In my previous school district, I was the only teacher teaching a physics course with set, district-wide learning outcomes. These same outcomes were also taught in physics classrooms at the other high school in our district. But at our school, I was one of the 2 physics teachers. The other teacher taught the AP-level physics courses. So, in many ways, I had opportunities to incorporate strategies I believed were best for learners and that I found worked best for them without being seen as out of alignment with anyone in our building. My amazing friend and one of my teaching philosophy goddesses, Katie Novak, stated the following misconception about alignment: All teachers must deliver instruction in the exact same way. True alignment, she says, is about shared goals, rigor, and outcomes. Thank you, Katie! Katie has taught me to truly believe that learner variability is the rule, not the exception. I encourage you to take 10 minutes to listen to Katie Novak explain it in the ...
So, I finished watching the last of the 119 InstructureCon 2015 Sessions on YouTube today. To be honest, I didn’t watch every single one beginning to end. If I realized that the session had nothing to do with my current role as an instructor, I went to the next session. What this meant was I didn’t watch many sessions about configuring Canvas to work with my SIS. But, on many occasions, I was mesmerized by a the great presentations and realized by the end that I would never be doing any of this because I am not a tech integrator for my district. It is very interesting to see how we all work together to make learning happen in the classroom. It's a side I don't get to see very often. In the end, it's wonderful to see passionate people talk about their passion for education. So, this will not be a trilogy of reports. In the end, these are the best videos from my perspective. I can't recommend highly enough that you go to YouTube and find the sessions that...