In this session we'll explore 6 different lightweight ideas/activities you can implement in your classes tomorrow to leverage mobile (and stationary) technology to document student learning and foster reflective ways for students to share what they're learning. We won't just talk about them, we'll do them. Then we'll talk about them and how each of us might practically adapt these ideas in our own classrooms. Each practical activity will model ways in which the hard work involved is the thinking engendered in students while the technology is elegantly simple and easy to manage for teachers.
Basically, we'll have fun, play with practical ideas that allow teachers to easily incorporate technology in their classroom daily, and leverage some of the mobile technologies that are increasingly found in students' pockets. This session will be an accessible introduction to the fundamentals of using technology in the classroom.
Discover the curriculum of tomorrow. How do we build it and can it really be free? What must educators think about when planning, building, and vetting these digital lessons? The curricular book of the future is going to be connected, adaptable, flexible and customizable. Explore the options for moving away from traditional textbooks in favor of e-Publications and a variety of Open Educational Resources (OER). Walk away with a multitude of free resources! See how the newest web-based tools for curating information and aligning with Common Core standards put students and teachers – not textbooks – at the center of the learning process.
How many of you have thought you were a connected school leader just by being signed up for Twitter or by listening to a webinar online? In this presentation, Shannon will show you embrace what it truly means to be connected through social networks and by participating in various activities as you develop your very own personal learning network. She will provide information on how she has made a difference within her school community, librarianship, and education by being connected.
For nearly two decades, twin brothers and co-founders of Boston-based media/interactive development firm FableVision Peter H. Reynolds and Paul A. Reynolds have created and shared stories that have helped inspire learning, creativity, and courage to lead self-directed, meaningful life journeys. With books and films that have been celebrated around the globe, Peter landed the Association of American Publishers’ 2013 Visionary award for making such a "positive impact on the lives and endeavors of those throughout the learning resource community."
What makes the Reynolds' brand of storytelling so powerful? As American Psychologist Jerome Bruner (2002) explains, "metaphorically rich, morally instructive narratives teach us who we are and who we can become.” The brothers will share how the power of story can provide transformational change in students' (and teachers') lives - whether it is inspire self-directed learning (The North Star), courage needed for learning & self-expression (The Dot), resilience in the face of struggles (Ish), flexibility and growth mindset (Sky Color), embracing others with differences (The Blue Shoe, I’m Here), adaptive expertise, creativity and innovation (Going Places.) The brother’s talk will be interspersed with a sampling of their books and animated films, all of which can be brought into one's practice - often with enduring, life-changing results.
Key to the Reynolds mission, they will also encourage every participant and their students to discover and capture their own stories - and share them using a host of powerful new tools for creative self-expression and publishing. And most importantly, the Peter and Paul will challenge everyone to “make your mark matter!” Suddenly, we live in a world where we any student can create and broadcast self-created media from home and school. And, somewhat unnervingly, one can use 3D printers just as easily digitally fabricate a plastic gun as they can a simple machine or toys. Infinite choice & easy acquisition to creation/maker tools makes it all the more important to provide positive scaffolding. Attendees will be given the encouragement and support they need to provide the learners in their care with inspiration and guidance to use their creativity and human potential to move the world to a better place.
Over the journey that has been Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, they have become really deeply aware of how inquiry is a process. Similarly, Chesterfield County, Virginia has scaled inquiry-based blended learning to 60,000 students. The five core values of Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation and Reflection are at the heart of the inquiry process and everything they do as a school, but there are some differences with the way SLA approaches instruction at the individual school level and how teachers in a large, managed instruction district approach instruction. At the center of any great the inquiry process is that the person engaging in the inquiry, the learner, who actually cares about the questions they are asking. In this session Chris Lehmann, principal of the school, and Adam Seldow, executive director of technology in Chesterfield County, VA will highlight the core values and show how you can put inquiry into practice at any level and any scale.
Do the challenges to flipping your class prevent you from getting started? Are you having a hard time seeing when the best time to start flipping would be? Learn how “Just In Time” recording – where you can record as you teach without having to take additional time from your day - helps you overcome the barriers to flipping your class and can get you up and running easily and quickly. Finally, we will spend some time on what makes the best videos and digital content.
