Not Everything Is An Assignment

NCCE Day 2- Here are my biggest take-aways from Day 2 of the Conference. Love Kids Into Learning: Tara Martin, author of Be REAL , taught us how to use the "Innovator's Compass" as a quick way to create family classroom culture and quick start student relationships. The process is authentic, real, and vulnerable, but impactful and long-lasting. Lots of potential here for classroom use - particularly beginning of term and something to be revisited throughout the year to document personal growth. I would like to know more about using this technique to teach students how to ask thoughtful questions and determine first steps. IE, how to I make this assignment/content specific? She mentioned this strategy can be used to help students learn to ask good questions. Impress Me Digitally: I was hoping very much to learn about some tools to make available for our students doing the Impress Me project. I imagine VERY few of them have any experience making a video or digital pr

     In preparation for going to the  NCCE  conference for 3 days (thanks admin!), I began to panic about what kind of lesson plans I could leave when we are just returning from a week long break. Not enough time for me to introduce something relevant for them to work on, but I'm not ready to have the watch a movie for three days either! (You can only watch GATTACA so many times in your life...)     So I was inspired by something I know Rebekah Cheney and Monica Goucher do on days they are not there - video lectures! So I went in over mid-winter break and used  Screencastify Lite  (I will likely buy a subscription if this goes well) to record 10 minute segments introducing assignments for the students to work on in groups or individually at their own pace and posted them on Classroom, set to release each day at 8 am.     Knowing my students, I also plan to make a daily goals and reflection sheet in the hopes of keeping them on track and self evaluating their use of class

         It never ceases to amaze me the inspiration we can gain from our colleagues. This cadre is nothing if not a playground for ideas and inspiration. I'm taking what I read in a colleague's blog and intend to run with it. You can read it  here . We see life in much the same way (although not always the same) and I'm 100% sure we wouldn't order the same Subway sandwich.       A number of thoughtful questions are posed and I find myself pondering this idea of individualized education is a need to truly make each individual's education unique for them OR do we need to give each individual the skill to serve the infinitesimal needs of other individuals? Do we tailor education to make it "easier" for them, or give them the skills to cope in a classroom, work environment, home life where they have to cooperate with people of different styles. I wonder if we can do a little of both. Help them understand themselves to either learn how to learn, or to find w