Edina Digital Age Learning

Episode 2 of our "Safe for Work Podcast has me discussing Inquiry, and Sean reading a lovely poem!    I was inspired by the great work of our South View and Valley View Middle School 8th grade staff on incorporating Inquiry in their instruction, as well as Project Lead the Way Engineering teacher, Jodi Ramirez , who had her kids sifting dirt to learn about composition. This focus on inquiry has continued to evolve, after some great professional development from Diana Laufenberg a few years ago! Earlier that day, I saw a great article noting that fostering curiousity in students can have a huge impact on closing our acheivement gap with low income students. Incorporating inquiry in instruction can be a great way to make that happen!  Sean and I are having a blast recording these sessions. It really is an extension of the great conversations we have when we get together in the office. We hope it is meaningful for you. If you have suggestions for upcoming topics, ple...

Disclaimer ; These thoughts are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer. This post has been ruminating for a few months. Glad to finally get all my thoughts down. What is Personalized Learning? Last December, Pernille Ripp , educator and author of “ Passionate Learners: How to Engage and Inspire Your Students ,” posted on her blog about 5 Tenets of Personalized Learning . This post resonated with me, as I believe she really hit on a key aspect: Start with the STUDENT! Here are the 5: Student Voice Student Choice Student Planning Student Reflection Student Action My Take Giving students voice, and REALLY getting to know the students, fits in perfectly with our district’s embrace of Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Instruction , along with Doug Fischer’s work on “really getting to KNOW your students! Student Choice does NOT mean everything is a free-for-all. The idea is to give them choice in What they learn, How th...

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to attend the Educon 2.1 Conference at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. One of the highlights for me was the chance to tour the school and sit in on classrooms to learn some of the pedagogy that makes SLA so unique. One of the classrooms I visited, was Diana Laufenberg's Government Class. Students were sharing their stories from public meetings they had attended and were sharing their learning. Last month, Laufenberg presented at the TEDxMidAtlantic Conference . In the talk, she shares the story of learning from the perspective of her grandmother, father, herself, and now her students. In her grandmother's world, school was where you had to go to "get the information." She points out that today, that is no longer the case. By asking students questions, allowing them to make mistakes, asking them what they can do with the information, we can offer a richer learning experience. She challenges us to provide experientia...