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Thank You for 20 Years.

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After 20 years of teaching at Brookfield Central, I am saying goodbye. Although I spent the majority of that time in the physics classroom alongside my learners. That changed for my last 18 weeks. I ended up in a place similar to where I started, teaching chemistry and biology. So, rather than dealing with juniors and seniors at the end of their high school careers, I was in classrooms with freshmen and sophomores still trying to find their place. At the same time, I was learning and teaching a set curriculum I hadn't taught in over a decade. So, we were learning. But, of course, I already knew the content.  The point of this post is to take a step back, take in, and share the gratitude from the last students I had in my 20 years at Brookfield Central High School through the cards and notes they made for me on my last day with them.  I don't take many yay me moments. But after 20 years, I think I'll soak this one in.
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The Golden Ticket.

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Three years ago I received an invitation to a meeting. The invitation was scant on details but it inspired a great deal of curiosity in me.



You can't imagine how confused I was about what was to come.

The first question was, "What's and Un-Committee?"

We were given this video link to watch in advance.


Little did I know, I would learn about how progressive the leadership in my district was. The meeting would fundamentally change educational practice in my classroom.  It would give me license to create my ideal learning environment.


Over the next couple of weeks, I hope to look back on the process through which I was introduced to the framework of personalized learning and reflect on my initial proposal for change I made almost 3 years ago.
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