Building Learning Communities 2014

This presentation follows on from the notion of getting students to INVEST in the classroom learning experience by exploring a number of tools that can be employed in the context of teaching English. If you want answers to the questions below, then this session will empower you to transform your everyday classroom learning experiences into powerful human interactions that will not only inspire students to respond and compose texts in more meaningful ways, but will also make the learning environment a place where both teacher and student can be creative, expressive and successful!

• How can I encourage reluctant writers to express themselves?
Drawing on everyday objects that are lying around your school and home, you can help students develop their understanding of abstract concepts, like empathy and characterisation, whilst simultaneously stimulating their sense of creativity and playfulness.

• How can reflection be more than just identifying strengths and weaknesses?
This presentation will explore ways that self-reflection can be improved by using video recording technology as a means of improving collaborative skills and enhance speaking skills.

• How can I develop a classroom where students help each other?
Edmodo is a simple yet powerful tool that helps to expand the classroom domain and by its very nature, encourages students to build a community of learners that supports and assists each other. In doing so, students act as the leaders in their learning. Learn how to implement and facilitate the use of this transformative tool.

• How can I avoid ‘death by PowerPoint’?
PowerPoint is an excellent piece of software that continues to be used a presentation tool by teachers and students alike. However, there is a lot of potential for PowerPoint to make teaching very static and one-dimensional. During this presentation, we will explore the potential for PowerPoint to transform teacher-student interactions through the creation of what I like to call ‘learning pods’.

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. 

This session will discuss how the use of technology can transform traditional learning models into self-paced, collaborative learning environments. Screencasts used as part of blended learning are coupled with virtual environments to create a platform for teaching. Emphasis is also placed on the need for tools that allow for collaboration amongst students as well as assessment providing immediate feedback for teachers and students alike.

Milan Kundera famously said, "One morning (and it will be soon), when everyone wakes up as a writer, the age of universal deafness will have arrived."" Has that age arrived, when everyone is blogging, texting and tweeting, and some have stopped listening? Now, more than ever, as students are encouraged to ""find their voices"" as writers, teaching quality writing strategies is critical. Students need reasons to write, audiences to reach, and teachers to encourage them to take great risks as they negotiate the transition into serving as their own writing authorities.
In this session, two teachers, one from Washington D.C., the other from Zurich, Switzerland, will share their year-long collaboration experience focused on the art of teaching writing using modern tools. Their work is interdisciplinary and often experimental: students are encouraged to ""own their writing"", even self-assessing and critiquing each other. In this interactive session, Twitter, Skype, Instagram, Tumblr and other self-publishing platforms are used to explore the synergy between modern tools and ancient writing traditions. Both teachers encourage their students to foster an appreciation for classical authors and writing strategies by encouraging them to incorporate ancient rhetorical devices into their modern writing platforms.
This session is focused on the art of teaching writing to Middle and Upper School students.

About us: Daryl ""Gus"" Grissom, Ph.D., is a historian who has spent his career learning from ancient Greek authors, specifically Thucydides and Aristotle; Caitlin Krause, M.F.A., is an author, poet, and visual artist who focuses on timeless concepts such as mindfulness and empathy in her exploration of the craft of both interdisciplinary studies and teaching writing. Through this collaboration, their goal is to leverage both tradition and technology to allow students to discover their own authorial voices while still guiding them in ways that transcend the traditional writing process."

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. 

Are you frustrated by the lack of technology in your classroom? Harness the power of mobile devices to engage your students, amplify their curiosity and transition to the Common Core Standards. Teach your students how to leverage their mobile devices to research, problem solve, communicate, collaborate and create! Only a fraction of your students actually need a mobile device for you to successfully create a high-tech classroom. Explore free education apps, learn how to use QR codes in the classroom and walk away with ideas for how you can use mobile devices to create a student-centered classroom.exts
leveraging technology to support vocabulary development

How can we model and help our students develop skills in the new literacies of the digital world? How does one "craft a tweet"? What are the nuances of hashtagging? What are the aesthetics necessary for effective vlogging? How do we cultivate and maintain a positive presence in social media? Our students are the "prosumer", publishing generation and require social and media skills that transcend physical space. This presentation will offer tips, tools, and examples to assist in integrating and supporting the "new literacies" in one's classroom and beyond.

