As I sit and write my blog today, I can hear our new student kitchen. I can hear banging and crashing, I can hear instructions being given, and I can hear the buzz of learning. What I love about hearing this is the buzz is about the cooking lesson, but it is also about so much more. The students who are cooking right now are learning about weighing and measuring, kitchen safety and hygiene, collaborating with others, giving and receiving feedback about their work, how to behave safely outside of the classroom, where their food comes from and probably a number of other incidental things throughout their time in the kitchen.
It is this learning buzz that we teachers thrive off. We are skilled at reading the buzz, about identifying where there is learning and where there is not, how to ask just the right question to take the learning in a different direction, when to leave the students alone to work things out for themselves. A busy and lively classroom is a classroom of students who are engaged and excited about learning; as teachers, this is what we look for and what we love about our jobs.
And as teachers, we love learning as well; I would say we are lifelong learners. We are constantly honing our craft, learning new techniques, tweaking old ones, trying out what is best for our students. My new role here as the leader of Professional Learning at BISC-LP is about guiding this learning, making sure we can understand and determine the impact of our new learning. We read research, we invite external experts in, but most of all, we learn from each other. Here at BISC-LP, we have a wealth of experience and expertise amongst our amazing staff. By sharing best practice with each other, watching each other, talking and trialing new things with each other, we know that we are ensuring that we are giving our students the very best experiences they can have, experiences that help them to achieve and succeed. And by demonstrating to our students that we are lifelong learners, we can encourage them to be the same, to be the very best that they can be.
-Sarah Pearce, Assistant Head- Professional Learning