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Trailblazers: iPads and 7th Graders
My school has gone 2:1. Two devices, one student. Grade 7 students are now walking around with iPad minis in addition to their MacBook Airs. As any avowed Apple-Fangirl, I’ve been excited about this...
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Visible Thinking: Not Just for Little Kids
I’m thrilled this year to be teaching DP History again. It’s been a while (my entire time at YIS) and I’ve missed it. But in my years focusing on MYP and middle school, I’ve picked up some new teaching...
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A teacher learning from her student leaders
I love being a middle school Student Council advisor. To other people, planning middle school dances, trying to run meetings with 12 year olds, and organizing monthly assemblies with grades 6-8...
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What’s Next: Beyond Blogging
I was lucky enough to be able to facilitate the Beyond Blogging workshop at YIS earlier this month with Jabiz. Trust me that I get the irony that blogging has fallen to the bottom of my to-do list too...
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Why are you here?
My classroom often looks like this. creative commons licensed ( BY-NC-SA ) flickr photo shared by ndbekah A mess. A disaster. Craft supplies everywhere. Boxes that contain things like cans of helium, a...
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Bouncy Ball Revolution
There are are lot of words written about how we need to get our kids to move. “Movement isn’t a break from learning; movement is learning” – Washington Post Children are going to class with bodies that...
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Attach yourself to people not to apps.
In the past 14 hours I have… Had a text conversation on WhatsApp with my college roommate about her visit from Chicago to Japan in a couple of weeks. Had a Facebook conversation with another old...
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Live Tweeting a History Class
I’ll be tweeting our WWI historians breakfast at #16HISYIS pic.twitter.com/dofNVEIH06 — Rebekah Madrid (@ndbekah) September 10, 2014 Starting the live tweeting of WWII Historians Dinner Party #16hisyis...
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Leadership Day 2: Empowering Student Leaders in Middle School
You can’t make the term “project management” sound fun. Or cool. Or like anything you want to think about ever. Every consenant sounds harsh and the concept sounds like something out of The Office. So...
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“You’re just like Kris Jenner, Ms. Madrid”
“You’re just like Kris Jenner, Ms. Madrid”. -Grade 11 DP History Student on May 8th, 2015 That was a new one for me. I’ve never been compared to the...
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Learning from Each Other: Getting Meta with Professional Learning
I have recently taken on a new role at YIS…In-School Professional Development Leader. More to come on what this means, but it’s really thinking about how we support teacher learning while at ELC to...
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Project One School: Empowering Kids Two Days at a Time
I’m behind. I have about 10 blog posts I need to write. But my words all seem to be going to other spaces…Coetail blogs, report cards, emails. All those places words go. But I’m blogging now. And...
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Learning in the 10th Circle of Hell: Learning at the Middle School Dance
Here is my talk from Learning2 Manila. Thanks for letting me have the stage, Learning2. I’m realizing how much fun it is up there! Watch this talk if… ….you have 8 minutes to spare and you’re running...
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That’s a tomorrow problem
flickr photo shared by Drriss & Marrionn under a Creative Commons ( BY-NC-SA ) license Two inherent truths about myself: I love sleep I dislike stress I wear a lot of hats. I think all teachers...
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What my students taught me on their last day of school
Today was the last day for my grade 12s. They are going away to take their exams. I’m a little sad. Actually I’m a lot sad, because I’ve spent two years with these people and after today I won’t see...
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Helping teachers learn
One of my hats is “In-School Professional Development Leader”. Basically, I help shape what professional learning goes on in school, be it through meetings or structures for learning through teacher...
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Breaking it down
My assessments are full of text. And not fun text…boring text. Sometimes I try fun fonts or pretty colors or a thought-provoking pictures. But there are a lot of words. Seriously…look at this grade 6...
View ArticleAn update and the plan: Reflecting on Continuous Learning and Thinking Forward
So it’s been a long while since I’ve blogged. So long I have a “follow me on Google+ button” on my site. And a lot has happened since I have last logged in to add some ramblings. I’m now a vice...
View ArticleWeek 1 Continuous Learning: Same Same But Different
Context: We started Continuous Learning thinking it would be a two week thing. Ha! It ended up being 13 weeks. But so many things that we started in this week laid the foundation for the entire...
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Week 2: Continuous Learning – Ask for Help…But Be Confident
Context: At this point we had been doing Continuous Learning for four days. We only thought we had five more days to go. I was still going into school, as were a number of teachers. Because there was...
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