Personalized Professional Learning and the Smackdown
Often when attending a workshop, participants are faced with an overwhelming program of possibilities, each with perhaps just a short description from which to make their choices.
How can one best select their professional learning path?
In order to facilitate more personalized, better informed professional learning I recently employed one of the Joy of PL recipes.
Using a Smackdown format (Book 3, Joy of Innovative Professional Learning, page 12) for a whole group opening session was the perfect way to kickoff a day long conference with joy!
"Often when attending a workshop, participants are faced with an overwhelming program of possibilities, each with perhaps just a short description from which to make their choices."
1st Nebraska Canvas Users Conference,
Katie Morrow, Nebraska USA
Here is how:
- First I created a Google Slides presentation and shared it will all presenters so that they could add content to their session’s individual slide. Embedding self-playing timers made the experience fast-paced and fun!
- With the help of a colleague, we tag-teamed the experience.
- Alternating from side to side, we moved the mic at each buzzer.
- Participants in the audience got to hear a 30 second pitch for every session that promoted more than simply the descriptions in the program.
- At the conclusion of the Session Smackdown we declared everyone a winner as they were all now able to attend the rest of the event with more certainty that they were selecting the best sessions for their professional learning needs.
- We used Google Slides to facilitate the Smackdown: Smackdown Slides
Personalized Professional Learning and the Smackdown