As our elementary students explore the world around them, they have a lot to say with distinct, refreshingly honest, and four-foot-high points of view. When our students become documentarians, they tell stories, create art to express non-fiction content, and make persuasive call-to-action films that set their powerful voices loose into the world. Happily, student documentaries also address a range of CCSS ELA Speaking/Listening and Writing standards while immersing students in the art of filmmaking.
In this session, I will share how my students go on powerful investigations behind the camera lens. In one student documentary, my students explore the range of reactions to a public art installation by sculptor Tom Otterness. In other, PSA-style documentaries, they craft powerful arguments to improve their community. I’ll share how I introduce documentary making to my students and the supports I provide (and often don’t provide). It just takes one smartphone, tablet, or camera and video-editing software to empower your students to create amazing documentaries YOU will be itching to show to the world.
The proliferation of inexpensive or free “easy-to-use” online tools provide increased access for educators to develop online and blended courses and activities for students or other educators. Yet effective design for the online environment involves more than uploading content in an available online shell and educators have many questions as they get involved with designing online content. What’s different about online design? How do we adapt face-to-face content for effective delivery in an online or blended environment? How do we design online content so that it’s interactive and engaging? How is learning in the online environment assessed? How do we keep the focus on the pedagogy and content and not the technology tools?
This hands-on interactive session will address these questions and more through a discussion of key online course design principles, an exploration of an online course used to prepare educators to design their own online courses, and a review variety of example online courses and activities that illustrate effective online design.
In addition to content, the flipped model can be used to provide meaningful student feedback on assessments. Use video feedback to provide direct instruction and start a dialogue with the student instead of the one way red ink conversation.
As our elementary students explore the world around them, they have a lot to say with distinct, refreshingly honest, and four-foot-high points of view. When our students become documentarians, they tell stories, create art to express non-fiction content, and make persuasive call-to-action films that set their powerful voices loose into the world. Happily, student documentaries also address a range of CCSS ELA Speaking/Listening and Writing standards while immersing students in the art of filmmaking.
In this session, I will share how my students go on powerful investigations behind the camera lens. In one student documentary, my students explore the range of reactions to a public art installation by sculptor Tom Otterness. In other, PSA-style documentaries, they craft powerful arguments to improve their community. I’ll share how I introduce documentary making to my students and the supports I provide (and often don’t provide). It just takes one smartphone, tablet, or camera and video-editing software to empower your students to create amazing documentaries YOU will be itching to show to the world.
Supported by current rigorous research on the power of student reflection and self- reporting, the desire to further refine our feedback / feed forward strategies and placing greater value on student voice, St Mary’s Primary School Tauranga has been guided by a learning vision ‘to develop Assessment Capable Students, Teachers, Leaders and Parents’. These workshops will explore their journey, inspiration and development of a school vision incorporating a student centred pedagogy and how students have experienced a rich and receptive localised curriculum, designed to meet the needs of personalised learning.
We live in an age where everything is recorded digitally – in pictures, video, and text – live as it happens; it's the end of the age of legends. "Selfie", according to the Oxford dictionary, is the word of the year 2013. Often the selfies our students are sharing aren't putting their best digital foot forward. As teachers, how can we help our students leave digital footprints they can be proud of? Is only sharing your "best stuff" such a good idea? How do we address the issue of digital ethics across the curriculum and in our classrooms?
In this session we will share some practical suggestions for a digital ethics policy in your classroom, share resources you can use with your students to have meaningful conversations about making ethical and responsible choices online, and share concrete practical suggestions you can use in your class tomorrow to help your students create digital footprints that will pass The Grandparent Test (it's not what you think it is).
If you still think that Twitter is only a tool used to keep connected with friends or with happenings around the world, you could be missing out on greater opportunities to help students expand the boundaries of their learning. In this session, participants will find out how Twitter can help students collaboratively solve problems, search out alternative perspective on global issues and gain further insight to information they have found online.
The Peace Corps offers educators a variety of ways to bring their teaching skills and experience overseas by working as an educator in one of 64 developing countries around the world, ranging from primary education to university English teaching. Educators return from their Peace Corps service with new cross-cultural skills, and more resourceful ways of teaching underserved populations. Peace Corps also allows U.S. based classrooms an opportunity to connect with students in Peace Corps countries through WorldWise Schools, using letter writing and the internet as communication tools.
