Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to spend the day with my new twitter friend, Lindsey Own, in her school in Seattle, Washington.  Lindsey and I met on twitter a little while ago and had chatted a bit about Genius Hour.  She told me that she loves visiting other schools and asked if she could come up to mine during her Spring Break.  Of course I said yes, and told her how much I loved visiting other schools as well.  And so I asked if I could visit hers during my Spring Break (thank goodness we have different breaks so we could make this happen). 

If you haven't done this before, you need to try it!  It is a wonderful opportunity!  You learn so much just by observing and chatting with a different set of teachers.  I have been lucky enough to have been able to visit other classrooms several times over the years. 

The highlights:

One of Lindsey's students picked me up from the front office and brought me to her classroom and this is the scene that I walked in on.  Lindsey and a group of her students playing a card game together.  They were chatting and laughing and having a great time.  At first, I was confused...what on earth was going on?  This was science class?  I sat at the side and just watched and realized that it was still before the first period bell.  The children were just warming up for their day.  At Lindsey's school the kids are encouraged to show up 10 minutes before the bell to touch base with their homeroom teacher and get warmed up for their day.  Lindsey uses this time to check in with her students and make a personal connection.  I couldn't stop smiling.  What a wonderful start to their day!

After chatting with Lindsey and touring the school (which included watching the K students get in their daily physical activity by having a little morning dance...so cute), I checked out a math class that is using video games to teach.  Now at first I thought that meant gamification (which I do not know a lot about, but it involves a lot of external rewards, which I try to avoid in my classroom), but I quickly learned that was not what she was doing at all.  Teaching through games is different. The video game she was using, Anti-chamber, is built on problem solving, which related directly to the unit of study in her math class.  Students were engaged, on task and learning.  Very cool.

After math, I checked out a few other classes, and then ended my day back in Lindsey's science class where they were working on their Science Symposium (like a Science Fair without ribbons).  I was drawn to the windows in her classroom as they had post-it notes all over them.  I asked her about them, and she explained how they began their science inquiry unit with a discussion about deep questions.  They looked at google-able questions and questions that required more in-depth analysis and which would make a better science project.

This is something I also spend a great deal of time on with my students.  Not only in Science class, but also in Language Arts, when we ask our students to ask meaningful questions of the texts that we read.  We don't want our students asking surface level questions that they can easily look up the answer to, but rather we want them to dig deeper and come up with questions that require deep thought, critical thinking, and perhaps experimentation to solve.

I loved this post-it note activity and it is definitely something I am going to 'steal' from my visit.  And that is what is so wonderful about these, as Lindsey puts it, "cross-pollination" visits...we can step into someone else's world, look at their classroom and units and 'steal' brilliant ideas.  

When we are beginner teachers, we are told to "beg, borrow and steal" lesson plans from our colleagues.  But I worry that once we gain experience, too many people stop this practice because their filing cabinets are now full of ideas and they don't have to 'shop around' anymore.  But then we risk losing something so incredible...that conversation with our colleagues, both in and out of our own schools.  

I love visiting...I love wandering the halls of my own school and checking out what everyone is doing and I love visiting other schools.  Thank goodness for spring break, professional development days, and a principal who will cover my class so that I get these opportunities.  Thank goodness for twitter, youtube, blogs, pinterest and all the other online platforms I use to connect with other educators.   

Thank you Lindsey and everyone at your lovely school for inviting me into your precious learning space.  I can't wait for you to visit my school!

This blog entry was inspired by Ben Wilkoff's vlog below.  I watched it a few weeks ago and have been thinking about it since. 

Ben talks about how lucky he feels when he is within a school and he mentions those "moments when you hear someone say aha!" Those moments really are amazing!  I feel so lucky to be with the learners in my class and in my school, especially when I am a part of those aha moments.  It truly is amazing to watch someone learn something new, to see that look in their eyes when the connection is made, when they have created something new, or when they are proud of themselves for a job well done.  
Take a look at Ben's vlog:

"Those moments are real".  What a great line, Ben.  They are real.  Real and amazing and sometimes we get so used to them we forget to stop and treasure them.  We need to take pause in those moments though, and really recognize how wonderful they are.

I LOVE being a teacher and I LOVE being in school...spending time with children and helping them find their passions, explore their wonders is...well, it is just amazing!  I am so grateful.

A few weeks ago, I found out that I was successful in my application to be an FA at Simon Fraser University.  I am so excited to spend time with pre-service teachers and am looking forward to the new experience, but I do worry that I will miss being in my own elementary school.  I will miss being with my little group of 10-12 year olds when they get their first blog comment from outside of Canada, when they begin their first Genius Hour project or when they discover the strategy that works for them in Math.

My secondment starts in August and so I will have to soak in every moment with my students until then!  Thank you for this vlog post, Ben.  It is a good reminder to treasure our experiences in school and to remember that we are indeed fortunate to be able to work with these amazing, inspiring young minds.

So, in response to Ben's original question: "I feel lucky to be within a school.  Do you?"  The answer is YES!  And thank goodness I will still be in and out of schools regularly with my new position!

Why do you feel lucky when you are in a school?

Every couple of weeks, we get a new topic with #etmooc a recent one was about the meaning behind the buzz words like digital literacy, media literacy...you know what I mean...

I thought a lot about it...what does it mean to me?  And is it important?  And why?

And I realized that my whole transformation as an educator is because of my digital literacy.  Two years ago I began a quest to improve as an educator.  I wanted to take my teaching to the next level.  I thought that meant integrating technology and so that is what I aimed to do...I was going to be a fabulous teacher because I was going to do all kinds of awesome, techy things with my class!  I signed up for twitter, registered for the ITDA program at SFU and started this blog.  And amazing things happened.  I became more digitally literate, but more importantly, I met all of YOU -- I became a connected educator. 

And so, I think what I have come to realize, is that it is not digital literacy that makes us better and stronger educators (people?) but it is the amazing connections that we can now make because of our digital literacy that is really more important.  

Thoughts?

3.  Passionate people are successful people.  Students need time to find their passions.  I am amazed by how many of my students struggle to communicate what their passions really are.  They need time to explore their wonders (and often need some guidance with this too) so that they can figure out what they love to do.

2.  Inquiry based learning.  During Genius Hour students form inquiry questions to investigate.  Being able to ask questions is a key competency that we need to develop in students.

1.  Teaches resilience.  Students will fail during Genius Hour.  And they will problem solve and figure out another way to look at the problem.  We need to reinforce this learning strategy and Genius Hour is the perfect time for this.

BONUS: 
***Genius Hour is FUN.  In a survey I did with my class last year, most students listed Genius Hour as one of the top things we did that year!***

Did I miss anything?  What would you add to this list?