Blair Oaks teachers received a call to action to start their day Friday during a district-wide professional development day.
Students stayed home Friday while teachers heard from nationally-known education speaker and author Rick Wormeli about "What we can do when we are brave together." Wormeli challenged teachers to think outside the box and thanked them for continuing to teach.
Wormeli's slide presentation was decorated with images of hot air balloons to convey the theme of elevating and getting "oxygen into our practice" because teachers need to feel revitalized.
"So I wanted to get you excited. I wanted to get you some oxygen," he told teachers. "Yes, we're eventually going to get to the grading stuff, as we get into this, but I really want to talk about courage and getting oxygen, because you're going to need that as we start talking about the grading stuff, OK?"
Wormeli encouraged teachers to understand how children's brains work at the ages that they are teaching.
"Your greatest tool as a teacher is your expertise in the human mind," he said. "So if you are seeing yourself in a deficit place there, could you make this the learning curve for the next two or three years? You're allowed not to know stuff, you're not allowed to realize there's something missing and do nothing about it, because that would be unprofessional. Professionals are constantly learning."
He provided links and lists of books that educators could look into to learn more about the most recent research and how to help students learn.
"I'd like to suggest a critical examination of pedagogy -- students thrive. Unexamined pedagogy, instructional design -- students wither," he said. "So yeah, you might be coasting along, kids are doing pretty well, but you still have to be critically looking at what you do, connecting the dots (saying) 'I made that decision, here's how it affected all of my students in my class.'"
There are always things that can be improved, Wormeli said, and lesson plans shouldn't be permanent.
"We don't want to be static, we want to remain dynamic. So I need to remind you, you weren't hired to maintain the status quo. You were hired to impact it, to change it in some way," he said.
Sometimes that means innovating and parting ways with the way things are typically done, such as having more flexible timelines for learning or revisiting topics after you've "moved on."
He said children are like popcorn -- the kernels in the skillet pop at different times.
"If some kid doesn't get it here but gets it five months later, hallelujah," he said. "Celebrate it. It's not, 'You're a lesser soul because you didn't get it in the same timeline as others.'"
Wormeli also thanked educators for their work. Today, Wormeli said, choosing to stay in the profession can be the bravest act of all.
"There are a lot of people saying, 'That's it,'" he said, but the teachers who stay realize, "I'm creating a very real future by what I do with today's students in my own community."
Josh Cobb/Jefferson City News Tribune Many of the teachers and staff at Blair Oaks Highschool gathered to listen to Rick Wormeli. Rick is a nationally renowned education speaker.
Josh Cobb/Jefferson City News Tribune Nationally renowned education speaker Rick Wormeli was at Blair Oaks Highschool Friday morning. Rick's speech kickedoff a day of professional development for Blair Oaks teachers.