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. 

The 21st century has been abuzz with cries to be innovative, creative and technologically savvy in teaching. However, if students do not commit wholeheartedly to the experience of learning, it is difficult to engage them in a sustained and meaningful manner. This presentation will explore the ways in which teaching must aim to address more than educational outcomes; in fact, the goals of education are far from achievable if we do not address the emotional, psychological, social and physical needs of young people. This session will offer strategies that encourage students to INVEST in their education.

Your school or district is going Google, now what? This session is for teachers and administrators covering practical implementation of Google Apps for Education. The session will go beyond use of individual tools and provide a system where students and teachers can use the tools all within an educational framework. Participants will leave with templates, resources and best practices they can use back to their classrooms.

This session will focus on providing a concise vision of how all of the pieces come together to create a succinct global learning environment. Discussion will include the necessity of a virtual platform for instructional delivery, how to keep students informed, as well as how to best maximize resources, create a paperless classroom, allow for collaboration, assess learning, and provide feedback.

One of the most difficult questions to answer is, ""why are we learning this?"" The reason for this question is that teachers have always determined the specifics of the course curriculum, some going as far as creating a calendar to make sure everything is planned for each day, with little to no input from the learner.
Why not let learners determine what they learn, and in what order? Why not let them determine whether or not they as a class have mastered the material? Why not let them determine the types of assessments used? This session will focus on varying levels of ownership that learners can take on to ensure that they are engaged in a curriculum that they helped to create. Concepts such as ""overview days"" will shape a classroom where facilitators can truly facilitate, allowing learners to construct peer evaluations that hold themselves accountable to their own standards.

Literacy is at the heart of the Common Core. The focus on informational texts has left many teachers wondering, how do I balance fiction and informational texts? Where do I find informational texts? How can I better support vocabulary development? This session will explore strategies for:
identifying “complex texts”
using digital texts with students
teaching active reading and annotation strategies
pairing informational texts with nonfiction titles
using web 2.0 tools to engage students in conversations about complex texts
leveraging technology to support vocabulary development

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. 

This session will cover bringing your course from your classroom to the world. From planning, implementation, and execution this session will allow you to see the whole picture of utilizing iTunes U. Individualizing student needs has never been easier, and this energetic and exciting presentation will get you ready to put your course online and in the hands of all your students.

iTunes U: A Global Perspective
Learn the advantages of using iTunes U.
Learn how to effectively start up an iTunes U course.
Learn how to transform the learning experience for students.
Learn how your iTunes U course can expand your classroom to the world

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!

This session will cover bringing your course from your classroom to the world. From planning, implementation, and execution this session will allow you to see the whole picture of utilizing iTunes U. Individualizing student needs has never been easier, and this energetic and exciting presentation will get you ready to put your course online and in the hands of all your students.

The Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry (ITSI) project prepares diverse students for careers in innovative technologies by engaging them in exciting, inquiry-based science projects that use computational models and real-time data acquisition. ITSI has produced dozens of activities in elementary, middle and high school science using a range of commercial sensors as well as open source or research-based models.

Teachers can customize ITSI science inquiry activities easily to fit their classrooms and engage their local communities using the web-based interface. All activities are embedded in software that allows students to read the activity, answer questions, make predictions and collect data, analyze results, run a computer-based model, take and annotate snapshots of that model, and save their work within one application. It also allows the collection of formative and summative assessment data, which is available to the teachers.
This workshop will allow you to try out the activities and see how they would fit in your school. Project materials are free and available online.

