Skip to main content

EdCamp Still Rules

By
  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
Post a Comment

My Professional Learning Universe

Image
By


As the Thanksgiving break comes to a close, I’ve had some time to reflect on all of those who shape my work in education.  I wanted to take a few moments to thank them for being a part of my work in the classroom with my students.  The all inform different parts of my practice. Much like the Marvel superheroes play their role in a bigger universe, the individuals form my Personal Learning Universe. You don’t need to acquire any infinity stones to gain their power, just follow them on Twitter.

Thought Leaders

These are the ones who help clarify my why. When I look for someone to challenge my thinking, this is where I start.
Dave Burgess
@burgessdave
Barbara Bray
@bbray27
George Couros
@gcouros
Kathleen McClaskey
@khmmc
Institute for PL
@Institute4PL
Allison Zmuda
@allison_zmuda

The How

It’s one thing to have a goal, it’s another thing to know how to use tools you never heard of.  This is where I go to discover new tools and strategies.
Matt Miller
@jmattmiller
Alice Keeler
@alicekeeler
Pear Deck
@PearDeck
Kasey Bell
@ShakeUpLearning
AJ Juliani
@ajjuliani
John Spencer
@spenceridea

Local Power

I’ve had the privilege to meet all of these local change agents face to face. They are the ones bringing great educational change to the state of Wisconsin.

Elmbrook Pride

At the end of the day, I need to have the support of those in my building and my district. These are the faces I go to when I need help or support.  They never fail to deliver in abundance.




Brett Gruetzmacher
@BGruetzmacher
Andelee Espinosa
@AndeleeEspinosa
Jeff Gryzwa
@gryzj
Dana Monogue
@DrMonogue
Katie Spadoni
@katie_spadoni
Amie Farley
@amielfarley


#IMMOOC

In the age of social media we can find inspiration from those who are practicing what they preach.  We never may meet face to face, but their words inspire me to keep going.

Carolyn Cormier
@ccormier_edu
Tamara Letter
@tamaraletter
Katie Martin
@katiemartinedu
Tara M Martin
@TaraMartinEDU
Meghan Lawson
@Meghan_Lawson
Annick Rauch
@AnnickRauch
Kristen Nan
@nankr1120
Lynn Thomas
@THOMLYNN101
Shauna Cornwell
@slcornwell

Of course there are many more who influence me. Any list formation is destined to be limited by the time one has to create it. But, I think this is a great start.  Thank you so much for your support of our shared work.

My first blog post was in November of 2014 and it’s become a great tool to reflect and share.  Thank you all for reading this far.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Twitter Cards for Blogger

By
So, I’ve been seeing people with beautiful Twitter Cards in my Twitter Stream. They make it clear that there is a web page to visit and give a quick preview of what would be found. Something like the one below: I’ve been wondering how to get one of the cards to appear when I tweet out a link to my latest blog post.  Since I use Blogger, there is not a simple button to click to turn this on.  I had to find a way to paste new code into the HTML code of my blog.  It took some searching from multiple sites to get a completely functional.   This site though was quite helpful.  But, I’d like to walk you through my process and hopefully it helps a few out. There are a few types of Twitter Cards.  Two that at most frequently see are the basic summary card and the summary card with large image.  Below you can see the layout of each, but realize that they both have the same content pieces. This is going to look like a lot more work than it will actually be
14 comments
Read more

Pear Deck 101 + Q&A

By
  Last week, I presented as a part of Pear Deck’s Pear Fair 2020. My presentation was Pear Deck 101 for Google Slides. During the presentation, there was a live chat. Many people said it went too fast for a 101 Session. Luckily, it was recorded so it can be rewatched.  Also, many said that they wanted to know how to build a Pear Deck first. I structured the presentation to show what Pear Deck was before showing how to make one. Perhaps that wasn’t the best structure. But, I’m going to stick with my philosophy of showing what something is before showing how to make it. The presentation, which can be watched below, was structured in several different sections What is Pear Deck? Providing an overview of the experience from the Teacher and Student perspectives. How do you build a Pear Deck in Google Slides? How do you start a Pear Deck presentation? How do you end a Pear Deck presentation? Here is the Slideshow I shared during the session bit.ly/pearfair101 Time really flew in the sess
2 comments
Read more

Using Infinite Campus to Give Grades Meaning

By
At Brookfield Central High School have just passed the three week grading period and are approaching the first parent teacher conferences of the year. My thoughts are turning to clarifying my grading practices to students and parents as more scores are being entered into the gradebook.  I have completely restructured the grade reporting in my online gradebook this year.  This was due to struggles I had last year in trying to implement what I believe to be best grading practices into my grade reporting.  Much of my grading philosophy has been informed by Robert Marzano and Marzano Research, specifically the wonderful book Classroom Assessment & Grading that Works .   Traditionally, as I prepare for teacher conferences, I use a student summary report I print from our online gradebook to guide the discussion with parents.  Our grading program in my district is Infinite Campus (IC).  I really like the software and find it extremely easy to use.  Below you’ll see a sample st
Post a Comment
Read more