Festival of learning teaches teachers

On the morning of Monday, Oct. 8, students woke up to the glorious feeling of hitting the snooze buttons on their alarm clocks and going back to sleep. For teachers, it was a whole new different story. Teachers from Saratoga and Los Gatos High came together for the first-ever annual staff development meeting called the Festival of Learning. 

“What was different about this meeting was the great collaboration between the schools and seeing Saratoga and Los Gatos coming together,” said journalism teacher Michael Tyler. The Festival of Learning hosted three sessions, each session providing 12 classes in which teachers had the opportunity to choose which one to attend. 

“We were able to work together with faculty from Los Gatos,” said English teacher Amy Keys. “Teachers were presenting the bulk of the information and strategies, which made both for good presenting and highly applicable content.”

Among others, the classes consisted of new presentation software, flip teaching, screencasting, strategies to get students engaged in classrooms and lectures from Stanford professors.

"There's a lot of exciting things happening,” coordinator and district’s technology committee Tony Palma said. “It’s supposed to be fun and not a dry and boring session in a classroom. It's about engaging, learning something new, and bringing something  back to your classroom to try out.”