Reimagining Teaching and Learning: Designing Implementation Plans

<p>Bob Maxfield and Suzanne Klein spoke with Larry Thomas, facilitator of the Galileo Institute’s professional learning series on Re-imagining Teaching and Learning, to reflect on the workshops as well as hear his perspective on the challenges facing educators moving forward.  Fourteen school district teams of teachers and administrators attended the six-session series, with Oakland University School of Education and Human Services faculty and Intermediate School District leadership staff serving as thought partners. Utilizing the topics of rebuilding trusting relationships, quality instruction, equity, technology, and systems thinking, teams assessed what would be helpful to their educational systems, their schools, their classrooms and most importantly, for their students and their families during the workshops and in the follow up conversations back in the districts.</p><p><strong>Rebuilding Relationships and Trust</strong> - Relationship building was an underlying theme in the design of the series.  Trust is at the center of quality relationships; consequently, relationships among teachers, students, parents, administration and community were focal points of the discussions resulting in the collaborative development of strategies to address and strengthen these relationships. Participants worked to develop a sense of community and supportive networks beyond their current district or county.  Series facilitator Larry Thomas, introduced the use of noteworthy cards to promote acknowledgement and affirmation among participants for contributions that sparked new thinking or further reflection. </p><p><strong>Learning v. Schooling </strong>- Session two challenged teams to examine current pedagogy, offering the opportunity to make some changes to the system to increase student motivation and ownership of their learning. The guest facilitator, teacher Grayson McKinney, brought a broad spectrum of instructional practices which underscored the importance of deep learning, relevancy and application through project base