What does it take to be an effective online facilitator? How do we create engaging, reflective online discussions that support deeper learning? How do facilitators maintain participation over time and build strong learning communities? How do faciliators keep discussions on target and focused on the core goals? Why are facilitators important for building effective online discussions, or are they ?
This session will include a discussion of key online facilitation strategies and interactive activities where participants are engaged in collaboratively addressing key facilitation challenges and strategies based on real examples from online courses and communities.
It’s not the gadgets, tools and wires that will change the culture of learning. It’s how you create a vision that withstands the rush of new tools, and how you use them for collaboration, communication and critical thinking that will radically change the teaching and learning process. New technology does not change teaching and learning practices, not without a clear vision and innovative practices to engage students in becoming more self directed problem finders.
How can we make use of these tools to expand learning and foster critical thought? What programmatic trends distinguish schools on the leading edge of using technology for global education? How can a school’s professional development program help teachers embrace these opportunities? What technologies are educators talking about? How can administrators become more aware of tools like Twitter so they can make informed decisions about policy? What are ways administrators can help model implementation of technology? Come to this forum and be prepared to share your experiences and explore your questions to help envision the future of your school, implementation of 1:1 programs and more.
Leave with a unified goal for teaching and learning with technology and ideas for how to evaluate the teaching with technology that occurs within your school in order to assess the impact your investment has.
Supported by current rigorous research on the power of student reflection and self- reporting, the desire to further refine our feedback / feed forward strategies and placing greater value on student voice, St Mary’s Primary School Tauranga has been guided by a learning vision ‘to develop Assessment Capable Students, Teachers, Leaders and Parents’. These workshops will explore their journey, inspiration and development of a school vision incorporating a student centred pedagogy and how students have experienced a rich and receptive localised curriculum, designed to meet the needs of personalised learning.
There are so many ways that libraries and schools are being redesigned and changing. One way is by the addition of Makerspaces which are adding new places for creativity, collaboration, and connections. When Shannon McClintock Miller and her students added a Makerspace and tools like a Makerbot 3D printer, LittleBits, knitting, and “Maker Lunches” to the library, little did they know what it would bring to the entire school community. Through classroom PBL projects, individual passions, and global connections, the students at Van Meter have been inspired to make a difference within their Makerspace, school and the world.
Join our discussion of the Global STEM Classroom programs and the importance of 21st century skills – based on our experience working with schools in UK, Russia, The Netherlands, France, Ukraine. You will learn about two major components of the Global STEM Classroom program – intercultural competency and global team work skills based on NASA 4D systems methodology - credits to our experts team member Tatyana Fertelmeyster from Connecting the Differences; our Advisor, Dr. Charlie Pellerin, a world-wide known astrophysicist, NASA Hubble Telescope leader, the creator of NASA 4D Systems and NASA 4D systems trainer and a world-known coach, Diane Brennan. We will discuss next steps in expanding our global partnerships with the schools in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Mexico, India and China and the acquisition of 21st century skills; mapping of the Global STEM programs to the National Standards will also be discussed.
The Peace Corps offers educators a variety of ways to bring their teaching skills and experience overseas by working as an educator in one of 64 developing countries around the world, ranging from primary education to university English teaching. Educators return from their Peace Corps service with new cross-cultural skills, and more resourceful ways of teaching underserved populations. Peace Corps also allows U.S. based classrooms an opportunity to connect with students in Peace Corps countries through WorldWise Schools, using letter writing and the internet as communication tools.
Do you think the First Five Days of School are absolutely essential to the success of the school year? Are you confident that all of your students understand how to learn and globally collaborate in the evolving world of digital content? Do your students understand advanced search? Do they know how to organize the myriad details of what they read on the Internet. Do they know how to contribute to the learning success of the class with easy-to-use tools such as screen casting? What if every teacher designed a very powerful 1stFiveDay orientation for students to "learn how to learn"? Initial pilots have shown that this concept of the 1stFiveDays can create higher levels of academic achievement for the whole year. The good news is that is an accessible and very doable concept. Go team.
