Professional Learning Environments

As Professional Learning Leaders it it important to understand how the environment and space can influence the people in the space. From the space where we conduct workshops to the classrooms we teach in the furniture, the lighting and the temperature all can affect us. From the book The Third Teacher we understand how important it is to pay attention to these external influences.

Here is an e-classroom that I often teach in as it exists today:

Here is the e-classroom with some minor modifications to help enhance the student experience:

I often think about the way we can better use furniture in our educational spaces. This video makes me think that anything is possible.

http://bcove.me/2w8j4t9y

Reflection:

In the last few years, I have begun to modify my professional developments to include more engagement and activities to explore the topic without me just taking all the time. This lends itself to less sage on the stage and more guide on the side. I am modeling the approach that I hope they will use in their classrooms. I listened to a Ken Robinson talk a few years ago and he talked about planting the seed and we are the gardeners and we need to nurture the seed to help it grow in the he minds of our students. We never really know the potential of that nurturing, but we need to do it anyway. I always try, especially in adult learners, to plant the seed and let them grow during the professional development. I find that this helps the idea form and they can form their own thoughts and ideas about the topic. This is great because they come to the conclusions themselves and take ownership of them. This fosters the next step of helping the teachers make the transition of thinking about letting their students engage in the same process. This is a complex idea. Teachers often find that it is difficult to teach in a new way. We tend to teach the way we learned, breaking this cycle is intentional and purposeful. That is my motivation.