Creating A Lunch And Learn Series

Creating A Lunch And Learn Series

In an effort to provide colleagues with opportunities to learn about teaching strategies used by school peers, 2012 Knowles Teaching Fellow Kaitie O’Bryan started a “Lunch and Learn” series. During the 2016–2017 academic year, eight monthly sessions were held. At each “Lunch and Learn” session, which took place during the school’s three lunch periods, a lead teacher presented about teaching strategies and routines that are relevant across varying content areas. Knowles supported this effort by providing a grant that funded the purchase of lunch for session attendees. Beyond organizing the sessions and soliciting teacher participation, Kaitie served as a thinking partner for presenters. Over the course of the year, 53 English, math, science, business and foreign language teachers who taught approximately 800 students participated in the “Lunch and Learn” series. Session topics included reading strategies shared by a science teacher, vocabulary building strategies shared by a French teacher and relationship building between students shared by a math teacher. Approximately 95% of participants reported that they would use something presented in a session in their own classroom. Kaitie plans to apply for Knowles Seed Grant to support the next iteration of this program during the 2017–2018 academic year.