Princess Kanban

My daughter has entered 1st grade this year. I can't believe how fast she is growing.  She is discovering her strengths, developing more of her personality, & stretching her autonomy muscles (sometimes in ways that does not make it easy on me). In addition, 1st grade comes with more things for her to manage, more homework (which I am not a big fan of, but, that is another post) and more social engagements. She is outgrowing her older and simpler Kanban board, and it is time for a new version. Not only a design upgrade, but, also adding tasks that consider her ability to take on more responsibility.

Inspired by her love of Princesses, I created a quick mockup of my vision for her new board.

And, here is my first quick iteration of her Princess Board:

And, she hopped right on to it, loving it! Although, she pointed out, that it does not look like my Vision mockup!  Just like a typical customer not understanding iterative development! And, a very proud moment as a father, I saw her cleaning up her room and then the living room! I knew I had a new card called Clean Up, but, we did not talk about it at all. I looked at her board, and Clean Up was in the Doing column. She even demoed her room, asking me to see how clean it was. I am still a bit teary eyed....

Never underestimate the power of clarity as the essential ingredient in developing a self-directed child.  And this is what visual boards do.Without having to tell her what to do and when to do it,  I think I am out of a job!

Agile Learning Infographic

Agile Learning Infographic

Agile Learning is inspired by Agile product development principles and methods, with Scrum having the most influence. Although it is inspired by Agile, it is not dictated or confined by it. In many ways, the Agile terms are a barrier for educators in its adoption.

I have attempted to develop, with fellow educators, its own characteristics, personality, terms, and attributes as Agile is transplanted in the soil of education. In the infographic, a metaphor of flowing water emerged, with differing containers based on the context. The larger items are buckets, the smaller are cups, decomposing all the way down to drops of "Tasklets" the classroom moves through to learned.

I am sure I need to iterate this more to simplify and clarify the process. Thanks to Chris Scott and Evan Moore for helping me to clarify and simplify, and coming up with the idea of Buckets, which inspired the rest of the metaphor, from Cups to droplets of tasks, I call "Tasklets".

I will post a greater detailed description of the process for educators soon.

I really appreciate any feedback, as comments on this blog or emails to me.  This is my first try at an infographic, and please let me know your thoughts, especially educators, students, and parents. What does the infographic tell you about the process? 

Download as a PDF:
Original (Skinny)
Stretched Version

Note, I used Piktochart.com to develop this. I discovered it today and it is pretty amazing, except that the image size is a bit skinny.

Thank You ,
John Miller
agileschools@gmail.com

Agile Learning Objective Board

An example of a ABLE (Agile Based Learning Environment) board for teacher teams to collaboratively develop learning objectives. More details to come. Please comment.

This could also be used by students to develop their own Learning Outcomes for a classroom that is self-directed.

References

Linking Levels, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria
Jenny Moon, Exeter University