The #TIES15 weekday version kicked off on Monday, December 14, 2015. I attended the keynote with Sylvia Martinez in the overflow room. This area started off looking desloate, however, it filled up quite quickly. Sylvia Martinez (@smartinez) shared information on the "Maker Movement". Click here for an article about the Maker Movement written by Tim Bajarin (@bajarin).
You can follow Sylvia's blog by clicking here. I found its content to be rich with information to gain an understanding of the Maker Movement. Five highlights I pulled from Sylvia's presentation are the following:
1. We want all kids to say, "I can do this..."
2. We need to get kids participating in global learning activities.
3. Get kids using 3D printers to create. @KehoeScience does this at #JWP.
4. The Amazon Dash Buttons are amazing...not sure I'd be ordering Tide Detergent
5. Use Makey Makey in the classroom.
Personalization: Creating a Culture of Learning
This session was presented by Jason Berg (@bergjaso) and Beth Humbert (@BethHumbert) from Farmington Public School District in Minnesota. Personalization stems from the Farmington Strategic Plan, such as, personalized learning environments through the purposeful use of technology.
- Prepare students for post secondary success
- Develop independent learning skills
- Time is the variable, learning is the constant
- You're not done...yet
- TEA Time - Time Effort and Academic Support
Instructors ask the question, "How do we use our time?" There is flexibility in learning spaces and time for instruction. Teachers provide students with time and academic support. The effort is the responsibility of the students. This proficiency based model has motivated students to do well.
Leaders in the district ensure that power standards, learning targets, formative assessments and tech tools are provided and completed well. Farmington Public Schools utilizes, "The Pencil Metaphor".
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| Click Picture to Learn More |
Teacher responsibility includes the following:
- Teachers and students giving feedback
- Teaching on demand, not learning on demand
- Moving students along as learning targets are reached
- Teachers as coaches/facilitators
Proficiency Based Model in math class is 70% on assessments.
Road of Independent Learners
- Interest and learn effectively in a variety of settings including independently and in groups
- Set goals and make decisions about their learning needs
- Responsibility for construction their learning, monitoring their progress, and assessing their outcomes
- Ownership and control of their own learning
Quotes of the Session: "Secondary Schools are made for compliance." This is great because it is true. Farmington has flipped that upside down and has accomplished personalization.
"I have 30 different conversations with 30 different students, instead of 1 conversation with 30 students."
Amber Schaefer (@schaeferinfirst) and Beth Sletta (@retrokitch) from New Ulm presented this session. They got the motivation from last year's TIES conference, specifically, from Shannon Miller (@shannonmmiller). These two folks have found several ways to finance this program. Click here for their resources.
QR Code Projects (See resources for these excellent examples)
- Tech Bulletin Board
- Who Am I
- Fun Photo Booth
Other Examples of Work Done:
- 3Doodler Pen (3D pen) You need to watch it because the kids can burn themselves.
- Makey Makey
- Little Bits
- Video Editing
- Robotics
- Cartoon Creation
This was presented by Samantha Schmit (@sjschmit86), Nancy Moore (@nancymooremn) and students of Sleepy Eye Public School District. Students meet once per week to discuss their news broadcasting.
Their journey began as a PBIS Initiative - Teacher expectations, develop a sense of pride, and establish community. Their first news broadcast was shared. Click here for some examples.
There were six students present, they broke roles into the following:
- Reporter (Good speaking kills, good posture)
- Anchor (Good speaking skills, good posture, inform people, make the news exciting)
- Editor ("Nerdy" guy, on the iPad, put clips together, use apps)
- Tech (Behind the scenes guy - sound and video)
- Script Writing (write the news, edit, etc...)
Apps they Use:
- iMovie ($4.99)
- Intro Designer ($2.99)
- Scroll Credits ($1.99)
- Green Screen Do ink ($2.99)
- Yakit Kids (Free)
- Animoto (Free)
- YouTube Capture (Free)
They meet once per week for about two hours and film a weeks worth of video. Fridays are the days in which they film.
This session was presented by Doug Johnson (@blueskunkblog), Director of Technology at Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District. We reviewed a variety of technology tools to start the conference. One example was listening to the old dial up internet...don't miss that sound!
Resources
Great question to consider...how are your (our) students answering this question, "What did you do with your device today in school?"
Technology can support best practices that improve student achievement. Technology use --> Best Practices --> Achievement
We need to articulate expected uses. How are we expecting staff to use technology. Do we pick three things that we are good at? Do we encourage autonomy in that decision making, etc...
One point of interest that I found was the idea of aligning assessment to the SAMR model.
With that said, we need to rethink professional development (PD). Do we use best educational practices with PD? How are we modeling best teaching practices with teachers? Are we flipping it? Are we providing podcasts? Etc... We need to answer the question, "How are we personalizing PD?" This Essential Technology Skills for Teachers worksheet was created by Dihanna Fedder (@DLFedder) of Pine City Public School District. This would be a handy tool to develop plans of action or as @BlueSkunkBlog calls it, a Tech IEP.
Action Research - Standard Work, Implementing Work, Learning Work (Teamworks/Dennis Cheesebrow). "When anything is optional, someone will choose not to do it!"
Let's Go Shopping in the Chrome Webstore
This session was presented by Angie Kalthoff (@mrskalthoff) from St. Cloud Public Schools. You can access the resources by clicking here. You can use EDpuzzle as a video management system. In essence, you can track which part of the video is being viewed and ask questions based on that.
Clearly - This cleans up screens/webpages so they are more easily read.
Tab Resize - Split Screen Layouts
1-Click-Timer - Timer to Add to Chrome
Extensity - Hides/Relieves the visual pains of too many extensions
Color Zilla - Color Copier to match presentations...
Google Docs Quick Create - Quick Access to Google Drive
Send from Gmail - Provides efficiencies for sharing information on articles, etc...
Google URL Shortener - Shorten URLs
How to create .gif? http://makeagif.com/youtube-to-gif
Summary
Days like today are inspiring and uplifting, however, they are also exhausting. There is so much learned and it becomes difficult to develop a plan of action for my personal use of this information. In addition, application of this learning must be done in some regards to improving our organization's integration of technology. At #JWP, there is no need to implement everything, we just need select a few things and do those well.
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