One of the most difficult questions to answer is, ""why are we learning this?"" The reason for this question is that teachers have always determined the specifics of the course curriculum, some going as far as creating a calendar to make sure everything is planned for each day, with little to no input from the learner.
Why not let learners determine what they learn, and in what order? Why not let them determine whether or not they as a class have mastered the material? Why not let them determine the types of assessments used? This session will focus on varying levels of ownership that learners can take on to ensure that they are engaged in a curriculum that they helped to create. Concepts such as ""overview days"" will shape a classroom where facilitators can truly facilitate, allowing learners to construct peer evaluations that hold themselves accountable to their own standards.

Do you wish you had more time for project based learning? The shift from breadth to depth in the Common Core Standards creates more opportunities for students to explore real-world problems and challenges, understand the relevance of what they are learning, and pursue their passions. Leverage technology and social media, while blending together learning mediums, to empower students, facilitate collaboration and inspire creativity.

Few schools have the amount of technical support that they need and one of the most overlooked resources schools have is their students! If you have staff who are reluctant with technology, students can be great liaisons to change while empowering the student at the same time. The student learns by teaching and the teacher learns by listening. In this session, we will cover a variety of examples of how this is accomplished.

This session will focus on providing a concise vision of how all of the pieces come together to create a succinct global learning environment. Discussion will include the necessity of a virtual platform for instructional delivery, how to keep students informed, as well as how to best maximize resources, create a paperless classroom, allow for collaboration, assess learning, and provide feedback.

This presentation follows on from the notion of getting students to INVEST in the classroom learning experience by exploring a number of tools that can be employed in the context of teaching English. If you want answers to the questions below, then this session will empower you to transform your everyday classroom learning experiences into powerful human interactions that will not only inspire students to respond and compose texts in more meaningful ways, but will also make the learning environment a place where both teacher and student can be creative, expressive and successful!

• How can I encourage reluctant writers to express themselves?
Drawing on everyday objects that are lying around your school and home, you can help students develop their understanding of abstract concepts, like empathy and characterisation, whilst simultaneously stimulating their sense of creativity and playfulness.

• How can reflection be more than just identifying strengths and weaknesses?
This presentation will explore ways that self-reflection can be improved by using video recording technology as a means of improving collaborative skills and enhance speaking skills.

• How can I develop a classroom where students help each other?
Edmodo is a simple yet powerful tool that helps to expand the classroom domain and by its very nature, encourages students to build a community of learners that supports and assists each other. In doing so, students act as the leaders in their learning. Learn how to implement and facilitate the use of this transformative tool.

• How can I avoid ‘death by PowerPoint’?
PowerPoint is an excellent piece of software that continues to be used a presentation tool by teachers and students alike. However, there is a lot of potential for PowerPoint to make teaching very static and one-dimensional. During this presentation, we will explore the potential for PowerPoint to transform teacher-student interactions through the creation of what I like to call ‘learning pods’.

SmartGraphs is a project that studies the educational value of digital objects embedded in graphs that “know” about themselves and that provide scaffolding to students to help them learn about graphs and the concepts conveyed in graphs.

Digital SmartGraphs can be authored or customized by teachers and accept inputs from students’ responses, sketches, functions, models, and probes. The software analyzes the graphs for the kinds of features that experts recognize and then engages students in conversations that instruct and assess student knowledge.

SmartGraphs is guided by collaboration between the Concord Consortium and the Pennsylvania State Department of Education Classrooms for the Future program, through which 145,000 laptop computers are deployed to serve 500,000 students. Other states, districts, or schools that are also interested in providing meaningful software to help students interpret visual graphical data from existing graphs or real time data collected with probes will thrill with this free Open Source software tool! 

Your school or district is going Google, now what? This session is for teachers and administrators covering practical implementation of Google Apps for Education. The session will go beyond use of individual tools and provide a system where students and teachers can use the tools all within an educational framework. Participants will leave with templates, resources and best practices they can use back to their classrooms.