What's happening in 6th grade?
Newsflash! I've jumped on the EdCamp bandwagon! I wish I had found out about these sooner. Last weekend, I attended my second EdCamp in three weeks! I attended EdCamp IHM at the end of October as well. This past Saturday, I woke up at 5am to drive ~2.5 hours with a teacher friend to EdCamp NJ in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Very glad I did! So refreshing to connect with so many like-minded educators! I warned my friend, a first time attendee, it may be overwhelming due to the sheer magnitude of people (from what I heard, between 800-1,000 teachers). Being from out of the area, it was definitely overwhelming After making some quick connections in the Cafe, my friend and I headed to our first session together: Gamification and Game Based Learning. While this wasn't exactly what I had been hoping for, I certainly pulled some nuggets from the session. I had been looking for some wisdom and experience from teachers who had tried Badging Systems in their classrooms. Instead, I came away with some great resources/reminders: iCivics to use in my 7th/8th Grade Classroom, distinguishing the difference between gamification vs. game based learning. My understanding is that gamification is using game elements in conjunction with regular classroom tasks such as XP Points or badges for example. Game based learning is the use of games to learn skills or principles such as MineCraft, board games, etc. Students can also create video/board games under the "umbrella" of game based learning. Next: Grading Practices. This was perhaps the most intriguing conversation of the day. The session was led by Dr. Joseph Trybulski, a middle school principal. He shared his own experiences within his own school in district of trying to adopt more fair and equitable grading practices and policies. For the most part, I was quiet for the majority of this session and absorbed what many experienced educators shared. Some big points I took away from this session:
Third Session: Creating a Reflective Classroom led by Dan Kaplan. This was not quite what I expected but definitely came away with some valuable tools! In short, there is tremendous value and growth potential in asking students to give feedback following your own instruction. I had the stereotypical reservations: My middle school students would tear me to shreds. What thoughtful constructive criticism could a student provide? I don't know where and when I would do this in my teaching. Came away with a great palette of tools to construct, then conduct an evaluation. This is going to be hard, but how could it not help me grow and become a better teacher? Two keys: Anonymity, eventually. Practice with students in giving feedback before letting the reins loose. Finally, attended a session I was already super passionate about: Personalized Learning Strategies led by Angela Reading, a very passionate special educator. I feel like she says everything I'm thinking when I don't always articulate it! And, as she says, she's very "progressive." So passionate about creating 21st learners empowered to be the best they can be using the plethora of technology now available out there. In this session, I was able to share some of my experiences in using hyperdocs/playlists and my newly implemented CYOA (Choose Your Own Assessment) style of assessing student learning in my classroom. Some tools mentioned that I use: Edpuzzle and Seesaw. I also brought up one of my favorite podcast episodes from Cult of Pedagogy: The Apollo Model, which models the type of differentiation and individualization I hope to attain in my classroom. This was an awesome trek to EdCampNJ! So glad we went! There was the added bonus of doing some site seeing on the way home! Princeton University is an incredibly beautiful campus! Wow. It was like stepping outside of time for a bit. While I never could have/would have attended such a school, I can certainly appreciate the history and beautiful architecture! Wikimedia Commons.
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About MeLouie here! 5th Grade Teacher. Level 2 Google Educator. Love all things Google. 1:1 Chromebooks. Archives
June 2020
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