Scrum In School: Lessons By Michael Vizdos

I am a volunteer with both the students in The Center and as an Advisory Board Member.

The CIT (Center for Information Technology) is a specialty center at Deep Run High School in Henrico County, Virginia. This public high school specially center is an application driven cohort that starts with 50 students in the 9th grade (Freshman year). They continue as a group through their Senior Year.

Recently, they assembled all of the students (200+ in their yearly cohorts) for their first “conference experience.” You can view the “GRIT Conference agenda here.

A case study is in development to be shared in the future.

I started as a volunteer and moved into a part time role with Blueprint Education (at the District level) beginning in 2020.

Hope High School (in Phoenix, Arizona) is a blueprint for Agile In Education to be used around the world for both physical and online schools.

I continue working part time with students, teachers, coaches, support staff, and administrators from the schools and the district.

You can watch a video here (warning: have some tissues handy).

A case study is in development to be shared in the future.

I volunteered with a local middle school team in Implementing Scrum with a team of 8-13 year old people on their “First Lego League” (or FLL) team projects.

During our third — and final year [2017] — for that team, the students advanced to the State level competition (and had a blast!).

In April (2016) I volunteered as co-facilitator for group of educators — from around the world — in creating our version of an “Agile Manifesto” (and we intentionally did not call it another manifesto).

It is called, “The Agile in Education Compass.”

This was the main outcome our three days together in Orlando, Florida:

The Agile In Education Compass

Together, we are discoverers of the world and ourselves.

The world is no longer predictable and learning needs to be more adaptive, connected, and interdependent. Education can respond to this constantly changing landscape with agility.

Through our journey, new paths unfold to reveal learning authentic to us.

You can learn more at AgileInEducation.org.

Toward the end of 2016, I volunteered (with a paid facilitaror) at this school to begin “flipping the classroom” with a three day workshop [awesome again!!].

We continue to work with them as they transition to a new way of working together as students, teachers and administrators.

You can view a video about the experience here.

I work part time with the VCU da Vinci Center with their Master of Product Innovation program — and other colleges within the Virginia Commonwealth University system — in helping to shape the future of higher education as a model to replicated worldwide.

I was invited to volunteer (with a paid facilitator) during the Summer of 2017 to help facilitate another Agile Classrooms workshop.

This was for teachers and administrators at this concept school called Iowa Big and other people interested in bringing this to their schools from the midwest areas.

Wow. I was totally blown away of what the team of people in Cedar Rapids (and surrounding areas), Iowa are DOING.

Take “project-based learning” and combine it with the framework of Scrum and BOOM. No kidding.

The possibilities here are enormous and I want others to understand what what is not only possible but is HAPPENING today.

I am the part time Agile Coach for the Blueprint Education School District in Phoenix, Arizona.

As a member of the Impact Team (School District Leadership), I have a seat at the table in helping guide the District, Schools, Classrooms, and Students in Implementing Agile and Scrum in the real world with them!

A case study is in development to be shared in the future.

You can learn more at BlueprintEducation.org.

After years of volunteering together, a subset of the original creators from the Agile In Education Compass published and released an incredible Creative Commons resource for teachers (around the world) to use.

The Agile Educator Guide was created and published.

You can download the FREE version of the Agile Educator Guide at AgileEducatorGuide.com.

The pilot program of the “CAL-K12” certification has been shut down by the Scrum Alliance.

As one of the co-creators of this program, I am sad to see it go but also know that the work is carried on at the Blueprint Education School District and others around the world.

Facilitated an in-person event in Phoenix Arizona to connect Blueprint Education, local agilists in the Phoenix community, and the Agile Alliance (the AgileDemics) Initiative.

Learn more at bpe_aug14.mvizdos.com