Learning from each other is the focus of Thursday’s Liberty Learning Walk as teachers utilize their conference period to visit other teachers and learn different ways of doing things.

“The whole idea is it gives teachers a chance to see what’s going on in other classrooms that aren’t their own so we don’t have any time to go around and sit in other classes and see what fun things are going on so this day is set aside specifically for that,” school librarian Chelsea Hamilton said. “We have teachers who have volunteered to open up their classrooms to other teachers to come in and see how they do classroom management, how they do engaging lessons, how they just run their classroom with fun new stuff. It’s just a good way to see what’s going on outside of like your own little teacher bubble.”

Participating teachers have the opportunity to volunteer to open their classrooms all day or during a specific time.

“We’re doing a really cool lab in biology where they get to solve a crime scene using DNA technology so it’s just something cool to show teachers how cool science can be and it’s just a good way to get the students involved and they can really see the interactions I have with my own students,” biology teacher Chris Ham said. “I hope to start a conversation with teachers. What I did, what I can do better too, because they can give me feedback on that too, and just kind of a discussion of like oh that was so cool, I wish I can do that. Let me help that part into your classroom or maybe like I can do this better and they give me feedback on that. It’s kind of like a two way streak.”

For some teachers the day is about showcasing some of their more interesting educational activities, but for pre-calculus teacher Kortney Smith, it’s the chance to get to know some of her colleagues better.  

“I didn’t get a chance to do it last year and I heard a lot of good things about it and I think this is a way for me to show others what I do in my classroom that I think is special and for me to learn some new techniques as well,” Smith said. “What I hope to gain from it is that, first of all, I’m still new here so hopefully more teachers will know who I am. Just, you know, to say hello. And then I hope to be able to learn some new techniques that I haven’t seen or be brave enough to try out something new that I see in somebody else’s class.”