At one table, a teacher described her experience learning how to sew. At another, a teacher recalled a college professor who had asked her to imagine using a base-3 mathematical system as opposed to the standard base-10. And at a third, a teacher remembered embarking with trepidation on her first driving lesson — with her teenage son as the instructor.

It was all part of an effort for the educators at PS 295 in Park Slope to explore what Principal Linda Mazza, a former teacher and UFT chapter leader, called “the conditions that make learning possible.”

On Sept. 15, Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and UFT President Michael Mulgrew were in attendance as staff members took part in one of the school’s first 80-minute after-school professional development sessions. Mulgrew praised the school’s collaborative, educator-driven approach to professional development, saying, “There’s no reason to pay millions of dollars to corporations when the answers to education are inside schools.”

To kick off the session, teachers discussed reframing the idea of professional development by thinking of it as “professional learning.”

“The term ‘professional learning’ engages all of us and makes us responsible,” said 3rd-grade teacher Damaris Alejandro.

At the end of the school year in June, the school’s newly formed professional development committee had identified three major areas they wanted to concentrate on in the PD block: special education, best practices in instruction and the school’s growing population of English language learners.

With the new school year underway, the committee’s challenge was to pinpoint more specific needs to focus on — as well as teachers and service providers who could help shape the staff’s learning on a particular topic.

“Better teaching practices have to be coached and supported,” said 4th-grade teacher Doug Hecklinger. “Just like kids who share out in class how they solved the problem, teachers who have best practices should be able to share out.”

To that end, teachers at the Sept. 15 session collaborated to create a “learning plan” for their staff, asking themselves, “What do I need to learn more about so I can help my students be as successful as possible?”

A chart at the front of the room with columns labeled “What I need to learn,” “What I’m interested in learning” and “Expertise I can share” quickly filled with teachers’ Post-its, which the committee planned to review to prioritize the staff’s needs.

“The wealth of knowledge we already have on our staff is amazing,” said Natalie Meade, a 3rd-grade teacher and the school’s chapter leader. “But we’ve never had the time before to tap into that across grades and across disciplines.”

Rita Danis, the co-director of the UFT Teacher Center, noted that PS 295’s approach to professional learning “honors the way adults learn best.”

“They’re being thoughtful about identifying the content they want to learn and the way they want to learn it,” Danis said. “They’re building a culture where the members in the school are collaboratively determining what they want to learn that will help their students achieve.”