BACK TO THE FUTURE!!!! (back to Cohort, back to inspiration, back to thinking about teaching…)

Wow! It’s awesome to be back in the thick of it! Today was the first F2F meeting of the Cohort 21 PD group, held at The York School (thanks for hosting Justin!). Being on the opposite side, so to speak, of the table, and helping the freshman class this year as they learned to navigate Twitter, Diigo, WordPress, etc, was great!
Today brought back the same level of passion and energy that I first experienced when I was new to this fantastic group, and I feel so lucky to be here. Teachers from around the CIS neighbourhood have gathered to collaborate, challenge, and inspire eachother.

Exciting tid-bits that I learned from today??

  • ExitTix.com: great “Socrative”-like web tool for assessment… provides better feedback for students and teacher
  • Diigo: I’m not utilizing this tool effectively. Next step: get my students to create groups, annotate, and evaluate web sources together
  • It’s about Twitter, dummy!: I need to engage with the Twitter-sphere more actively and take advantage of the amazing resources that my fellow teachers are posting on a daily basis.
  • Gratitude: thank you to Garth and Justin for letting me latch on to this speed-train! Loving it!!!!!

 

Thoughts for the future? What do I want to investigate for my Action Plan?? I’m thinking Project based learning… focus on Inquiry… looking to the middle school twitter world for inspiration.

Until Next Time!!!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAwN-W3kOpw[/youtube]

7 thoughts on “BACK TO THE FUTURE!!!! (back to Cohort, back to inspiration, back to thinking about teaching…)

  1. Hi Brent,
    Great work yesterday, and it seems, like @jmedved and I, you’ve found that even though you’re in a coaching role, you tend to get just as much out of these sessions as those who are in them!

    If you’re looking for great inquiry inspiration, check out The Critical Thinking Consortium and Garfield Gini Newman. It’s a great resource to help plan, model and carry out sustained, cascading inquiry projects!

    Enjoy the weekend,
    garth.

  2. Actually, in response to what Garth said, I think you get WAY MORE out of the Cohort experience when you are in the supporting role, as the pressure and “unknown” aspect is reduced. I think this year is going to be transformative and I’m so happy I get to journey alongside you again.

    Hey, if you are in the market for some project based learning ideas, you should definitely look at High Tech High (I think I remember talking about them at our final F2F hang last year). This is a great resource for thinking about PBL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9vDCLDArV-sVFdQc3NYUXpYNUU/view?usp=sharing

    Also, if you are thinking project based learning, you should check out Amanda’s last post: http://cohort21.com/amandalupo/2014/10/19/soaking-it-all-in/ you two might have some juicy conversations in the making!

  3. Hello Brent,

    Great advice with the Exit ticket app – keep it coming…

    Glad you are there at Cohort 21 – keeping us all at LCS connected to more tried and true great teaching ideas.

    Su

  4. Brent,
    Some very cool ideas and collaboration. Thank you for all your efforts here at LCS this year. You and Derek continue to support, push and mould our learners and this is having a positive impact. Looking forward to more from the Cohort 21 gang!
    Struan

  5. Hey Brent,
    I have to agree with you – so excited to back in the fold of Cohort21 and to Celeste’s point – I think we get way more out of it. Perhaps it’s building upon our prior experience or perhaps it’s that we have perspective of having already done an action research project. I think it’s going to be a great year, and I am always impressed with the way you share your learning with colleagues and students.

    I’m really looking forward to our continued collaboration at school and at Cohort!

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