The 4 O'Clock Faculty - Summer Reading

This summer, I had a number of books on my reading list that I selected in preparation for the upcoming school year.  While in the midst of a few other books, a new release, The 4 O'Clock Faculty: A Rouge Guide to Revolutionizing Professional Development came across my Twitter Feed.  Knowing I wanted fresh ideas for staff meetings, professional development and motivating staff, I immediately purchased it.  Thanks to Amazon, it showed up in my mailbox in just a few days.  Teachers return to campus in just one week and needing inspiration for our upcoming meetings, I put the other books aside and moved this book to the top of my list.  I'm sorry I did.  It wasn't horrible, but I finished the book with very little in terms of ideas and inspiration.  A majority of the tips the author gives for "revolutionizing" professional develop were all tips I've either heard of, or took part in.

That being said, there were a few nuggets that I found useful and will consider implementing this year:
  • Genius Hour - I'm very familiar with the idea of Genius Hour and have worked with a former staff to successfully implement it into our weekly schedules.  However, the author suggests extending this idea to our staff/faculty meetings.  I've never thought of this!  He states, "allow your school's educators to engage in whatever activities they find stimulating and challenging.  The only rule? The work they choose must directly benefit the students."  I'm giving this one a try!  
  • FedEx Day - The author credits Daniel Pink for this idea.  Simply put, you give teachers 24 hours to work on a project, anything they want to work on.  The only caveat is that teachers have to share what they created with colleagues twenty-four hours later (which he states is just like FedEx).
  • #CoffeeEDU - Similar to the idea of an EdCamp, but on a much smaller scale.  Here, the idea is that you choose a local coffee establishment, set a date and time, and then invite educators to join for some reach discussion about education topics.  You can find events in your area by searching Twitter for #CoffeeEDU. 



 

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