A new year full of new momentums and motivational drives. For me, this brought the changes of a new grade (now fourth) and new awesome colleagues.

With all these changes, what a great time to use this opportunity to work with our lovely primary pedagogical coach, Fiona (@Fi_Hurtado).

Fiona's coaching style is beautifully summed up in the diagram below, which she constructed:

My goal was to improve reading practices in my homeroom so our coaching relationship tends to lean on the "dialogical" side. The "why" came from the data in standardized testing last year. It's just one data point, sure. It may have been just my cohort, may have been related to my pedagogy, but if there was one area that the data suggested my kiddos could've been more "above average", then it would be in reading.

From all of this, an inquiry began to happen. Some of my key driving questions were:

• What programmes and practices do my new colleagues in my new grade currently have in place?
• Are there any strong literacy practicioners in my grade that I can seek out for further mentorship?
• What are some "must reads" on the subject that could be influential to this inquiry?

From these questions came answers:

• My team was using CAFE, which could be easily shrugged off as another gimmicky reading programme, but after reading and inquiring more into it, I thought it was super accessible for the kids (and me) and my team was already super on-board with it (yet flexible to whatever the group wanted to change for that given year).
• My new colleague and grade-level leader, Corie (@corieeolson) is super passionate about literacy and, thus, I found a willing mentor (At least I think so - hee hee)!
• Two great, highly recommended reads arose from conversations with Corie. The first was diving deeper into "The Daily CAFE" and the second was "Reading Power".

After this initial inquiry, synthesis of the books, and mentorship from Fiona and Corie, a game plan was created! 

Step one: A collaborative inquiry into powers that reading gives you in life.

Wanting to know what my kids knew already, I was thoroughly impressed. We added a few things to this list as time went on, but this powerful collation of ideas would serve us well in step five below.

Step two: Introducing CAFE through a slow unpacking and inquiry into all the strands of the acronym.

I'm sure the suspense is killing you by now - CAFE unpacks to... Comprehension - Accuracy - Fluency - and... -  Expanding Vocabulary. Each of these can be broken down further, which my learners and I took the time to inquire into the meaning, represented in the following slides.

Step three: Co-constructing an Expanding Vocabulary Practice

This was a bit of a curve-ball in terms of the timing (would've introduced it just a bit later) as it was student-initiated action. After unpacking CAFE, one of my learners came to me with an idea about how to work on our vocabulary, which led to a discussion, and we co-constructed success criteria. What we came up with is the following:

Step four: Student self-assessment of the CAFE criteria

Using a traffic light system, students self-assessed where they thought they stood with each criteria. Afterwards, they conferenced with me. As is often the case, students are brutally honest and self-aware, when given the opportunity:

Step five: Creating a student-centered approach to identification, goal setting documentation and evidencing CAFE growth

This built upon what I had previously been doing in Studio 5 last year, however with use of CAFE, it allowed for a more explicit and student accessible focus. Having Fiona offer some critical feedback (e.g. like forgetting to add an example - Doh!) before pushing it out to students on Google Classroom was super helpful. 

Here is the EVIDENCE LINK in the example pictured below:

Step six: Student cycles of improving their "Reading Power"

Success and expectations were co-constructed. We came up with two week cycles, which is definitely an appropriate amount of time for the next while. Ideally, I told my learners that I'd like this to be weekly, so we'll keep having check-ins to see whether or not this is a reasonable and fair expectation.

Each day (mostly), we do a unit-related read aloud, of which I draw out specific goals that my learners are working on explicitly. They are free to use these examples in their evidence. I usually follow this up with a CAFE related skill-building lesson that ties in with the writing genre we are currently working on.

In addition, most days of the week, we have a silent reading time where learners read independently for twenty minutes after lunch. Students are encouraged to acquire evidence from these books as well. After this time is when students work on achieving their goal and I get to conference and check in with how they are going.

There's been plenty of tech upskilling for the evidence part and round one took a little longer than two weeks, but I'm confident we'll get there. The kids are super excited to get "crushing" their next CAFE goal and it's so awesome to see the buzz on their faces after overcoming all of their resilience battles. I'm proud of these nine and ten year olds.

Here are a couple examples that I have permission to share (if you click on the photo - it will link you to the evidence):

​Like many educators I know, this return to blogging is long overdue ....

Disclaimer: I am not an assessment expert. The aim of this post is two fold -- to provide some key strategies as well as some examples -- in regards to what I feel has had successful outcomes in terms of assessment during school closures due to COVID-19.

