On the verge of a new semester… restart button!

At the end of every semester I always take some time to get feedback from my students. I have been doing this off and on for 16 years. In the beginning years it was because I was a new teacher not yet confident in my practice. Now it's because I'm an experienced teacher who is of the growth mindset.

This last semester was definitely a learning experience. I was more familiar with the curricular competencies of my ADST courses and finally felt comfortable enough with the skills to teach them. The hard part: lack of student friendly language explaining the design thinking skills which has now gone through 3 edits for the semester! I have shown some my recent "edition" and they said it's much better and isn't stress inducing. The great part: the conversations we had about the skills and how different content topics can be explored. The solutions they came up with for their projects were amazing! The thought, efforts and empathy that went into their prototypes were heart warming.

So, this brings me to semester 2 which starts in less than 20 days (weekends included). Goals for this semester that I'd like to try:

1. Teach the design thinking skills first

2. Have students use Spaces for gathering of learning evidence and reflection in a portfolio concept

3. Have students co-create the success criteria as a single-point rubric for their authentic pieces

4. Have regular public showcases of their learning

5. Conduct regular reflective learning conferences

I'm sure I could think of more things I want to do, but 5 is enough for 1 semester, maybe even too many. The semester starts January 30th. I hope to blog my reflections each week!