Lesson Study at the Learning Forward Conference

This has been a crazy week of travel. Last Friday I was in Orlando. From Sunday to Tuesday I was at the Learning Forward Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA. Today I am off to talk with folks in the Kansas City area. I, for one, am ready for a holiday break.

Our presentation in Anaheim was a huge success. I had the privilege of presenting with some amazing educators. My team consisted of Nikki Rivera and Stacey Paulson from the Denver Public Schools, Mandy Ellis from the Orange County Public Schools (Orlando, FL) and Sue Wilder from DSC.

As a team, we shared our different perspectives on what we have learned about going to scale with lesson study. Each district discussed the different contexts they are working in and their unique plans for growing and deepening lesson study. From our perspective at DSC we shared what we are learning from our Lesson Study Initiative funded by the MetLife Foundation. All of us also shared the successes, challenges, and  lessons learned from our collective experiences in trying to go to scale with lesson study.

The general takeaway is that this is really powerful work.  Given patience and time (things that are sorely missing from our current conversations) teachers are makeing powerful changes in instruction based on this process. 

The handouts are attached below for those of you that are interested.

Next week will be the last blog post of the year. Stay tuned…