To begin, here are three key strategies that I feel could be applied to any context...

Key Strategy One: Transparency (i.e. "No Secret Teacher Business")

A winning strategy in any classroom, whether you're physically distant from your learners or not, is transparency (i.e. "No secret teacher business") among stakeholders.

Something that works very well for my learners, parents and I is a shared Google Sheet that all have viewing access to, communicated in more channels that they could ask for. This document serves as our first port of call for any 1:1 conference or discussion. It also includes links to student work, where necessary, that are only accessible to those who need to see it. 

This document includes a legend, and three tabs, one for inquiry, math and literacy, respectively. Not pictured are the student's names in rows of the first column.

If I've sold you already on doing something like this, awesome. I'd strongly suggest that before you introduce it to students and parents, that you elucidate that any learning in life happens at different times. Some learners, particularly during COVID-19 school closures, are going to take longer than others.

Let them know that this is okay.

Whilst we have been using this document all year, parent/guardian and student feedback is overwhelmingly positive as they know exactly where to channel their focus and see where to next. They also know what I'm looking for, have responded to, what is due, and more. It is a wonderful starting point to any conference with either stakeholder.

In students, I find that it promotes self-regulation, self-efficacy and more.

Key Strategy Three: Provide more opportunities for assessment AS learning happens

Again, I don't think any of these strategies are isolated to being physically distant from our learners -- these are pillars of sound pedagogical philosophy. In a world where we are trying to step away from the pernicious industrial models of education, assessment as the learning takes place naturally creates a home for more of a student-centered approach.

Don't get me wrong, there are definitely times where we, as educators, need some quick assessment for learning to gain prior knowledge or inform us on where to next. And surely, after multiple assessment opportunities as the learning takes place, there eventually needs to be a point where there is an assessment of learning. 

Assessment as the learning takes place promotes a student-centered learning environment because it fosters the ownership piece of learner agency. Some ways we can achieve this can be giving more opportunities for our students to create their own success criteria, giving ample opportunities to self assess and reflect upon their work, as well as allowing for more time to reflect, practice and improve on the feedback given to them.

Bigger projects, allow opportunities for inquiry, choice, exploration of big concepts, knowledge transfer and more.

But what about academic honesty? This is not the cure all - end all on this question many of you have ruminated upon during this time, however bigger projects allow for ample opportunities for feedback (i.e. assessment as learning).  Since all educators have a pretty good pin on the voices of their learners, my personal opinion is that this issue is quite easy to highlight when or if it becomes apparent. Multiple feedback loops give the opportunity for teachable moments, student reflection and correction of this if it academic honesty were ever to arise. From my experience, I feel that the more voice and choice that you give within the spectrum of the project, you'll find that this concern becomes a non-issue. 

After learning about various concepts of shape and space, students were asked to engage in an independent  Geometry Town project. My colleagues and I decided to make the task 2D over 3D because most of the things that needed to be assessed could be done in 2D, which also be less time and material intensive for the students. Next, we gave our learners their three-part assessment checklist and provided an exemplar of "a way" the project could look like once completed. This was supported with video instructions as well. Students could choose to represent their town digitally or on paper.

Before submitting their projects, students were encouraged to self-assess their work using the criteria, and get feedback from an elder in their household, too.

Where we fell short was not including student voice in the assessment criteria, which could have been easily accomplished with a Google Form. This will be an area of improvement for next year.

Where did students benefit? They could design their town as creatively as they liked and could work on or offline. There were some constraints in order to achieve the assessment criteria, but it was designed to allow for as much diversity as possible. Plus, following an Understanding by Design approach, students were given the criteria before they started the project. Best of all, there was no hard due date (even though we gave them one) and they could go through as many feedback loops and photo submissions that they wanted in order to achieve success. 

Pictured below, is an example of a how, through multiple feedback loops and submissions, a student was able to achieve a greater amount of success.

In a summative project for a PYP, How the world works, inquiry into scientific topics of their choosing, students were asked to write an information report. 

To try and be as brief as possible, students chose topics generated from the science curriculum domains, then chose big questions to explore within that topic. Some key research skills taught and developed were learning how find resources (mostly online and our digital databases, given the current situation and limited access to offline material), how to TRAAP test these resources, skimming and scanning, summarizing, and more. Then, came all the scaffolding and teaching of skills of how to write a five paragraph information report - the text features, structure, writing introductions, body paragraphs, conclusions, referencing and more.

No easy feat in any context, particularly a home learning one. This took longer. That was okay. 

