C4T Summary for December

Mr. Bernia is the Oakview Middle School principal. In his post "Smarter Balanced Assessments, change for the better?," Mr. Bernia makes a list of the key skills that students need to succeed on assessments (make inferences, critical thinking, write, stay focused, and many others) and what educators need to do in order for their students to receive a better education (use technology, provide real world examples, teach note-taking, and many others). In my comment, I wrote how important it is for students to get their hands on technology because of the wide range of tools available on the Internet. I also agreed that it is important that students break tasks and concepts down. Last, I mentioned how educators need to move away from multiple-choice testing to assessments that require more thinking based on the knowledge acquired from technology and the pieces of each concept.

In his post "#EdcampOU, what a way to spend a Saturday," Mr. Bernia discusses the conference held at Oakland University called "EdcampOU". He said that he learned a lot about technology tools and structures but the most important takeaway for him was philosophical  He says that events like edcamps are examples that "there really is better way when it comes to learning for educators". He states that at these meetings "strong learning happens". Mr. Bernia ends by saying that educators walked away with practical tools and networks to keep learning. In response, I said that it is great that he had the opportunity to be in such a positive environment where everyone was working for the one motive of improving education. I think the most important part is to create networks. This enables educators to learn from each other and share tools that they have found valuable.