On Friday, I was so pleased to be able to return to one of my favorite days of the year, High-Interest Day at Brookfield Elementary School. This is a day where I have been able to bring the concepts of physics to k-5 graders. You may be asking yourself, "Elementary students doing physics?" YES! Not just experimenting, but understanding the concepts behind the physics of electricity and sound. This is a very special day I have had the opportunity to be involved in since 2017. So, how are we able to bring the concepts of electricity and sound traditionally taught to high school 11th and 12th graders to the elementary level? There are a few keys 1) make it a hands-on experience 2) remove the mathematical calculations and make it practical. In the past, I had the luck of bringing a handful of my physics students with me to guide the elementary students through the concepts that they had learned over the course of the year. But in my new role as a Teaching and Learning Speciali
I was able to give a thank you speech today at the Convening on Personalized Learning to thank all of those who support my vision of transforming learning in the classroom. It was going to be a longer speech but I am very shy and cut out my little reaction to the misunderstandings that exist around personalized learning. I am much braver in print on my blog, so here it goes: There is no one way to personalize learning for every student. There is no average student. There is no average classroom. There is no average school. So by definition, there is no single template or single tool to personalize for every student, every classroom, or every school. The same wand won’t produce magic for every wizard. But, we can all have the same goal for our system. Nudging the locus of control of learning towards the learner. Allowing learners more ownership of learning through connections to the content and ownership over the process. Personalized Learning is not Laissez Faire learni