This is a salient point - learning takes longer in a context without our learners physically present. It needs to slow down. Bigger concepts need to be broken down to their finest nuance and explained succinctly and explicitly through multiple methods. Remember: Keep things as simple as possible.

For this project, my colleagues and I also wanted to create as many opportunities as possible for a variety of feedback loops. These loops included all the people they had access to - self, peers on chats, elders in their households, and their teachers. 

This project had roughly twenty feedback loops. Many were with the teacher through submission and response, but I will also include some of the other ways that we varied our assessment as the learning was taking place.

​To conclude

Assessment in lieu of physical presence of your kiddos does require some additional "out of the box" creativity and thought. Some key strategies, regardless of whether or not you're in front of your learners, are being transparent as possible with your stakeholders, honoring the asynchronous nature of learning, and thinking of more ways to include assessment as the learning takes place. These strategies are not synonymous with learning at home -- the bonus is that you're probably familiar with doing some or all of these already. 

Embedded in the examples and strategies above is creating plenty of opportunity for student voice and choice in ways that they can demonstrate their understanding. Through this, students become empowered and more intrinsically motivated. As a result, they take more ownership in their learning. In the excellent book, Empower: What Happens When Students Own Their Learning, John Spencer and A.J. Julianni posit that more ownership develops students that are able to, "Figure out what they know, don't know, want to master and what they'll do to improve." Thus, is it is crucial that we teach and provide opportunities to consolidate these 21st century skills. Our learners will only stand to benefit by being more meta cognitive, self-regulated and efficacious souls in the driver's seat of their own learning.

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I'd love to hear from you! What have been some of your key strategies and/or examples for assessment during this time? Please share in the comments below. 😊

I work in Studio 5 at the International School of Ho Chi Minh City (ISHCMC). It's a personalized learning environment that puts learner agency at the core of our belief system. As an advisor, I'm often asked questions like...
​

• How do you track growth?
• How do you know where your learners are at and their next steps?
• How do you communicate this to your learners? Their parent(s)/guardian(s)?
• What do you assess? How is it tracked?

In this post, I hope to elucidate what I do, which looks fairly similar amongst my colleagues, yet with some nuanced perspectives and ideas to make it their own. In other words, it is "a way", not "the way".

Assessment Philosophy

We, in Studio 5, don't believe in assigning numbers or grades to students; there's a significant amount of evidence about their lack of efficacy towards motivating students to learn. Thus, we believe in advising learners towards becoming intrinsically motivated in what they want to learn about (i.e. placing importance on learning how to learn). We value developing lifelong authentic skills over anything else.

Since our studio model operates within the context of the IB's PYP, the Enhanced Approaches to Learning (AtLs) make a lot of sense to use as our assessment vehicle. First, they were just redeveloped and introduced this year in the enhancements to the PYP; this translates to longer-term stability. In addition, the AtLs are present (with growing complexity) throughout the MYP and DP frameworks of the IB, therefore adding carry-over in the continuum of a learner's journey. 

These ideals in what we value stem from the Learning and teaching section of the enhanced PYP documentation. The IB posits that, the AtLs "are grounded in the belief that learning how to learn is fundamental to a student’s education."  These "skills also help to support students’ sense of agency, encouraging them to see their learning as an active and dynamic process" (IBO, p.  26).

Any educator that currently works with these AtLs knows that they are not easy to synthesize and interpret from the PYP documentation alone. To simplify these AtLs for all stakeholders in our community, we use a modified interpretation of the skills in infographic form developed by a former advisor, Suzanne Kitto (@OrenjiButa). 

A PYP Philosopy

To help guide what our studio model planning, learning and assessment looks like in depth, it's important to note that we are not just pulling stars out of the sky in our ideals. All of our philosophies are deeply rooted within the philosophy of the enhanced PYP framework. The bullets below are particularly salient to our everyday practice:

Long term planning

Over the course of the year, we, as an entire school, have a year long inquiry into "Who we are" as learners, individuals and as a community. Our exhibition (PYPx) lends itself nicely to "Where we are in place and time" for our children to reflect on their culmination of learning within the PYP before embarking into the MYP. This leaves the rest of the year open in terms of our Programme of Inquiry (PoI) to allow the children to set sail in three different Self Directed Units of Inquiry (SDUoIs). I know you may think that my math is wrong here, but SDUoIs tend to be trans-transdisciplinary (yes, we made that one up), leaving lots of room for balanced, horizontal articulation in our grade level.

