Jami knew that when a delegation of twenty-five Australian educators came to visit her school there would be little time to share a very complex story.
So she quickly crafted an experiment where the Australian educators were to be immersed in the storytelling of students using a practice, called an In & Out Demo, which had been developed by one of her brilliant teachers, Jenni Shilhanek.
On the morning of the visit, thirty students were quickly gathered in the gym and asked to form a large circle. The Australian educators were then invited to create a circle around them, with each educator facing one of the students. A bell rang launching the first sharing session where each student had three minutes to tell a story of one of their recent learning journeys.
Another bell sounded and then the educators had two minutes to ask the students questions. When the next bell rang, the educators moved to the student on their right and the process was repeated three more times.
The educators left the gym about half an hour later, to use their term, completely 'gobsmacked'. They talked with middle schoolers and high schoolers, kids from diverse backgrounds, most of who wouldn't typically be identified as high-achieving students. But what they felt, from all of them, was an excitement and joy of learning, Deep Learning, that was real – very real.
At that moment, they committed to bringing Agile Learning back to Australia.
Next: Digging Deeper
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