Are you learning from your colleagues?

Edutopia is taking another survey...Do the teachers around you influence your performance? I hope so, both for good reasons and bad. There are teachers that do phenomenal things that I beg, borrow, and steal from whenever I can. Then there are those who you want to be nothing like.  But in each case, you learn from them. I have been part of a PD conference for the past two years called Partnership for Literate Learning (PLL). Basically, it’s employing multiple, different strategies that focus on deeper thinking. Very little prep time is involved, but the students are actively engaged and conversing with one another. It has been very beneficial. We have teachers that participate at all grade levels so when they return to the building, they share their ideas with their grade level colleagues. Some grade levels like one particular strategy while other grade benefits from another strategy. In either case, students are having those in-depth conversations and learning from one another. So are you learning or avoiding?