What would you work on if you had time to collaborate with your colleagues and the choice to pursue any pet project you wanted? That’s what the Howard staff was able to do this past Friday. For the professional learning day on October 2nd, staff members engaged in what has popularly been named Fed Ex Day. For a great description, check out this white paper.

The basic gist is give employees the autonomy to work towards the purpose of the organization in pursuit of mastery (see Daniel Pink’s RSA Animate video on “Drive.” It’s a novel concept (okay, maybe not so much anymore since it’s been around for almost five years now), but it’s still amazing to see it in action…when a teacher’s passion for his/her craft can run wild and breed the kind of innovation that fuels a school.

So here’s some of the highlights of our Fed Ex Day (that is, what did our teachers deliver?):

• A new and improved rubric to use for math tasks in Algebra 2
• A “How-To” guide for teachers on video assignments in Canvas
• The initial planning for Howard’s Language & Culture Fest coming October 29th
• An interdisciplinary lesson plan on the Count of Monte Cristo and the French Revolution developed by a social studies teacher and a French teacher
• Technology integration into lessons using Nearpod and various screencasting tools.
• An improved Howard County bus map for ALS students (and a game to teach them how to get around the county)
• The start of the Black Student Union at Howard (developed by our BSAP liaison and cultural proficiency point of contact)
• Another interdisciplinary lesson, this one a collaboration between a Law & the Citizen teacher and a Forensic Science teacher where students in both classes will be involved in a court case that hinges on forensic evidence.

Lots of great ideas came out of Friday’s session. I can’t wait to see them in action!