Teresa

Teresa's Page Teresa’s Monday @ ISTE

__Breakfast with Discovery Education__

Diane was one of a panel of three district technology leaders who gave a great presentation their district’s progress in meeting their technology goals. We in Neenah are well on our way to becoming more like Mooresville, NC, a district in which all students get a MacBook in Grade 4. Mooresville’s data shows their tech plan has resulted in higher test scores and graduation rates.

 All of the three presenters at the breakfast used Discovery Ed to help meet their goals. DE trainers do not just train users to stream DE content. There are many other possibilities to explore in DE, including using the Student Center for digital portfolios.

__EdModo__

I went to several poster sessions, but three are worth mentioning. The first one was about EdModo. The presenter, an eighth grade language arts instructor, shared that her district was using EdModo, Discovery Ed., Glogster, and Google Aps to provide staff development blended instruction and learning community experiences for their district. EdModo is a free social learning environment that seems to be in my opinion more visually appealing and less cumbersome than Moodle. It is course management software for Teachers can use Edmodo to send out and collect assignments, give feedback and grades, host online discussions, and store readings, video, and other instructional materials. See this [|__demonstration__]  for more information on Edmondo.

__Live Binders__

 Another poster session was on Live Binders. I just caught the end of this one, but it is a Web.2.0 tool that allows the user to organized digital content in a binder, complete with tabs and subtabs. This is a great way for an elementary media specialist to organize content for her students. Middle and high school students, as well as teachers should be creating their own and collaborating with others. Learn more about LiveBinders, and watch a short interactive video, [|__here.__]

__Passion in The Classroom__

 Finally, the last poster session I attended was by Angela Maiers, the author of The Passion Driven-Classroom. It was not directly about technology, but I was really impressed, and I could tell that any teacher who embraced this quest for passion would understand why technology and 21st Century learning are absolutely vital components in the lives of students. I can’t remember the specifics, but Maier talked about one of the experiences that taught her what passion could do in a classroom.

 Three days before Maiers was to give a huge presentation on global illiteracy to an international audience, she found out that the classroom teacher with whom she was cooperating on the project could not attend. So she asked another friend’s fifth grade class to help her with every phase of the project, from designing the programs to performing. Unfortunately, the morning of the event when the teacher became too ill to attend, Amy thought that the show would not go on. But the students were determined, and because they were committed to each other and their mission to help end global illiteracy, and they performed beautifully and without fear. The story brought tears to my eyes! I can’t wait to order the ebook, which is in pdf format. For more info, go to [|__AngelaMaiers.com.__]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> In the afternoon I went to a Twitter session called Teach w/ Tweet at which the presenters offered methods of differentiating instruction for elementary through secondary education. There were a lot of Twitter Geeks in the room, and one shouted out for a hashtag, so we tweeted throughout the session. The first presenter, a recent ed. Psych. Ph.D. graduate, gave rational for using Twitter as an instructional tool. The second presenter gave an example of how he used Twitter with students in elementary School, and the last one, talked mostly about how to use Tweet Deck. What I found most compelling was the psychology of Twitter and how giving students an outlet to share and react to what they are learning can help many of them remember content.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Tuesday

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> I went to advocate for Educational Technology. Then I went to the Broad Street Atrium for poster sessions and ISTE Unplugged. I walked around to several of the presenters, including Librarians Unite! I talked to Mary Schwander, who along with some of her librarian colleagues began a Wiki in order to share digital tools for professional development and student learning, and they wanted to share with librarians at ISTE. __http://palibrarians.wikispaces.com/About+Us__

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> At ISTE Unplugged, I saw Bob Greenburg demonstrate how he brings books to life with his second grade class in Bridgeport CT. Using Stop-Motion animation, a green screen, lots of music, and lots of energy and creativity, he helps his students find the main ideas, and develop their vocabulary and sequencing skills while producing videos. His class, The Brainwaves, has a SchoolTube channel [|__here.__]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Next I went to a session by Chris O’Neal ( [|__http://leaders.wikispaces.com__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">) called “Leading in 3D.” He offered the following advice to anyone conducting any professional development:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. Model the Use of Technology to make the professional development more interesting. Videos and surveys are good examples.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. Provide time for reflection throughout the presentation so that teachers can think about why they want to try something new and how it will look for them. See [|__Technological Content Knowledge__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. Prepare Differently – Everyone shouldn’t go to the same staff meeting anymore than all kids should have exactly the same classroom learning experience.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4. Remind staff about classroom digital equity. It might be that the same students who come from homes with loads of technology are the same ones who finish their assignments early and often get rewarded with time to “play” with technology. Using technology in that fashion exacerbates the inequity that is already in society.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5. Join an online professional learning community to reflect, share and continually grown yourself.