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Generate Instant Pear Decks

  I’ll keep this short as the video explains most of you. Any new educational technology can be complicated to dig into from scratch as you attempt to align it to learning outcomes.  Well, a new feature that Pear Deck has introduced has taken a giant leap forward to help educators do just that.  Before we jump into the new features, if you are unfamiliar with Pear Deck and why my students and I consider it the #1 EdTech tool that helps their learning, check out the video in the previous blog post.   But if you are more concerned with why you should even dive into Pear Deck or learn about this new AI generation of Pear Deck sessions to a learning target, check out the video below. Like I said, I’m keeping it short so you have time to watch the video. If you have questions, please contact me at mohammam@elmbrookschools.org or the Pear Deck Learning team at support@deck.peardeck.com . Also, check out the amazing Stacey Roshan's video on this update. 

Q & A with Dr. James Rickabaugh





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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