Learning Lounge – PD The Relaxing Way
On a Sunday afternoon in early winter, you walk through the front door of your local bookstore. As you warm your hands and stomp the fresh snow off your feet, you glance around the store at your fellow patrons: a teenager curled up in a comfy chair reading a book, two men eagerly leaning over a laptop critiquing the contents on the screen, and a group of women actively engaged in a quick-paced debate. Each of these individuals, of course, with a delightful beverage in-hand.
This cozy scene framed within in a bookstore truly encapsulates an authentic learning environment. The individuals in the store have identified conditions where they can discuss, collaborate, and decompress. While educators have come a long way in their approach to professional development (perhaps fueled most heavily by the Edcamp movement), district facilitated PD is predominately sit-and-get and, almost always, leaves teachers feeling overwhelmed – the antithesis of the bookstore feel. Enter the Learning Lounge.
I was introduced to the Learning Lounge approach by Michele James and Dennine Leschinsky. The pair are passionate about providing educators learning opportunities that not only model best practice for the classroom, but ensure participants leave with a new idea or a solution to a problem. The tenets of a Learning Lounge are simple:
- No formal presentations
- Turn key ideas
- Relaxed atmosphere
- Food. There should always be food.
While I have helped plan several Learning Lounges over the years, the positive feel and feedback from our December 2017 event makes it stand out and I want to share our process.
Discover What Your Learners Need
Prior to designing the event, the planning team sent out a quick survey with the prompt: “I would like to learn more about…” We were able to sort the survey responses into five main themes, which became our stations for the Learning Lounge.
This year’s themes: Mindfulness, Digital Literacy, Inquiry & PBL, Blended Learning, and Assessment & Feedback.
Inquiry-based Engagement
In a true inquiry experience, learners have the opportunity to create their own questions about a topic. We are in the process of developing a culture of curiosity in our organization, so we felt we needed to differentiate. Some of our colleagues already expressed specific wonderings they were interested in exploring during this time. For the rest, we developed a few guiding questions, in an effort to frame their learning experience. You can view a full list of our questions here.
Learners visiting the Learning Lounge could choose to explore just one question or multiple questions, and they decided on a valuable length of their stay.
Focus On People First
The Learning Lounge is really about putting people first and creating an environment where they can be comfortable learning. Since this year’s planning team was fairly large, we were able to divide among the stations and engage with our colleagues. This allowed us to have differentiated conversations and provide ideas, resources, and conversations, based on individual questions.
In the past, I have facilitated Learning Lounges independently. In that situation, I integrated technology tools to flip some of the resources, so visitors could interact with a video or personal exploration, while I was in conversation with another learner. This year we created a Google Site to organize our resources and materials.
Don’t Forget The Food
Since our Learning Lounge took place right before winter break, the planning team created a “Mix Your Own Hot Chocolate” station. Paired with yummy cookies, the whole situation was delightful!
What are some ways you personalize professional learning experiences in your school or organization?
More questions about our 2017 Lights in the Learning Lounge event? Check out the pictures below and feel free to reach out to myself or a member of the planning team!
2017 Planning Team:
Molly Magro – Librarian
Denise Brosky – Instructional Specialist
Heather Moser – Technology Integration Specialist
Mike Kelly – Principal
In addition, two teachers brand new to our building led our Mindfulness station:
Kelly Snow – Eyer Guidance
Laura Atwater – Eyer 7th Grade ELA
