll upstairs to Science Teacher Leo Lafond’s class space (below), we continued our learning with a mini-seminar on teaching students study skills. He shared some best practices for student reflections in the Manage One’s Learning (MOL) skill — within the Learning Agency competency — for his chemistry classes.
Lafond was part of a project team a few years ago that developed our current all-school MOL rubric that is utilized across academic disciplines in all classes. He shared with us ways he helps students “learn how they learn best.”
Our final stop was with History Teacher Laila McCain, presenting for her session in a classroom nearby. McCain (below on left), who also serves as an admission counselor at Brooks, shared her Top 10 activities from the AP United States Government course she teaches. She gave examples of activities she utilizes in that course to help students think critically, including her personal favorite: the “SCOTUS debates, cases, discussions and dilemmas” project.
Her presentation ended with a four-corners exercise that got members of our group up, moving and discussing issues with one another.
This internal professional development time was a great way to begin the final stretch of the spring together. I am always so impressed with the way my colleagues intentionally plan and execute lessons to promote student learning, critical thinking and reflection. I was thrilled that we all had the opportunity to learn from one another and I know I’ll be incorporating a few things from this day into my own classes!