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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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Q & A with Dr. James Rickabaugh

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We had our last book club PLC meeting of the school year.  Now, we only made it through chapter 2 of the book.  But, we had some very good discussions and I think everyone in the group has a better grasp on what it means to personalize learning.

Today, we were lucky enough to have the author of the book Dr. James Rickabaugh in for a Q & A session.  I used Periscope for the session.  Because of using Periscope, the quality of the videos I have added below is less that great.  But the message is not.  Regardless of where you are on the continuum of understanding the "why", "what", and "how" of personalized learning, these are must see! (or listen - I posted a SoundCloud link at the bottom of the post)

Question:  What is the history of personalized learning and the honeycomb model?



Question:  How do we know personalized learning strategies work?  What research guides it?





Question:  How can teachers is traditional models with large class sizes hope to manage and scale personalized learning?



Question: How can we make sense of the personalized learning model as it relates to the Danielson Framework and Common Core Standards?




Here is an audio version of the chat you can listen to instead of watching.  Great for those of us who like the idea of listening while our eyes and hands are occupied with other things.




I look forward to continuing with this book club trend over the summer with our district digital corps and maybe another book club PLC next year.  Maybe one that could last longer than one term.  A deep thank you to Dr. Rickabaugh for coming in and for the administration for their support in building this PLC.
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