When teachers and students returned to Bishop O’Connell High
School in Arlington this week, they were treated to an orientation experience
that included flying paper airplanes, building towers with spaghetti, and
working with LEGO bricks and Mr. Potato Head. This was more than just
ice-breakers; it was the work of the school’s igKnight professional development
team working with teachers to help students feel engaged, empowered and excited
about learning.
“Drawing from educational reform research dating all the way back
to 19th-century pioneers like Benjamin Bloom, John Dewey and Maria
Montessori, we know that students learn best from the classes where they feel
most actively engaged,” said English teacher and instructional coach John
Meehan. “Our goal as teachers is to help get students really excited about the
activities that they do in our classrooms in order to inspire deep learning
through creativity and choice.”
For the faculty orientation, teachers were divided into teams,
working with their colleagues to enhance their teacher “superpowers” with new
instructional strategies — talking to one another, learning from one another
and asking a lot of questions. Under the umbrella of an “escape room”
theme, the teams were on a quest to
break into the locked teachers’ lounge to get coffee before the first students
arrived at school. Going through this exercise together was an opportunity for
faculty to model the collaboration and problem solving they will inspire in
students when the year begins.
For incoming freshmen, this year’s orientation was an “Epic
Orientation Adventure”designed around the theme of their required summer
reading, "The Hobbit." Over the course of three
days, the newest O’Connell Knights got acquainted with their schedules,
teachers and school routines, while being introduced to their class theme — the
dignity of the human person. They cycled through a writer’s workshop, the
“annotation station” and a Socratic seminar, all while earning Hobbit-themed
badges for acquiring new skills, completing tasks and participating in
collaborative exercises.
Over the summer, four O’Connell faculty members attended the 8th
Annual Serious Play Conference at George Mason University in Fairfax where
professionals from around the globe shared their experiences creating or using
games in higher education, corporate training, health care, government and the
military.
“I have been intrigued by the possibilities of using games in my
Latin classes,” said Adriene Cunningham, world language chair. “After attending
the conference and subsequent research and reading, I am convinced this is a
very potent pedagogy to engage and to empower students not only to learn
material but to go beyond the ‘requirements’ and take charge of their own
learning.”
Members of the O’Connell staff have been invited to present more
on the game play approach to learning at the National Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) conference in Chicago next
spring.