Cohort 21 Day One – Face-to-Face at York School

So here we go. . . I am excited to be a part of this team of teachers from CIS Ontario schools. Teaching can be such an isolated profession and it is nice to have time set aside for sharing ideas.

A full day of learning, discussions, and thinking has left me both excited and exhausted. I have summarized some of the interesting things we looked at today, so that I don’t forget 😉 and also to share with others.

Understood It: http://understoodit.com/ – I like the idea of a “check-in” with students. I can prepare multiple choice questions, open-ended questions, or even just have them click on buttons (understood or confused) throughout the lesson. See the screen shot below. Another nice thing about this site is that students do not have to download any programs or even create a username or password to participate.

“Ask three, then come to me”: I like this idea of suggesting that students ask three other people around them before asking me. Then if they get to me, I will ask them to bring along their “three” since none of them were able to answer the question.

Twitter: take two. I tried using twitter last year but was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of resources. I will try again, giving myself permission NOT to follow and read every link posted in the hashtags I search. So many educators I respect say that twitter is the best professional development they’ve experienced. https://twitter.com/melodyprussell

Diigo: This is a very interesting tool. I showed it to my partner when I got home as I could see it being something he would find very useful. It is a great way of organizing internet links. You can tag the links with different key words to make finding them later much easier. You can highlight interesting passages and even add sticky notes. You can share your bookmarks with others. You can see my diigo bookmarks here: http://www.diigo.com/user/melodyrussell

Poll Everywhere: This is a resource that I have used before, although I would like to use it more often.

I will post some of my reflections on the day in a separate blog entry.

I would like to thank Justin Medved and Garth Nichols for leading such a wonderful day. I am looking forward to working with them and the others members of Cohort 21 through the rest of the school year.