How often do you leave a workshop or conference session brimming with ideas and anxious to put them into action? Bring your take-aways and join this “maker space” to design, develop and test-drive your ideas for lessons and activities. Members of the November Learning Team will be on hand to support efforts and share key strategies for transformative learning design. Question, reflect, revise and redesign to your heart’s content, knowing you’ll leave with your mind full and a set of activities planned for the #1st5days…and beyond!
Face it. Some of your teachers simply have no desire to be on Twitter—even if you explain all the resources that can be found there. I get it! However as an administrator, technology coordinator or curriculum coach, you still have a responsibility to help your staff continue their learning and to keep them informed about the latest news and resources in their fields. In this session, learn how you can take the relevant articles and resources you find on Twitter (and in other places), and easily create customized, digestible, electronic learning magazines for free using Flipboard. These can easily be shared with teachers, parents or other specific groups.
Transforming class culture to make things personal using the flipped classroom model.
With the increasing demand to make courses more rigorous and cover more material, it can be challenging to find the time to check in with each student in your classroom on a daily basis. How do you ensure that you are able to address each of your student's questions, concerns and comprehension? How will you have enough time to connect with each and every one of your students on a personal level? Stacey will explain how the flipped model can be used to create a participatory learning environment. Through pre-recording lessons and sending the teacher-driven lecture home, students can regain a voice in the classroom. Interactive elements, such as embedded quizzes, can help give the teacher a snapshot of individual learners' needs and customize one-on-one and small group conversations.
Over the journey that has been Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, they have become really deeply aware of how inquiry is a process. Similarly, Chesterfield County, Virginia has scaled inquiry-based blended learning to 60,000 students. The five core values of Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation and Reflection are at the heart of the inquiry process and everything they do as a school, but there are some differences with the way SLA approaches instruction at the individual school level and how teachers in a large, managed instruction district approach instruction. At the center of any great the inquiry process is that the person engaging in the inquiry, the learner, who actually cares about the questions they are asking. In this session Chris Lehmann, principal of the school, and Adam Seldow, executive director of technology in Chesterfield County, VA will highlight the core values and show how you can put inquiry into practice at any level and any scale.
Everyone who teaches children to read faces the conundrum that although the act of reading is often a solitary mental activity, students learn to comprehend deeply when they engage in constructivist, social learning. In this session, I’ll share a wide range of tools, apps, and strategies I’ve used with my third graders to infuse our reading workshop with the power of social communication and to assess my students’ reading development.
From close eReading using Subtext to online book recommendations using Biblionasium, I’ll share actual examples of student work and videos of how we use these tools in my classroom. I’ll even share the anecdotal results of this May’s classroom experiment when we pack away all of the books and print materials in my classroom and try a solid month with only eReading and digital texts available to the students. Come listen in on the social reading buzz in my classroom!
In addition to content, the flipped model can be used to provide meaningful student feedback on assessments. Use video feedback to provide direct instruction and start a dialogue with the student instead of the one way red ink conversation.
Issues such as cyberbullying, sexting, and student access to inappropriate content are important areas of understanding for teachers, administrators, children, adolescents, and parents. In this workshop, participants will problem-solve many of the important issues that face our schools in an era where access to information is ubiquitous, and digital messages are easily spread. Through a balance of information-sharing and activity, participants will work to develop strategies for dealing with and understanding such issues through a positive framework, one that moves toward the intentional development of learner digital identities.
Do the challenges to flipping your class prevent you from getting started? Are you having a hard time seeing when the best time to start flipping would be? Learn how “Just In Time” recording – where you can record as you teach without having to take additional time from your day - helps you overcome the barriers to flipping your class and can get you up and running easily and quickly. Finally, we will spend some time on what makes the best videos and digital content.
Traditional assessments measure learning and provide some feedback for learning. When you flip your assessments, you give students the freedom and challenge to show what they have learned.
See examples of how you can use tools like ThingLink, Blogs, Stop-motion videos, Twitter, Sketchnotes and more to flip your assessments so that the assessment process is the learning! Find out how an ordinary teacher can manage and keep up with it all using free version of Canvas as your home-base and SpeedGrader to provided timely, rich-feedback to your students.
STEM in schools and STEM in the professional world: there appears to be a disconnect. Has something changed in the STEM professional world that we are not addressing? Are we preparing our students for the real STEM world that is waiting for them in their future?
