Pineapple Charts



Hospitality....

Have you ever wondered why there are a lot of welcome mats with a pineapple on them? The pineapple is a sign of hospitality. It represents all the intangible assets that a home has to offer such as friendship and generosity (to find out more about how the pineapple grew to represent these things, go here). I love pineapple so can you imagine my delight when I read about Pineapple Charts!

I discovered Pineapple Charts from the blog "Cult of Pedagogy" by Jennifer Gonzalez.  A pineapple chart is just a very fun and casual way to invite your colleagues into your classroom.

Here is an example chart that I made,
Even though the example that I created is electronic, I would not suggest an electronic format. In order for this to work it needs to be visible, accessible, filled in (even if you need to poke and prod some of your outgoing teachers to get it off the ground), and no pressure.

To use the pineapple chart, teachers would sign up the activity, teaching strategy, or technology that they are using in their lessons. Other teachers would then be able to see what their colleagues are doing. If they are interested in learning or observing a use of technology or strategy or even content then they would know that they are welcome to join that other teacher's classroom. 

There is no commitment for the teacher to spend the entire block; this could just be a 15 minute drop in. Also, there should be no commitment for follow up. Let's face it, we are all busy enough. However, this does open the door for collaboration and conversation about teaching practice. 

To learn more, go to Cult of Pedagogy to see the post that Jennifer wrote.