Building a Culture of New Learning

I appreciate what David Warlick does when he begins a presentation by sharing something new he learned in the last 24 hours. What this does is create an atmosphere of constant learning and professional development among his audience. That same atmosphere is one which I want expanded within my school. To that end, I sent out an email today to the faculty and staff sharing two new things I learned in the last 24 hours and challenging others to engage in the same sort of sharing. I intend to being faculty meetings with some new learning as well. After all, if we expect our students to crave becoming life-long learners, we have the responsibility to model this ourselves.

Here is the email I shared with the faculty and staff:

Dear Colleagues:
There is an educational technology futurist named David Warlick who begins every presentation he makes by sharing one or two new things he has learned in the past 24 hours. That is his way of building a culture of professional learning and growth within people. I thought that this might be a simple way to learn from each other and grow as professionals and as a staff without taking extra time during the day. Therefore, I'd like to challenge you to periodically share one or two new things you have learned. Not only will it help you build the discipline of professional learning and growth but it will also provide us with more resources as a staff. After all, if we want our students to be life-long learners, we should be modeling this aptitude as well.

To that end, here is an interesting video about the history of Daylight Saving Time. I learned some new things about why we have it from this video:
http://www.cbs.com/thunder/player/thunder.php?pid=hYbTBhKVW_ChXTYI0n_gHDt_aFMff_Gn

I also learned that Inspiration is not the only mind mapping program available. There are many other pay and free options, both in software and with web services:
http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/mmsb/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/index2.html

I will try to keep the momentum going when I send out email. Please feel free to share your new learning as well.

What about your school? How is new learning shared within your building? What steps have been taken to build a culture of continuous professional development in your school? Feel free to share your ideas and experiences as a comment to this post.