Please, join us for a session to answer all the essential questions:
• What kind of technology are STEM professionals using and would like our students to be able use it as well? • What kind of skills and knowledge do STEM professionals want our students to have?
• What is the process of transferring innovative knowledge from the STEM professional world to STEM K-12?
Listen as we outline essential skills for leadership and offer both practical guidelines and creative solutions for building accountability into the planning and implementation process. Articulating vision and mission, managing change, and aligning technology to primary curricular goals are emphasized. We will explore the “leader as a role model” concept and look at various professional development opportunities, such as joining a global professional community.
Tools such as embedded quizzes, discussions, polls, and annotations can be useful in creating a more interactive experience for students watching instructional videos and allow teachers to personalize their own videos or videos they have found on youtube. In this session, Stacey will share a variety of tools allowing teachers to incorporate interactive elements into instructional videos. She will share how she uses results from embedded quizzes, as well as statistics on viewer engagement, to inform what is done in the classroom. Stacey will share how she has been able to reclaim class time for differentiation, and how adding interactive elements to video lessons has allowed her to better connect with students and their individual needs.
Teachers are challenged to meet a new standard in the Common Core - listening. There are few classroom tools that address listening. In this short talk I will give teachers an understanding of the neuroscience behind auditory learning. Participants will also learn about tools they can use to help students build critical listening skills. They will learn how to use their smart phones and computers to record sound in the classroom. Some of the products featured include Listen Edition, Tape me, and Voicethread.
A story from a New Zealand Primary School as they journey towards developing student agency through student self-reporting. Supported by current research on the power of student self-reporting, the desire to further refine our questioning, feedback and feed forward strategies, and placing greater value on student reflection, St Mary's Primary School, Tauranga, New Zealand has been guided by a Learning Vision, 'to develop Assessment Capable Students, Teachers, School Leaders and Parents' in the core curriculum areas of Reading, Writing and Maths and a Conceptual Curriculum. This session examines 6 Themes:
1. The Development of the Vision
2. Assessing what we Value,-Critical Learning Conversations,
3. The Digital Journey to Self-Reporting,
4. Telling the Story
5.Partners in Learning
6. Where to Next?
Using web 2.0 tools to capture critical learning conversations in both Core Curriculum and Rich and Relevant learning experiences in a conceptual curriculum, students self-reflection and self- reporting provides a deep picture into the meta-cognitive development of the learner and their understanding of how they learn, accelerating self empowerment.
Story telling is one of the most ancient and powerful forms of human expression. In today’s media rich world, there are an abundance of digital tools that allow students to express themselves through digital narratives in ways that would have been impossible only a few years ago. This presentation will introduce participants to the tools of digital storytelling, provide rich examples of student work, and help to provide context to the relevance of story telling in curriculum and instruction.
The proliferation of inexpensive or free “easy-to-use” online tools provide increased access for educators to develop online and blended courses and activities for students or other educators. Yet effective design for the online environment involves more than uploading content in an available online shell and educators have many questions as they get involved with designing online content. What’s different about online design? How do we adapt face-to-face content for effective delivery in an online or blended environment? How do we design online content so that it’s interactive and engaging? How is learning in the online environment assessed? How do we keep the focus on the pedagogy and content and not the technology tools?
This hands-on interactive session will address these questions and more through a discussion of key online course design principles, an exploration of an online course used to prepare educators to design their own online courses, and a review variety of example online courses and activities that illustrate effective online design.
Gain an understanding of the eight essential elements found in PBL Participants while learning about the Flipped Learning experience and history. Discover how both PBL and Flipped Learning promote the 4 C's of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity Investigate how Flipping the Learn gives PBL needed time while PBL provides process for important in class time for Flipped Classrooms. Participants will explore how Flipping the Learning through PBL can give opportunities for students to own and curate their own learning and curriculum.
The session will showcase ideas gleaned from “Thinking Hyperbolically!” – a math/art+design hybrid course offered as an elective subject for high school students (typically in year 9 and 10). The primary focus of this course was to establish powerful links to interdisciplinary learning through minimal reliance on student “creative” or “mathematical” ability. TH! has promoted experience over stereotype and has provided an exciting template for innovative models of cross-curricula learning related to mathematics, design and art, incorporating applied practical experiences for students including the use of contemporary digital technologies. Each unit of work produced aesthetic form (physical and virtual) from underlying mathematical theory. TH! and its peripheral studies has influenced the education experience for both students and teachers, providing that “curiously sharp sense of joy” May (1975), inherent in the surprising mashup of disparate themes. We believe the cross-fertilisation of ideas enriches best practice. TH! projects detail how innovative practice is constantly evolving. Sharing ideas and promoting action related to interdisciplinary models of learning will enhance the breadth of development in critical thinking and the scope of potential creative output for all.