​As advisors, we assist our learners in backwards planning their SDUoIs on six week timelines. During week seven, we host mini-exhibitions (or as we like to call, a "Take it Public" - otherwise known as TIP) in between SDUoI cycles. We give our children the agency in how they choose to TIP, which I have blogged about here, and so has my colleague, Taryn, here.

These TIP events also are wonderful low entry, high ceiling, and, what Mitch Resnick at MIT's Media Lab likes to call, "wide wall", celebrations that showcase learning journeys. They also help spark ideas, innovation, iterations and motivation for the next round of SDUoIs, which students spend the rest of week seven planning for. In general, to overly simplify our long term plan, it would look something along the lines of this:

Pre-planning - Setting a purpose

To help our inspire our learners, we help them in finding their autonomy, mastery and purpose (ultimately their motivation), stemming from Daniel Pink's work in his book Drive.

After a purpose is set, the final piece of the puzzle is a Simon Sinek fueled "Why, How and What" purpose planner. These planners help with initial conferencing to push our learners out of their comfort zones and also help connect them with the wider community (my colleague Taryn has documented this in great detail here).

The documentation of goals

Mentioned above, learners set four goals weekly, three of which are documented and accessible via their assessment folder (their personal goal is reflected upon in their digital portfolio). All three goals (SDUoI, Communications Skill and Math) all follow a similar process: Stated goal, successes, challenges and next steps. The expectation is to be media rich in the documentation and the students are generally their best judges as to when they've achieved mastery, or persevered long enough, on a particular goal. 

​Below are examples of each of these three documentation goal areas:

A documented communication skill example.

A documented math example.

A documented SDUoI example.

What about summative assessment?

As for whole Studio summatives, all advisors do some variety of one at the end of each SDUoI cycle, but I'd argue that it's more formative if anything as it is used to inform the next self-directed unit. The kiddos self reflect on their motivation, use of experts, get feedback from advisors and parents, then use all of this to inform how they should continue to push themselves further on their next endeavor. 

Because of the very nature of the personalized learning within the studio, children tend to summatively assess themselves actively and often, with advisor conferencing, when they feel they have persevered long enough on a goal. They have the documentation of their journey to prove it. Thus, there are summative assessments taking place, just on different timelines and in smaller doses.

Below is an example of a self-directed unit summative assessment...

To wrap up ...

If you're new to agency and/or personalized learning, I'm sure there are still many questions that I have left unanswered. In addition, this is "our way", and much of the above is even more adapted to make work for my specific advisory. I'm not suggesting that it is "the" way. Always start, collaboratively, with your "why". Then determine what the "how" and "what" will look like in your context. 

Agency, in an educational setting, after all is about valuing voice, choice and ownership in one's learning. A good start would be linking to the concept of this blog post -- that of celebrating process, rather than product.

Growth does not have to be measured in grades or letters. Things are changing (albeit at a snail-like pace). Heck, even Harvard is pondering the very notion.

If you've gotten this far, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read this rather lengthy post!

I'll also leave you with John Spencer's amazing video about what happens when students own their own learning (this message and more is also evident in his and Julianni's astounding book, Empower).

In what ways do you celebrate the journey over the destination?
What other ways that you track the growth of your learners beyond grades and numbers?
What are some of the ways you've "let go" and have introduced learner agency this year?
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Please add the answers to these, your feedback, comments, and/or suggestions below!
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I do share ideas on this topic and more on Twitter (@juouelle)!

Have you ever been an audience member at a school assembly/performance and either struggled to be entirely attentive or even worse, awake? I don't know about you, but I have struggled with both for the majority of school assemblies that I have attended both as a student and educator.

For me, this leads to an interesting inquiry...

Are whole school assemblies still needed in 21st century learning models?

Some things that come to mind to advocate for their relevance may be:

• Whole school celebrations/announcements/messages/initiatives
• Giving students opportunities to display skills to mixed aged groups and the wider community
• Giving the wider community an opportunity to join in on events at the school​

​What can assemblies still offer students in the 21st century?

I think for the people performing, it is a worthwhile experience. Particularly for students developing their communication skills and other skills the performance may require. Stepping out of your comfort zone, after all, is where the magic happens! Moreover, if the performers have voice, choice and ownership in what they are presenting, assembly performances would help strengthen neural pathways in their development of these skills, since they are likely intrinsically motivated to be there.

However, as an audience member, how much agency is really offered in a typical school assembly?

