EduCon 2015 Reflections: 4. Keep moving things forward

From Brad Latimer's Calculus class at SLA. 
Use algebra or derivatives? 
Promote group work to figure out how to solve this.

It's easy to leave a conference like EduCon and keep all those great ideas in your notes somewhere.

I try to send notes, in their entirely or bits and pieces of them to others that I work with to help stir up ideas.

Brad Latimer and Caitlyn Thompson, both SLA teachers, helped me again with project based resources for math classes, especially for advanced levels. It's one of my goals to help teachers make 'mathematics' more messy, more challenging, less paper driven, more hands on, and more thoughtful.

There were many other takeaways from EduCon, but here are three larger items I wrote about earlier this week:

1: Addressing EduCon withdrawal
2: The Privileged Voices in Education
3) 'Grit'



Feedback from the session I facilitated called Getting Things Moving: Theory into action steps continues to come in, and it's been fantastic. My sincere thanks for all the feedback and to many who've passed the information onto schools looking to create new opportunities. 

My thanks to:

... Larissa Pahmolov, Meeno Rami, and Jose Vilson again who inspired me to push through and finish my book... like they did. It's difficult to find time and balance in the busy workday and life and move it forward. I'm just over halfway through... and rejuvenated to dive in again.

... the folks at SLA. Students, parents, and alumni at the school for another great chance to learn with peers. I love seeing SLA alumni there, students and parents alike, who volunteer to help out.

... the EduCon attendees. The familiar faces and to those who I met for the first time. My thanks for your work sharing questions and ideas, and participating in the discussions.

Refit a vending machine to sell student work...
Brilliant!

If you attended EduCon online or offline and are having some withdrawal... get things moving in your classroom or workspace first and chip away at larger school issues. Get support for getting some small, thoughtful changes moving. Getting students involved in that discussion is a great first step to break the ice. You never know where it might lead... likely somewhere you always should have been.

Keep exploring the EduCon discussion sessions that share links to discussion notes and resources... and also the #educon hashtag on Twitter.

Keep moving forward.

With any luck, I'll see you at EduCon next year.