When curiosity is sparked...

I have written before about my use of medical case studies as entry points to inquiry cycles in my Biology class. Although a powerful way of forcing awareness of an information gap on various topics and bringing, "real life" problem solving to the classroom, this process also forces students to confront their fear of public speaking and ability to create a concise, clear, and engaging presentation to their peers. 

In the past I leveraged student presentations sparingly. Here and there when it was appropriate to share but nothing that formal. Medical case study diagnosis in Biology has forced me to think about the how I how I train students to give good presentations. I LOVE my students, but man...sometimes sitting through a challenging presentation full of overused animations and bullet points [God forbid Comic Sans] can be painful. 

Enter "Death by PowerPoint" by Comedian Don McMillian (see below). I stumbled across Don's incredible comedy sketch accidentally and found myself laughing hysterically! Then it hit me...Don's presentation was the RUBRIC I WAS LOOKING FOR! Simple, clear, and a fun way to share my expectations with students before class presentations in a way that wasn't me yapping at them about what a bad presentation looks like. 

I took it one step further and converted Don's bit into a "Dead or Alive" scoring Rubric. Click here for your copy! 

If you found the information in this message useful to your practice, I invite you to learn more about becoming a site member. Monthly membership includes, but is not limited to, frequent distributions of detailed online video courses, lesson plans, teaching websites, curricular resources, and access to webinars exploring the world of curiosity, inquiry and technology in the classroom. ​​Additionally, you can find a copy of my new book, "Spark Learning: 3 Keys to Embracing the Power of Student Curiosity" here. ​

I'm so excited to announce that the my online course offerings are growing by the week. Thus far, I have three class offerings with the goal of 10 courses by the end of 2018. All courses provides personal insight into various pedagogical strategies, technology hacks, reflective practice models and a myriad of other constructs I am excited to share. Courses feature video modules, text resources, and access to private facebook groups for sharing and collaboration.  All courses are available here and are created using Gumroad.  

Not a new idea at all, but I am always blown away by how productive class is when I assign a writing assignment and spend the class editing and providing feedback to all docs simultaneously. Today I pushed out this template, and groups of students relocated to a myriad of places on campus to complete their formal research article according to the template. I sat at my desk and provided feedback. Super fun. Super simple. Super meaningful. Below is a short video of the process. #embracethemess

The awesome Matt Miller (@jmattmiller) created this sketchnote of a recent presentation I did linking the 5E learning cycle to the Hero's Journey. Thanks Matt!!

Had a great conversation with the Bedley Bros. about inquiry today. Check it out below: