Adventures in Education

Looking Back

As your school year comes to an end, it is easy to give in to the exhaustion from all you have done this year and the exhilaration of looking forward to summer. Once you catch your breath, don't forget to take the time to reflect.

If you still have your students for a few more days, make a quick, anonymous survey to get feedback. Find out what their favorite activities and lessons were this year as well as their least favorite. Ask them for suggestions to improve your class for next year.

What do you think were the best lessons and activities that you used this year? What lessons or activities need to be reconsidered for next year? What lessons did you learn from your students this year? Each group of students teaches something, so what can be applied from this group?

When it is time to plan for next year, use these reflections to help you shape your plans.

Comments

Thank you for challenging me George Couros

I admitted before that sometimes I tend to take too long to think about things. Well Mr. Couros, I spent a lot of time thinking about what you said in your session, "Leading Innovative Change"at ISTE13. I already agreed with you about the smartest person in the room being the room. Focusing on relationships wasn't something you had to convince me to do. I experience too much "mind your own business learning" around me so I was still with you. We are on the same page with learning being the focus over technology. I was with you through that presentation. Then, you pushed me out of my comfort zone. You asked us to raise our hands if we thought we could teach you something. I must admit I did not raise my hand. You managed to hit on one of my insecurities. I have no problem teaching those around me because they are not very tech savvy. When I come to large conventions though, I don't feel like I am able to teach others because I see so many

Humbled and Amazed by #LAedchat

So let's be honest here. I stink at blogging. I have made multiple attempts to get started and never seemed to get going. This is an area I need to improve, but too often it feels like one more thing to get done. I also tend to think too long about things before I am ready to put them down. I am sitting here tonight truly humbled and amazed. In February, I was at a Google in Education Summit #giesummit. Paula Naugle (@plnaugle) brought up that Louisiana was one of ten states that did not have a state ed chat. She asked Nate Kellogg (@nkellogg) and me (@mrsmhebert) if we would be willing to start up a chat. Less than two months later, here we are with a successful first #LAedchat under our belt. It was a little nerve wracking before we started wondering if we would have enough people for a thriving conversation. Turns out, the time and feed went speeding by. New connections were made between educators from Louisiana, all around the U.S. and even

Change

Change in education can be a tricky thing. When we look around, we see that in a lot of ways education still uses many traditional methods in the way we currently educate students. Educational technology has the potential to be a disruptive force, but in too many cases it has only been used to enhance education or provide a digital notebook. When we talk about change in education, a frequent point of discussion is resistance to change. Schools and districts around the country are working to determine the best methods to work with the teachers who resist change and don’t want to try new things. Helping the resistors move forward and change has been the subject of many discussions and implementation plans. Recently in the #GoogleEI, Google for Education Innovator, chat, Jamie Casap, the Chief Education Evangelist for Google @jcasap, made a point that resonated with me. Mr. Casap brought up that people are not change resistors; they are pain resistors. When we come to someone with