16 Things Learned At NTAC15

1 – Heard at Agents for Adult Learning Workshop facilitated by Janicylnn Granado and Tina Lopez

The culture of your students will never exceed the culture of your staff.

 

2 – Heard at Teaching Agency workshop facilitated by Stephanie Rothstein

Growing in Agency is a personal process.  How can we find ways to create experiences and assessments that honor that personal growth process?

The verb honor adds a lot of depth to this question.  I’d like this question to haunt my brain for awhile and hopefully inspire some new compassionate and innovative ideas related to Agency.

 

3Heard at From Framework to Protocol workshop facilitated by Jim May

We get better specifically, not generally.

 

4Experienced at Building Relationships Through Agency workshop facilitated by Matt Bertasso

Rocky 2 embodies all the Agency rubric descriptors.

See linked rubric.

 

5Heard at What the Hack? workshop facilitated by Lee Fleming & Meghan Pacheco

Fail fast

Design thinking experiments that lead to quick results so that lessons and related improvements can occur quickly and incrementally.

 

6Heard at What the Hack? workshop facilitated by Lee Fleming & Meghan Pacheco

Listen to YES’s and NO’s

To avoid confirmation biases, listen to the lessons learned from experiments that fail and that succeed.

 

7Heard at Building Relationships Through Agency workshop facilitated by Matt Bertasso

The Agency rubric can be used to have productive conversations about teaching practice.

Some questions to discuss include:  What are your strengths?  How does that impact your classroom?  Where do you struggle?  How can I support you where you struggle?

 

8Heard at Building Relationships Through Agency workshop facilitated by Matt Bertasso

The Agency rubric can be used to have productive conversations about student behavior.

Questions to discuss with students include:  What part of the rubric best describes your struggles? What strategies can we use to help you overcome your struggles?

 

9Heard at Grade Smart, Not Hard workshop facilitated by Steve Pratt

Grade smart, not hard.

Develop systems that generate grades that evaluate content mastery, not behavior and that honor the fact that what students learn is more important than when they learn it.  For more details, see tinyurl.com/feedbacksmarter, and this book

 

10Heard at Agents for Adult Learning Workshop facilitated by Janicylnn Granado and Tina Lopez

The 6A’s rubric can be used to add rigor to Critical Friends reviews of projects

Assign teachers to be experts in each domain of the 6A’s rubric and use them as lenses to provide Critical Friends Feedback related to projects.

 

11Heard at Amping up the Authenticity workshop facilitated by Kevin Gant

Not all project standards are addressed in the products of authentic projects.

Products that address real problems can not be necessarily manipulated to include all standards. It’s OK – these standards can still be addressed in other project scaffolding and assessment activities.

 

12 – Nadirshah Valasquez trick

Good driving questions can serve as entry events.

Have each student write the driving question on an index card.  Then add 3 additional questions that need to be answered to tackle the driving question.  Then spend 10 minute cycles conducting research on the questions and having discussions on findings.

 

13Heard at From Framework to Protocol workshop facilitated by Jim May

All school wide focus statements should relate to student learning

 

14Heard at Teaching Agency workshop facilitated by Stephanie Rothstein and the Building Relationships Through Agency workshop facilitated by Matt Bertasso and the Framework to Protocol workshop facilitated by Jim May 

Start with the Why

See linked diagram.

 

15Heard at Amping up the Authenticity workshop facilitated by Kevin Gant

Characteristics of Authentic Projects

Products are used by real people outside classroom.  Content expertise is ceded to experts outside the classroom.  One driving question can give rise to a variety of very different products.  Works well with experienced teachers and students.  Time frame can get messy.

 

16Watched and discussed at Teaching Agency workshop facilitated by Stephanie Rothstein

This video is Magnificent and can be used to have  interesting discussions about Agency

See linked video

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