Learn, Think, Write

Wooooooosh.
The last several days have been filled with exciting learning moments for me. I spent much of the time working on proposals for Will’s and Sheryl’s Powerful Learning Practice program. We hope to be the contact/organizing school for Virginia and surrounding locations, but that means I need to find 19 other schools to join us. I’ve been writing and phoning, posting on lists and nings, and talking to teachers at my school in hopes of making this work. I want this!
Yesterday, I also met with several new teachers to begin projects, good projects that use technology in meaningful ways. For us, it’s a great start.
Then, last night, two colleagues came to my house around 6pm to set up for some online professional development a la Darren Draper and Robin Ellis at Open PD. Sue Waters chimed in as well as Jeff Utecht–wow–that’s all I can say. Spending time chatting online, watching Darren and Robin teach, and figuring out Skype was invigorating for all of us. (Next time I’ll remember to actually exit Skype instead of minimizing it when I hook external speakers to my laptop so others can hear!)
Today I spent time in three eighth-grade classes working on wikis and research. They jumped right in, and I loved looking around the room to watch learning happening.
After school, I met with the history department. And, although I was hit with some challenging questions about our vision of student learning and where we are headed with all this, I felt like it was a good start to a much-needed conversation about 21st century learning.
Tomorrow. Well, tomorrow, I am going to EduCon.
I hope to join conversations and learn more about how best to work with faculty and students. Plus, I’m taking two teachers with me: my favorite skeptic and a new teacher who is eager to learn. Should be fun!
I’ll live blog and Twitter as much as I can, so stay tuned!