Can you believe it has been only been two and a half weeks since we last got together. In school time that can seem like a lifetime ago. With holidays around the corner we wanted to give you a quick Cohort 21 update so you could do some thinking over the next two weeks right before you relax for the Winter break.
1. MaRS
Don’t forget to book your supply coverage for our third face 2 face session scheduled for Friday January 24th. This sessions is going to be held at MARS and is already shaping up to be a really interesting day. The day will from 9am-3:30pm. More details to follow.
2. Working with EdTech Entrepreneurs:
In preparation for this MARS Face 2 Face day can you please fill in your part of this chart to help the team at MARS choose what start-ups will present to us throughout the day.
3. Action Plan Post:
Prior to our next meeting we would like everyone to please post their initial thinking around what action plan they would like to pursue. This will help us coordinate groups for the day as well as gather resources to help support you. Be sure to add an action plan category and tag to your post. If you forget how here is a video refresher.
4. ToolKit:
Bookmark, Tweet, Post, Comment. Plug back in over the next month and participate using some or all of the Cohort 21 toolkit.
Here are some recent highlights from the Cohort 21 Community:
1) Many have continued the conversations from our second F2F in the various Online forums. For example: Check out Alan MacInnis (@Alimac5), Jenny Wright (@TalkTeachLearn) and Garth’s (@Think_Teach) tweets about digital literacy and privacy in schools by just following them on Twitter, and then read Mardi Michel’s blog discussing the same topic
2) There was some good conversation around a Globe and Mail Article questioning the role of rote learning in Math. Ruth Eicholtz (@YorkMathE) and her colleague Jennifer Wyatt (@MsJenniferWyatt) suggested some further insights
3) Jen Bibby’s post about Who Should Ask the Essential Questions garnered a fair bit of interaction on her Blog as well.
4) It has been great to see recent posts from first time bloggers Catherine McCaughley (about how Diigo can shift the deliver and collaboration of information in an educational organization), and Alexia Moliotsias (on pursuing robotics as an authentic learning tool providing a professional-like experience).
5) But don’t think that Blogs are just about your action plan. Read Brent Hurley’s blog on teaching Hamlet (“the ‘World Series’ of Shakespeare”) to 21st century students, in the context of PISA’a report about standardized testing.
6) It’s been great to have tweets about those small successes in the classroom (using Polleverywhere for the first time, using Google+ Hangouts to provide feedback) because they build positive momentum to what we, as a Cohort, are trying to accomplish. The shift happens with small successes that add up to a larger movement: “Moonshot Thinking”
7) Justin and Garth have been posting to the community on our Google+ page, and you are welcome to add/share/collaborate on this venue as well: HERE
We look forward to being in touch, and reading and engaging with your thoughts, challenges, opportunities and action plan. Good luck with the end of the term.
The Cohort 21 Team
