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Generate Instant Pear Decks

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  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. 
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Waves of Innovation in Elmbrook: Data Driven instruction

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I was able to speak to the a PLC of science teachers from a middle school in our district today.  Sheri Gajria, Rebecca Murray, and Julie Wessel teach science at Wisconsin Hills Middle School in Brookfield, WI.  They truly exemplify the power that can be harnessed from a PLC. In our interview, they discussed how they do the following:

1) Assess each student to determine his/her level of proficiency based on a rubric
2) Pool student data across their classes
3) Use data to drive instruction to meet the needs of each learner
4) Use data to determine student grouping for targeted lessons

In addition, Sheri and Julie (Rebecca was out the day of the interview) discuss challenges they've faced and how they know their model is working. The interview goes into more so please watch it.  There is so much to learn about what an effective PLC is and how educators can use formative data to drive instructional practices for each learner.

I was amazed at the level this team is working at.




The team shared these great documents which they speak to in the interview.


Student Goal Setting and Tracking Document






Science Workshop Lesson Planning Template




Sitting down with this PLC only made me realize how much more I could be doing to look at data to drive individual instruction in my classroom.

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