Today several of our staff and some visitors from the District visited some classes. The process is called a Learning Walk. It is a similar process to what you might think of as Medical Rounds.
The idea is for a team of people to visit a number of classes with a specific objective or theme. It could be posted Learning Targets or Instructional Modality or use of Technology. The team stays in the room for 10-15 minutes. In some cases members of the team by talk with a student. Then the team leaves the room and debriefs prior to moving on to the next room.
In the process of the Learning Walk the team may visit 4 or 5 rooms. Today there were five teams visiting 4 different rooms. In a short period of time a group of people can observe several rooms. At a specified time, the teams return to the conference area and reviewing the learnings and wonderings of the walks.
The purpose is to general a tone or conception about what is going on in the building around the specific identified theme. This could lead to other questions, suggestions for professional development or some other course of action. It is not an evaluation of an individual teacher or class.
Today's process continues to re enforce the idea that we have students and teachers on task and learning and teaching. Southwest is a calm, safe learning place. Yes, there a couple too many students in the hall and we always like to have more time. But the rich discussions and wonderful student presentations demonstrate that on any given day and period, the students and teachers are striving to learn and improve their skills.
This is only one example of the many ways we strive to improve our skills. Our quest to empower all students to achieve their dreams continues.
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