By: Meredith Johnson – mjjohnson1216
Professional Learning – BookCamp Bounce Back
Remember the feeling of standing at the edge of the ocean, your toes in the sand, at the point where the crashing waves just barely reach your feet? You look out in the distance at a turquoise wave that will soon tumble at your feet. Excitement builds as you wonder if the next wave will come closer and extend the water up your legs. As each wave pulls back out into the ocean, you can feel your feet sinking down into the sand. You quickly realize that you want to take a few steps further out into the ocean to increase this feeling of exhilaration. Many of you will quickly look around and call out to a friend or family member to join you as happiness was born a twin. A ‘Kodak moment’ has been created in your mind’s eye that you will long remember.
A new professional learning book can fill a learner with many of these same sensations. Observation of the book, excitement at experiencing the learning of something new, curling up and letting the words and ideas rush over you and the desire to implement many of the concepts being covered by delving in deeper. As the words and new ideas are incorporated into your working memory, you feel enthusiastic at the thought of sharing this with others. At some point, the responsibilities of life knock at your door and the book must be set aside. Perhaps you find the time to pick back up where you left off or, sadly, items placed on top of it hide the book for months into the future.
Connie Hamilton @conniehamilton recently tweeted, “Without an opportunity to process educational events, real learning is less likely.” This also holds true for the professional learning book you are reading. During each of the ‘BookCamp Bounce Back’ sessions, that are planned during #BookCampPD’s Fall Focus, you have the opportunity to share and reflect. What steps would you like to take in implementing some of the ideas you read in any of the thirty-three books we have highlighted? What has already been implemented and worked very well or still needs to be “tweaked?” Do you have photos to share with others in our #PLN chat that would add clarity? In Jarod Bormann’s @Jbormann3 book, that we reviewed during our summer, FAR – Friends and Reading, the final two steps are ‘reflection’ and ‘share.’ Our ‘BookCamp Bounce Back’ will assist you in these professional learning steps.
The first step in experiencing the ocean, is to get in your car and drive, bicycle or walk there. Similarly, reading a professional learning book is only the first step in expanding your knowledge. ‘Bouncing Back’ to books we have previously read provides the opportunity for reflection and planning next steps. I hope you will join these chats on September and December 30th. Learning together, with all of you, is something I continually look forward to!
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