A few years ago, my school decided that the first Friday of every month would be Gladiator Forum Friday. From 12-4pm anyone trained as a facilitator (this is done in-house by our Learning & Development team) can present on a topic of their choice, staff can then attend any session they choose. It's a great way to share expertise among the staff, especially since we are spread out all over the state of Colorado.
Each Forum Friday finds a myriad of choices for paras, teachers, councilors, admin etc. For example, just today there were sessions on the following topics: project based learning, instructional videos (3 different sessions focused on 3 separate areas of making videos), SIOP (EL student support - 2 sessions on 2 different topics), digital body language, Microsoft apps support and learning, suicide training, and medication delegation.
Each month I end up facilitating at least 1 session if not more, and try to attend at least 1 session. The staff has such a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, and on-going learning to share!
After one of my sessions today I was looking at the feedback that 2 people had already left for my colleague and me. We presented on how to integrate numeracy into all content areas. The question was: What aspects of the learning helped you the most in learning what was taught?
So here is to all my colleagues, past and present, that have helped to shape my outlook on teaching and who continue to guide me in improving my skills on a monthly (and sometimes weekly and sometimes daily) basis! Cheers!
