# Transcript

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SPEAKER 1
Turn around 60 degrees.
SPEAKER 2
What's another strategy?
SPEAKER 3
Area model.
SPEAKER 2
Area model? OK, who wants to do an area model?
MARGARET HUDSON
Because the Lab School staff gets regular opportunities to participate in learning walks, both as participants and also as hosts, it really strengthens the culture of the school. It helps build the shared vision and allows a spirit of continuous learning.
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The Lab School is located on the university campus, in the College of Education. And we have a dual mission to serve the children at the school, which is currently kindergarten through grade 8, as well as pre-service teachers.
THERESA WILLIAMS
Learning walks is a big part of our mission. It gives people who are teaching in our school as well as people who are learning how to be teachers the opportunity to watch other people teach, which you don't generally get because you're in your classroom teaching all the time.
MARGARET HUDSON
A learning walk is just a structured observation through a school. It's used for continuous growth and improvement. It is important that all teachers get to experience what it's like to observe in other teachers' classrooms and learn from others as well as to have teachers come in and visit them and learn from them.
ABBY MARKLEY
I really like learning walks, especially as a fairly new teacher to this building. It's really helped me gain perspective on what my students have experienced. It facilitates this we're all in this together, what can we learn from each other? Some of the times, the best things that are going on are happening in your own building. And you might miss them because you're doing your own thing too.
SPEAKER 4
Can run at a rate of 11 feet per second.
MARGARET HUDSON
The learning walks follow a pretty specific protocol. It starts with an overview of the process and sets some parameters for participation. Thanks everyone for joining our learning walk team today. A focus is identified for the learning walks. And it can be a really broad focus, like teaching and learning, or a pretty specific focus, like classroom management. Today's learning walk focus is going to be on math. We're going to be looking at the power of mistakes and struggle, rich mathematical tasks, and assessment for a growth mindset.
Learning walk participants' role is to observe what's happening and know that they're going to get an opportunity to talk about those things later, but to avoid making judgments and to reframe any kind of thinking along those lines into questions.
SPEAKER 5
Did you understand Myles' answer?
SPEAKER 6
Yes.
SPEAKER 7
How would you know that you made a mistake?
MARGARET HUDSON
Participants are encouraged to take notes and jot down what they observe, what they see, what they hear, and also what their questions are, things they wonder about. It gives us a snapshot of other teachers teaching.
SPEAKER 8
How many do I have across tiers?
SPEAKER 9
15.
JULIE KORTUM
And it reminds us of, oh, they did an exit ticket. I keep forgetting to do those, I really need to pull those back in. We catch those little things because we're always watching and trying to get new ideas. So the learning walk for teachers, I think, is really beneficial.
MARGARET HUDSON
I do carry a timer. And I rely on that timer to keep the learning walk moving. After going through all the observations, it's a time for reflection. And we generally start the reflection process by having a few broad reflection questions. Take a minute and look over the reflection questions. Reflection is probably the most valuable part of the learning walk. One of my favorite reflection questions is, does anyone want to start and share any questions, wonderings, surprises that you noted?
SPEAKER 5
The kindergartners, when they were done with a task, they partner up with the next person done. And I added that to my ideas that I might apply in my classroom. I thought that was really neat.
MARGARET HUDSON
Anything that you would recommend be changed?
SPEAKER 10
I would always like to stay two minutes longer in each class.
MARGARET HUDSON
The amount of time is always hard. But the benefit of going to six different classrooms in a short amount of time is that you get a glimpse of many classrooms instead of an extended observation of one. And now you know where you might want to go back and do some more observing in that specific classroom.
MARLA SCHERR
This is the first learning walk that I've been on. It was clear after being on this today that it's a powerful tool because I could see what my colleagues were doing in grades behind me and then grades all the way up to middle school. So I can see where I fit in that picture.
SPEAKER 11
What would the clock look like up here? And then when we get here, it would be what?
MARLA SCHERR
I never get to step outside and go next door and see what my colleagues are doing. I'm always here. So I think that's really powerful.
SPEAKER 7
You could use a fifth grader's right?
MARGARET HUDSON
It's amazing how when teachers go into classrooms, even if there are different levels and different content areas from what they teach, what they can learn from each other. And I've never had a learning walk where people didn't walk away with some ideas about something new that they saw, something they wanted to try, something that they were interested in.
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