Here's the gut check. It is highly likely that your school's assemblies consist of a regimen that is far from agentic. Masses march on down to a central meeting space and are forced into some presenter centered environment. The audience norms are to be still, quiet, and attentive (i.e. compliant) for often too lengthy a period of time, dealing with the uncomfortable seating arrangement that the setting has to offer. As a result of this, behavior outcomes aren't always ideal and some students and teachers leave frustrated or more. 

Disclosure: I am not sitting on a pious perch. I, too, am guilty of engaging in this routine. Organizational compliance is a tough animal to beat sometimes. However, if we advocate for working alternatives, then why not be the voice of change?

Are all assemblies robbers of joy?

No. I'll argue that assemblies, in moderation, offer nice opportunities to show support for your fellow community members and the learning that is taking place. In addition, sometimes a whole school celebration (or unfortunate mourning) is necessary.

However, I've yet to encounter a school where a schedule of multiple grade level assemblies hasn't been the expected norm in the yearly planning.

So how could we move toward offering more agency in assemblies? 

Instead of droning on with the same old, same old "compliance festival", how can we "flip" the model to offer more agency for both presenters and audience? How can we still honor opportunities for learners to display their skills to a wider audience, allow for the greater community to celebrate this learning as an audience, and try to resolve the boredom crisis of the assembly model?

​One solution: The workshop approach

​By no means am I proclaiming that this is the best, nor the only way to offer more agency in assemblies. However, I will describe what my team and I do, and the perceived benefits. 

The context (i.e. Where the magic happens)

First, I'd like to mention how fortunate I am to work in an environment where "I wonder if..." or "What if..." ideas and innovations are celebrated. Generally speaking, if it's going to be good for the kids, then my organization encourages us to try it. In addition, this idea is not my innovation or brainchild; it is the result of collective values and ideas of my awesome team, which includes the administration staff that supports us. In fact, this idea doesn't rest solely within our grade level, as I've seen the grade threes run workshops for kids older and younger than them, too!

What is this place you speak of?

I work in an awesome environment called Studio 5 at the International School of Ho Chi Minh City, or ISHCMC for short. Studio 5 is built upon personalized learning and putting the learner at the center. It is an environment that highly values student agency.

​The workshop approach explained

Like all other schools I have worked for, the yearly calendar at ISHCMC includes multiple grade level assemblies. A  select few of these assemblies still remain the same, however, the rest tend to lend themselves toward more innovative interpretation.

A non-negotiable is that we, as a grade level, are expected to offer several assemblies for grades 2-4. This translates to about 16 classrooms. Traditionally, that would mean all 16 classrooms would gather en masse in one location. Our grade level would have to collectively decide on a performance theme, then, possibly, the learners may have some voice, choice and ownership of what the presenting could look like within the context of that theme. At least in my 15 years of teaching at quite a few schools, that's the way that it has gone. It's also how I remember it as a learner myself.

Our alternative approach is that we gather as a studio (grade-level), and have a transparent discussion. We, both advisors and learners, discuss the non-negotiable timetable aspect of offering something to grades 2-4 and giving parents a chance to celebrate some of the amazing learning happening at ISHCMC. Then, like the majority of things that happen within Studio 5, we equally include the learners in planning of what it could look like. More often than not, students tend to gravitate to wanting to offer workshops over anything else.

What does it typically look like?

Students in Studio 5 are owners of their own learning and engage in self-directed units of inquiry, or as we call SDUoIs (think PYPx, but more frequently). They're all, to some degree, "experts", in a wide variety of topics that they're intrinsically motivated about. This "expertise" covers a diverse range from computational thinking, design, "Chefsperts", "Sportspertise", "Craftsperts" and more.

Given this experience, workshops tend to make sense. We give the kids opportunities to lead in mixed age groups, which, as Dr. Peter Gray posits, allows children to learn more efficiently within their Vygotskian Zone of Proximal Development (i.e. ZPD). For example, an 8 year old child has a much better chance of understanding how to dribble in basketball from a 10 year old, rather than an adult who may have had years of experience playing the sport.

In Studio 5, the expectation is that we have a shared common agreement and responsibility in taking our learning public beyond the PYPx at least once throughout the year. So, come assembly time, getting volunteers for workshops tends to be quite simple.

From there, we, as advisors, provide scaffolding and support in order for the children to be successful in their workshops. We hold workshop meetings, mini inquiries into what makes a good workshop, help them with choosing the right year level for them, contacting the right people, booking resources, providing opportunities for feedback and more. Come workshop day, they're more than prepared to lead. 

