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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

Standards Presentations Using Flipgrid


Summative assessment can be a bit tricky in distance learning when relying on traditional pencil and paper test. One of the assessment options I have allowed students to use in the past was an evidence presentation in which they created a 1 on 1 presentation demonstrating their mastery of the unit standards by presenting artifacts from the unit.

I'm trying something similar with my students as we wrap up our momentum unit. This unit was done completely via distance learning. We had several different activities and I made sure that students had opportunities to cover our main 4 science skill outcomes as they related to momentum.

  1. I can plan and carry out investigations
  2. I can analyze and interpret data
  3. I can use mathematics and computational thinking
  4. I can construct explanations
The goal for the summative assessment is for them to provide evidence for each of these 4 outcomes. I didn't want the technology to be the barrier. So, I choose Flipgrid which is a very simple to use video creation and submission platform that my students have an easy time with.


For each of the 4 standards, I created a topic. I gave them a brief overview of what was expected in the prompt. For the focus, I used Screencastify to record the workflow for creating the Flipgrid video and explaining the prompt in more depth. In addition, I posted one example submission video to the grid for them to watch. The topic itself is moderated. This means that the videos posted by students will not be able to be viewed by other classmates.


Some of the tools that I am looking for them to use (and modeled in the focus video) are loading images, adding text, drawing, and using the Flipgrid smartphone app to record writing on a piece of paper. For those who cannot respond verbally, they can use the text option in Flipgrid to construct their response.

I created a simple rubric for feedback within Flipgrid.


Eventually, these videos will be added into their portfolios as unit evidence. I'm excited to see what they students submit. I'll be sure to share how it went.


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