We met this week for Peer-to-Peer PD: Sharing our practices to build capacity.

I love when our learners connect ideas.  One of Ashley’s participants connected social media with formative assessment.

I learned how I can incorporate student Twitter in the classroom. I found her idea of having a “CTO” in the classroom is genius. Great window into what he/she is learning that day. She said they are more engaged as a result, and I believe it! So cool.

Another of Ashley’s participants outlined action steps, student engagement, and connected learner globally.

I was able to reflect and talk through some ideas of how to use Twitter in Kindergarten. I was inspired! My next steps are to have a discussion with my class about Twitter (what they know, etc.?). Then I will start using Twitter in the classroom by having the photographer for the week take pictures during recess of creations, children playing, nature, etc. and the last 5 minutes of recess we will choose a picture to tweet!
I also plan to use Twitter as a form of pen pals when we study Mexico. My plan is to connect with an elementary school classroom in Mexico that is Tweeting and exchange ideas about culture.

One of Janet’s participants connected using DropBox with our My Learning e-portfolios.

We will use Dropbox with our kids now! This will be very helpful for My Learning.

One of my participants connected Leading Learners to Level Up formative assessment to our My Learning e-portfolios.

My Learning is greatly about students taking ownership of their learning through the analysis of development (big picture). Being able to see the learning objective and self-assess progress towards the goal is a necessary skill for learning progressions (steps along the path).

A participant in Erin and Karen’s session

I learned about four different iPad apps that offer students opportunities to express themselves in different ways. Story Wheel focused on recording children telling stories. I liked the fact that this could be used in a small group lesson, which would give the children a creative way to organize and sequence their thoughts.

I will use these apps in my classroom, but I think it would be especially useful to have access to Skitch for Evernote since we are already using Evernote to house digital portfolios. One of the biggest obstacles to using iPads to record things for me is figuring out how to transfer saved projects into Evernote.

And, one of Melissa’s participants actually commented on the session being student driven.

I learned SO much about Haiku in a short amount of time! Melissa was such a good, patient ‘teacher’ and it was ‘student’ led, everything she taught was recommended/requested by us teachers.
Also, the class size was perfect and I really enjoyed that it was a hands-on class. I learn best by doing, so instead of listening or watching a ‘lesson’ on technology and then having to go back and do it later, I was able to do it right then. Wonderful!

When we dare to ask learners what they need and want to learn and match these up with what they can contribute, we learn and grow together. We connect ideas and learning. We build a stronger team by leaning in.

How might we spread this learner driven work throughout our school?