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Showing posts from March, 2017

Thank You for 20 Years.

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.

Feed Me: 12 Ed Podcasts to Add to Your PodCatcher

It's been a while sine this original post about my favorite educational podcasts was posted. Epiphany Learning | Why Podcasts are My Primary Source of Professional Development for Personalized Learning and EdTech It's usually best practice to address the why first, but before we do that we need to be clear on what a podcast is. In the simplest terms, it is an audio program (or it could be video) that is available to download (or stream) to an portable audio player or computer to replay at your convenience. So, I wanted to take the opportunity to update my list of go to podcasts to stay informed.  There are a few new ones and some others that are still going strong. I'll let the podcasts speak for themselves. With spring break a week away for us, I'll be catching up on a lot of episodes as I do some spring cleaning in and out of the house. I look forward to catching up with members of my PLN who don't necessarily know me, yet.

EdCamp Elmbrook

On March 25th, we held our first ever EdCamp Elmbrook.  I didn’t realize it then but was reminded that it was something I had initiated 8 months prior in July of 2016. That was a long time ago and it took a lot of work from a lot of different agents to make it happen. EdCamp Elmbrook The 1st Step I’ll be happy to take credit for putting forward the idea of running and EdCamp in our district. But without the OK from my building principal Brett Gruetzmacher and our Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Dana Monogue, the idea would have stalled right there and then. How Do We Put On An EdCamp? As EdCamps continue to increase in their popularity as a form of professional development, more resources are available for educators to learn from others.   The EdCamp Foundation has a wonderful website that helped guide our planning process. A Great Team Once I got the ok and began searching out planning resources, I sent out a call for help to s...

Choosy Mos Choose Gifs

Do you ever feel really behind the times?  Well I just recently learned how to use Giphy Labs to make GIFs from YouTube clips.  I've mainly been using them to promote the upcoming EdCamp in our district.  But, I decided they'd be a quick way for me to reflect on some highlights from Part 2 of The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros as a part of the #IMMOOC Community . Looking forward to making more GIFs as I go.

Space to Innovate

via GIPHY The first lightbulb moment for me when I read The Innovator's Mindset last summer the first insight that really hit me was the idea of an innovation as new and better.  As an educator, I've had the opportunity to iterate with my instruction.  But, I really loved seeing my learners innovate with some of their work this year. Six weeks ago, I began a new term with physics students.  Our first unit was on electricity.  Our learners we tasked to  build a series/parallel network circuit that performed a function. One group decided to build a boat. They eventually tested it out in a small pool we had in our classroom. The boat worked quite well and they had completed the task.  But, the learners still had ideas of how they could take their idea further.  With their new knowledge of circuits, they saw how they could increase the power delivered to the motors and increase the speed of the boat. Our next unit was linear motion....