How often do you leave a workshop or conference session brimming with ideas and anxious to put them into action? Bring your take-aways and join this “maker space” to design, develop and test-drive your ideas for lessons and activities. Members of the November Learning Team will be on hand to support efforts and share key strategies for transformative learning design. Question, reflect, revise and redesign to your heart’s content, knowing you’ll leave with your mind full and a set of activities planned for the #1st5days…and beyond!
It’s not the gadgets, tools and wires that will change the culture of learning. It’s how you create a vision that withstands the rush of new tools, and how you use them for collaboration, communication and critical thinking that will radically change the teaching and learning process. New technology does not change teaching and learning practices, not without a clear vision and innovative practices to engage students in becoming more self directed problem finders.
How can we make use of these tools to expand learning and foster critical thought? What programmatic trends distinguish schools on the leading edge of using technology for global education? How can a school’s professional development program help teachers embrace these opportunities? What technologies are educators talking about? How can administrators become more aware of tools like Twitter so they can make informed decisions about policy? What are ways administrators can help model implementation of technology? Come to this forum and be prepared to share your experiences and explore your questions to help envision the future of your school, implementation of 1:1 programs and more.
Leave with a unified goal for teaching and learning with technology and ideas for how to evaluate the teaching with technology that occurs within your school in order to assess the impact your investment has.
How many of you have thought you were a connected school leader just by being signed up for Twitter or by listening to a webinar online? In this presentation, Shannon will show you embrace what it truly means to be connected through social networks and by participating in various activities as you develop your very own personal learning network. She will provide information on how she has made a difference within her school community, librarianship, and education by being connected.
Are you ready to facilitate the building of a society of learners as you go beyond the four components of STEM? This is a must attend webinar for those wanting to fit Project Based Learning, 21st Century Skill Acquisition, and NETS into their STEM initiatives. Participants will be introduced to the idea of integrating Arts (STEAM)) and including everyone (STEAMIE). Michael, a facilitator at the National STEM Academy in Washington DC last summer, will present an amazing collection of STEM programs! He will relate his own learning experience including a first -hand glimpse of STEM initiatives at the White House and a look at STEM in relation to the Next Gen Science Standards.. Learn about great resources as you take a tour of web sites promoting STEM education. See firsthand examples of free software designed to turn up the heat on any STEM education effort. Michael, the Fort Wayne Chapter: United States Air Force Association STEM Educator of the Year is ready to show you that it really is time to get STEAMIE!
“Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?” Lecture alone is ineffective whether it is live or online. So, the challenge with the flipped classroom model is to engage students around the content in a dynamic way. Then class time can be used to create learning communities where students communicate, collaborate and create! Given the myriad tools at our fingertips, this is becoming easier to do!
While learning management systems like Moodle and Blackboard are still popular choices for facilitating online and augmented courses, these systems are being challenged by 'small-tools-loosely-joined' approaches to instructional design. This workshop will outline various pedagogical approaches used to construct learning environments based on freely available or low-cost tools. Participants will learn the ins and outs of some of the most common and powerful tools while coming to understand the pedagogical frameworks afforded by distributed learning environment design. Both closed and open models of learning will be explored throughout the workshop.
Transforming class culture to make things personal using the flipped classroom model.
With the increasing demand to make courses more rigorous and cover more material, it can be challenging to find the time to check in with each student in your classroom on a daily basis. How do you ensure that you are able to address each of your student's questions, concerns and comprehension? How will you have enough time to connect with each and every one of your students on a personal level? Stacey will explain how the flipped model can be used to create a participatory learning environment. Through pre-recording lessons and sending the teacher-driven lecture home, students can regain a voice in the classroom. Interactive elements, such as embedded quizzes, can help give the teacher a snapshot of individual learners' needs and customize one-on-one and small group conversations.
