Keeping the cart behind the horse

Whew! Another F2F almost done and I’m once again feeling inspired and overloaded with ideas. Thanks so much to all of the coaches and facilitators – @jmedved @lmcbeth @ddoucet @gnichols @shelleythomas – who planned this day for us and put so much time, energy, and thought into creating a space for collaboration, reflection, and inspiration.

The storyboarding process that we went through in the morning was my favourite part of the day. What steps would be necessary to put my action plan into place? What would they all involve?

I started with the idea of curating playlists of good content for each area of my course (e.g. using Illustrator for creating vector artwork, using InDesign for layout, etc.). Step 2 was to come up with a way of tracking and assessing students, using DocAppender, of course. As I continued to come up with storyboard steps, I realized at Step 4 that my order of operations was completely off. I need to do significant research into project based learning and design thinking in order to restructure my course so completely.

What started as my first step in the process became my last step by the time I completed my storyboard.
What started as my first step in the process became my last step by the time I completed my storyboard.

While at times it is wonderful to learn something new and jump in with both feet, I think that in order for this action plan to be successful, I absolutely have to put in the time to:

  1. learn more about design thinking about project-based learning
  2. come up with a list of core competencies that all members of my class will have to learn before embarking on the personalized structure of the course
  3. develop a structure, expectations, and timeline to frame the year
  4. develop a plan for assessment, including forms, rubrics, and schedule for conferencing with students
  5. curate playlists and develop resources for different skills areas

What I had originally written down as step one became my last step before implementation. If that doesn’t speak to the power of Cohort 21, I don’t know what does!

Thanks to @ptotera, @lmustard @chazzard @blng @maragona @mjohn for being there to bounce ideas off of and for challenging me today!

PS – Check out what trended in Toronto today!

#cohort21

 

2 thoughts on “Keeping the cart behind the horse

  1. Wow, Jen! Great post and reflection on the day. I think you’re exactly right that you got out of our F2F session exactly what was intended – you dove deep with your idea and have set yourself up with the next steps of your action plan. Nice one.

    It was so great to chat library stuff with you!

  2. YES!! This actionplan is so exciting and we are looking at the same stuff for assessment plans. I think foraging into #pbl and taking the time to understand it is important before you launch is a good approach.

    I think student agency has a big role in your action plan and what if you included them in the design shift in the learning? You could have them design think the next unit – give them the expectations you want to achieve and have them collaboratively come up with two assessments for learning and one assessment of learning, I’ve done it with my students and it allows them to frame learning goals and see the process of their learning. They can become UbD specialists!

    Sorry it’s taken so long to get to reading your blog but I want to say that I am excited to see what happens next!

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