How to do professional learning on your next vacation.
With holidays starting for many educators this week, it’s a timely moment to visit the question of how to foster powerful professional learning during this time.
The answer is simple.
Don’t try to do professional learning during your vacation.
Instead, if you are lucky enough to have some days off, try to disconnect completely from work. Ideally, that looks like the following:
1. Closing your work laptop and not opening it for as long as possible. If you ever access work-related apps, email, or your calendar on your phone, consider deleting these for your days off. The mere presence of these items and apps in your vicinity has been proven to take a percentage of your brain power, so liberate yourself from that and turn them off!
2. If you become bored on your holiday, that is great! Boredom has been proven to be so beneficial to us all. So, unplug from technology and go for a walk. Or sit at the beach and stare into the water. Cook a very slow recipe in your kitchen. Read a book. Giving yourself time to disconnect will help your mind rest and ensure you return to school better.
3. Sometimes, it comes towards the end of a holiday. If you are sufficiently relaxed, your mind numb enough, and you are at the point where you’ve forgotten what your job is and the password for your laptop, moments of clarity and epiphany can come. These are great moments to quietly reflect on your goals, career, and the improvements and learning you’d like to focus on when you return to school. A gentle way to ease back into professional learning can be with our Blinkist content. Blinkist is a Go1 company, and we create ‘blinks’, which are 15-20 minute summaries of popular books. Perhaps when you are ready towards the end of your holiday (even if it’s only a short one), pop into your Go1 learning platform and turn that brain back on with a few blinks. We’d recommend Think Again by Adam Grant and Daily Rituals by Mason Currey.
For those taking one, have a lovely break!
