On Friday, December 7, I was interviewed by Alan November, one of the great minds in innovating education. I was honored and humbled by the experience. I talked to him about how I spent the first five days of class with my students.

My idea of using these first five days to give students better research and organization skills so that they can own their learning came directly from an idea that Alan shared with several teachers at a conference back in April.

I was very impressed with how students responded to it. Have a listen to the interview and feel free to comment. While Alan and his mission are truly great, during the interview he always turned it around and made me feel like I was the one who was doing great things.

Thank you also to Brian Mull, who reassured me before and during the process, and for editing the interview to make me sound much more intelligent that I really am.

If you ever get the chance to see Alan, do it. And don’t be shy about taking chances for the sake of your students.

Here’s the link: http://novemberlearning.com/implementing-the-first-5-days-an-interview-with-ian-vanderschee/