Better ways to teach and learn: active and social learners

I always enjoy the Tuesday #edchats on Twitter and today was no exception.  The subject was PD and the posts came fast and furious for the half hour or so that I managed to join in.  What always strikes me about these discussions is that teachers around the world put aside an hour of their time each week to discuss better ways to teach and learn.  We are all busy, and for some of us this involves giving up our lunch breaks, rescheduling evening meals and so on, yet we all find it valuable to share our ideas with each other and to learn from each other in order make us better practitioners.

The word practitioner implies we are active learners - actively engaged in our discipline or profession.  We are discussing, debating, hypothesizing, investigating and becoming aware of multiple viewpoints.  Using Twitter means we are social learners - involved in furthering our understanding through discussion with others.  Actually what we are really doing through our #edchats is modelling the kind of learners we want our students to become.

Photo Credit:  Twitter Meta Moo!  too far?  by Josh Russell