What I've learned at EduCon 2.1 :I'm definitely a "Green Hat!"

Here are some key takeaways I've had here at Educon in no particular order:

• There are no public "AP intensive schools" that have moved to Project Based/Student Centered Learning because as Gary Stager said, "AP is the antithesis of a Project based Student centered curriculum. There are some private schools who have recognized that they were turning out students who were good at the Knowledge level but not beyond, and have made the switch, like the Cincinnati Country Day School.


• There are many programs out their that are working, but replication and scalability are not easy-human capital.


• The key to creating successful projects is to develop authentic Essential Questions that are standards based.


• Chris Lehmann is a tremendous educator, and tremendous host!


• The teaching staff at SLA are fantastic! And their pretty young too!!!


• There is a huge disconnect between what we believe education should be about and what it is about. Change will not be easy, but worth fighting for!
  
• The SLA Core Values: Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation, Reflection
• The SLA Themes for each grade level: Identity, Systems, Change, Creation


• The Glenbrook Digital Learning Space,and method for implementation is very promising!


• Have back up plans when things don't work...Doesn't mean it's not worth doing.
• A 1:1 Laptop program does not mean giving up books or notebooks.


• The SLA students are tremendous co-learners! Letting students join your PLN isn't a bad thing! I started following a few of the students at SLA I met. Hope to learn from them!


• I made some good connections with a knowledge base we can tap into.


• Benchmark, Project Based Lessons-maybe start with 1 a semester?


• We will need power strips, no matter what laptops we purchase!!!
• Learned how to use Eduard DeBono's "6 Thinking Hats"


• Student comment that when he sees Chris Lehman's Tweets, it lets him know how hard he is working to make SLA a great school-This was Will Richardson's take-away too! Change is possible!!!


• If a question can be answered by looking it up on Google, is it worth asking?


• In the age of standardized testing, the question isn't "Is our children learning?", it should be "Are our children learning how to think?"

Now back to Minnesota, rolling up the sleeves and back to work!! Good luck to the Green Hats!!