Inspired Learning Convention

Today was a great day.

I spent the day in Upton, MA at the Inspired Learning Convention.

The incomparable Beth Holland kicked off the day with an awesome keynote address. Rebellions start with rebels...

Dave Quinn and the folks at the Mendon-Upton RSD put on an awesome event, with student hosts, a great keynote, time spent in their Library and Makerspace, and a great array of teacher presentation. I got to sit in on a talk by Amanda Hough and Kim Palmer. A great collaborative team getting high school students to teach Kindergarteners coding as well as art through Bee-Bots and student created mazes. Art, coding, student agency. I was blown away, very cool collaborative team.

The afternoon was capped with a long session with the MIT Teaching System Lab folks. It was long but well worth every second. We went through a Meta Rubric exercise that really made me rethink how we assess students, and how I think of teachers assessing students. I'm generally not into group work at conferences, the introvert with social anxiety in me usually makes it very uncomfortable for me, but this was well worth it. If you aren't familiar with the Meta Rubric, definitely check it out.

It was a great day.

Christine Boyer and I talked about student presentations and how the 5th grade teachers at Heathcote School ditched the tri-fold for the 5th grade student Capstone project and created CapCon! a student learning conference where student voice and student stories are the forefront.

If you want to follow an amazing teacher, follow Christine Boyer. She is pushing the limits in 5th grade with maker immersion, 20% time, and a general classroom feel of student led choice, and student led learning.

Below is out brief presentation. We talked about why we ditched the tri-folds, why we put more emphasis on student's telling their stories, why we felt the Capstone experience needed a shift for the kids...

I've written about CapCon! before. Feel free to check out those previous posts. And follow the Inspired Learning Convention folks, they are awesome educators pushing the thinking, learning, and student voice in their schools and districts.

Already looking forward to next year...