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Showing posts from November, 2016

EdCamp Still Rules

  Looking Back at 10 years of EdCamps Oh how the time flies, EdCamp Madison is turning 10 this year!  It will be held Saturday, February 3rd at Sun Prairie West High School. Which can be found at 2850 Ironwood Drive in Sun Prairie Wisconsin from 8:30 am - 3:00 pm.  Get more information and register here: https://sites.google.com/sunprairieschools.org/edcampmadwi/home   I will always remember sitting in my first EdCamp opening session at the very first EdCamp Madison and having no clue what I was in for. So, I’d like to take this space to go over some of the basic rules of EdCamp. No One Will Pitch It for You EdCamps are unconferences. By this I mean that they have a blank slate of sessions for the day. There may be a few predetermined sessions, but ultimately the session topics are determined by attendees during the pitch & plan session that opens the day. If an idea gets pitched there will be a session on it. If a topic doesn’t get pitched, there won’t be a session on it. So, it i

Can I Believe These Numbers?

Our union put out the results of a recent district survey.  The number of those who responded to the survey was low in comparison to the total number of certified staff. But the number and comments related to personalized learning struck me as troubling. Based on this data, over half of the district staff polled are not onboard with the district's vision for personalized learning.  I would argue that not knowing the district vision for personalized learning is synonymous with not understanding what personalized learning is.  The mission of the Elmbrook School District   to inspire every student to think,  to learn and to succeed.   By personalizing learning, we hope to achieve that mission. I begin to question have we put the phrase before the meaning?  Have we thrown out this word without intention?  Have we made it to much of another thing to do rather than a method to achieve our shared vision. These numbers shake me to the core.  After the recent presidential

These Honeycomb Kids Are Honeycomb Big

What's a Honeycomb kid? It's more than just this... Today, some of my students from last school year took the reigns and presented at the Institute for Personalized Learning's National Convening . The focus of this presentation was sharing the elements of the honeycomb that benefitted their learning the most. In addition, they explained what these elements looked in practice. A year ago, I never imagined that a group of my former students would be presenting.  So how did we get here? Well we ... The first step in this process was realizing how strong my students were in reflecting on their learning in our classroom.  Reading their end of unit reflections made me realize that the learners were thinking deeply about what was helping them learn, not helping them learn, and ideas they proposed for the next unit. I then decided to introduce them to the Teaching & Learning elements from the honeycomb and rate how instruction in our course met those ele

Mo Years Mo Blogging

Two years ago, I published my first blog post. To celebrate 2 years and 144 posts, I thought I'd share 10 insights linked to my blogging. Pirates Publish Great PD Over the last two years, I have had the privilege to read some great books published by Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc . These include Teach Like a Pirate , Ditch that Textbook , The Innovator’s Mindset , Explore Like a Pirate , LAUNCH , and I just started Pure Genius .  These books are great because they are accessible and practical.  The collection of books are like the Marvel Movie Universe in that they are all connected and have a unified vision.  But, they each have their own focus.  Let’s hope there is no Civil War in the Pirate Universe anytime soon. I’ve loved using my blog to reflect on the books I’ve read as I read them. PLN I have a significant level of social anxiety with my peers.  So, I’m not one who seeks out conversations with fellow staff members.  My blog has allowed me to share what I d