Derek McCoy is a career middle school educator. He has been a successful middle math teacher in high needs schools in GA and NC. He has over 15 years of experience as an administrator – serving in rural and urban schools. In 2014 he was recognized as a National Digital Principal of the Year for his efforts using technology in his school to significantly change learning and teaching and using digital tools to connect and grow educators.
Derek is an active national presenter and speaker. He has given keynote addresses to teachers and principal groups as well as state and national organizations. Every opportunity to speak is an opportunity to share and learn and grow.
Derek embraces his role as a Revolution@ry – helping change practices and beliefs and systems in our schools from the factory-model practices to the learner-centered environments our learners need. He and co-author Darren Ellwein, wrote ‘The Revolution: Its Time to Empower Change in Our Schools’ to show that it's possible [and necessary] to shift our current mindset and practices to build learning environments that reflect the true needs of our learners.
He is active on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and uses them to share real-time the great changes that are happening in schools
Start Your Revolution! - Keynote
Revolution takes place when people fight for a better tomorrow when the status quo has to be changed. Education needs to change today! We’ve embraced and protected systems from 100 years ago that do not serve learners in a globally connected, information-rich world. We think factory when we need to think creation; we think management when we need to think inspiration! We are called up to make bold, learner-centered decisions that force us to rethink what we know about learning, how learners engage and what all our new roles are. Let’s be the Revolution@ries our learners need, not the teachers we had as students.
Revolutionize Your Learning with Social Media
How do you get adults to rethink learning and professional development as lifelong learning? How do you get adults to embrace and apply a growth mindset to professional practice and daily life? The short answer – Build a PLN!
Connected educators have been successfully using Twitter and Facebook groups to change their beliefs and practices and connect with experts and innovation leaders to truly make a difference for learners. This talk will be as much inspiration as it is practical/know how. Let’s be revolution@ry learners and leaders!
We Can Revolutionize Middle School!
Middle school doesn’t always get the support and attention as other learning groups. That, coupled with decades of misconceptions of what middle schoolers are [and aren’t] have facilitated keeping and protecting stagnant systems that serve everyone in the school except learners.
Let’s start a revolution!
We will share how many of us are bringing about revolutionary changes to mid-level learning and leave with some practical starting points!
The REAL Revolution starts in the middle!