Lunch 'n Learn

While chatting on Twitter early last June, someone mentioned hosting a brown bag Lunch 'n Learn. That's my sort of thing, I remember thinking, mostly {if I'm being completely honest} because I liked the way the alliteration made the idea to gather and grow during lunch sound more appealing. Tasty, even. 

The very next day I went walking with my friend April and we started cooking on an idea for this year's first Lunch 'n Learn at Bales.

Our topic would be Morning Meeting and I would invite someone with some experience, say a veteran teacher like April, to share her expertise. To sweeten the invitation for both the speaker and my staff, I'd even offer to make the lunch, {How do chicken salad sandwiches sound?} with the help of a few of my favorite volunteers, of course. Well, that created a win-win, and April's presentation last Friday was AmAzInG.

She talked about her roots as a pioneer, the lone teacher in her building, actually, who was doing a morning meeting when she started teaching twenty years ago. She said it transformed her teaching. And she fondly reminisced about how she recruited a few other teachers to try it, just by modeling how tightly it connected her class. 

She talked about the why behind the coveted circle time 

and she shared benefits of the four (now five) parts to each meeting.

She gave some examples of how her class meetings 

would look, sound & feel.

And she shared resources ... 

to enrich our Morning Meeting ritual and experience.

 So today I'm grateful, that April would share her time and talent with us, and that some of our teachers would give up their duty-free lunchtime to learn and grow.

The important take-away?
You may think you don't have time, but you
do have time. And it'll be a valuable investment!

Next up, a Lunch 'n Learn for caregivers? 

Who knows!

Have you ever hosted a Lunch 'n Learn at your school?

If so, we'd love to read your reflections in the comments.