Photo credit: Ha Thien, Kim Han, Thuy Pham and Stephen Flett

What are your thoughts?

Do you have any creative alternatives to adding more agency in assemblies? What are your thoughts as to whether or not assemblies still fit within 21st century learning? 

In the learning spaces that I advise in, students engage in personal projects that are largely varied. Some are collaborative, others deeply personal and individualistic in nature. Some students are designing their own shoes, whilst others are creating their own music, drawing their own animations, publishing their own stories, or creating their own video games. All of these projects include passion and playing around with ideas through iterations and/or tinkering. These 4Ps (projects, passion, peers and play), are the key concoction to creating cultures of creativity, according to Resnick. He elucidates what successful implementation of the 4Ps could look like and more in chapter- by-chapter detail in his amazing book, Lifelong Kindergarten: Cultivating Creativity through Projects, Passion, Peers and Play (2017). 
​

​Considering balance...

In my childhood examples above, some of my creative explorations included experiences both in real and digital worlds. Balance in these worlds, when exploring creativity, is a crucial point worth stressing here. Exploration that should be disproportionate in real world experiences, but not so extreme as to exclude digital spaces. As an educator and parent, it is disconcerting when you see children suffering from digital device addiction. Usually causes for this is the result of absent parenting, poor modelling, and/or no education towards media balance. When in doubt as to what constitutes a healthy media diet, Common Sense Media can be a great resource for education on the topic and much more.

I argue for a disproportionate balance in real world experiences because one thing that is front and center on my mind as a parent and educator, is what little amount of time children get to engage in unstructured play. Ideally, the type of play that is outdoors and without digital devices. In my opinion, the reasons for this deficit are varied, but for many, it boils down to unsafe neighborhoods, too much rigor in after-school lessons, or not valuing the importance of play altogether. ​

Meanwhile, in Scratch, another digital space that cultures creativity, players can create their own stories, games and more by learning to code "sprites" using Blockly (a visual, "drag and drop", style of computer code making programming accessible to all). Users tend to independently make their own projects, yet collaboration is fostered through Scratch's supportive "remix" culture. Users in Scratch can decide to either make their own creations and post to the share space for others to remix, or they can decide to keep their creations private. Alternatively, users can choose to  build upon or remix other people's creations. By doing so, they learn to expand on the ideas of others, but also learn the importance of crediting others for their work when they re-post to the community. The creative spiral, or design thinking approach, continues as Scratch projects have limitless potential to be remixed by the community.

Scratch, besides being an excellent platform for expressing creativity, teaches computational thinking (another important 21st century skill), along with the important lessons that "sharing is caring" (in this case through open-sourcing one's code) and that all creatures on this planet learn through copying or modelling from the more experienced.

A future in fostering creativity

In sum, creativity, is without a doubt, a timeless important skill to nurture. When creating experiences for those under our care, whether as educators or parents/guardians, consider whether or not the experience, as Resnick posits in Lifelong Kindergarten, is that of a playground (i.e. sandbox) or a playpen. As an analogy, playgrounds are to  Juliani's metaphor of creative chefs as playpens are to cooks who merely follow the creative playbook of others.

Perhaps some guiding questions to ponder when trying to foster creativity in your context:

• Does this learning experience allow for a variety perspectives in which it can be explored?
• Is the learning experience prescribed or will it allow for diversity of outcomes?
• Are there opportunities for a voice, choice and ownership in how the experience can be explored?

After a sandbox (or playground) for creativity is established, remember to carefully consider the balance of creative experiences between the real and digital world. In other words, be sure to not only educate, but model ourselves, as to what media balance looks like.

Yes, creativity is undoubtedly a skill that can bring us much joy. However, skills of equal, if not more importance, are the ability to empathize with others and build strong face-to-face social connections. According to this longest study on the subject, these are things that will equate to a good life full of happiness. 

​What are your thoughts on creativity? What skills do you feel are also important to nurture in the AI era? Do you have any thoughts towards media balance? I'd love to hear your perspective in the comments below!

Teach via a blended learning model? Do you have iPads and are looking for alternative ways to get your students to reflect beyond text, simple video or voice recording?  

Fortunately, there are a plethora of free tools and applications out there to give students more choice in making their voices and ideas heard. To simplify, start with three options native to this device (and a win for frugality): #ClassroomClips, screen recording and the drawing feature in the Pages or Keynote.

Stay tuned for more in this series...

How about you? What are your favorite quick and easy tools and/or applications for students to document their learning? Share them below!