9am - UDL Playground
Can we please do more professional development for Universal Design for Learning??? Can we build all of our curriculum around it??? If we do our students will SOAR and they will LOVE School! I spoke with Whitney Hoffman who co-authored, "Differentiated Instruction Book of Lists" - it will be available in August. She mentioned a few good tools... For the IPAD, Audionote & Homework App. She mentions that the Livescribe pen can be incredible helpful to the ADHD llearner. And also, make sure they have a coach at school for help and checking in.
LiveScribe Pen- Watch the Videos.
GREAT UDL RESOURCE: http://www.cast.org/
Maybe we can start a book study:
Create your own book! http://bookbuilder.cast.org/
Let's offer these PD courses online to teachers for PD credit: http://udlonline.cast.org/home
I could do UDL all day long - please comment below if you have any experience, feedback or ideas on how we can implement more UDL principals in our schools!
10:30am Google Forms for Teachers and Admins
Parent / Student Data - Create a google form to collect data from parents - name, address, phone, who should I call about blah, blah, blah, any other special considerations... Parents will LOVE that you are interested and you will love having that information!
Homework Reflection - students do the homework and then they go to the form and answer the questions - what did you choose, put the names in for them so you can sort by name.
This is for newbs...I need to look at the program and see what else to run to so I don't miss something good. This audience is WOW because you can save the form as an excel spreadsheet. What am I doing here?
Here's Rushton's site: https://sites.google.com/site/rushtonatiste2011/home
11:00 - I RAN across the hall to the Grandballroom A to listen to the 2nd half of The Global Learning Imperative, Help Empower Our Students to Take Learning Global...
Alan November recommends we read the CIPA - the ONLY Federal regulation.... you do need to protect children, but TEACHERS DO NOT NEED TO BE BLOCKED!!! CIPA is written so teachers can use their own judgement to get through a filter to determine and decide about what they think is appropriate and valuable for a teachable moment.
The top two - FACEBOOK and TWITTER - how parents choose to get information from the school.
Key ideas behind the GCF is there are two groups on two continents can teach and learn together. The engineering teacher in England teaches the students in US engineering and the US teacher teaches the English students "Global Diversity." Students use screenshare and skype to share conversations and models of learni1ng.
Student presenter says - they don't need a teacher in the room while doing this because it is "engaging..."
Random: Ask your students to get a List of Students in England that Study the American Revolution - Alan November tells me not one student in the US cannot find it - because they cannot search globally... on Google - hash tags for egypt, kids are incompetent in making the connections - the global connections... We need to teach them the basic literacy of being global students. try this site:sch:uk"american revolution" - if you change site:ac.uk "american revolution" it will look for universities...
12:15pm - Peter Scott, Presenter (firstname.lastname@example.org) Brain Based Teaching Topic...Cengage Learning - Largest Aggregator of Information... Gale Virtual Reference Library.
"Kids today are far more visual ..." Peter discussions the parts of the brain and what they do... neocortex, etc.
Brain Based Learning Presentation will address ...
- Stimulating, varied input
- Active, meaningful learning,
- Accurate, timely feedback,
- Safe- non-threatening environment
Compelling, relevant tasks and goal setting - closely related to video games... read "how video games can make you smarter cnn article" ..."require extensive problem solving, teamwork and dynamic decision-making skills." ... encourages fans to fall on their face and then pick them selves up and try again without ridicule or embarrassment..."
Video Games are structured - go through the game and learn things and then you get to the ultimate battle where you have to use the skills you learn to win the battle... isn't that what we want in school? We could learn from the gaming industry... using concepts/ideas to establish a ground for learning.
Kids are generally not laughing and joking when playing video games - they are working...actually working and they are serious about doing well.
Q2L-curriculum based on gaming - Check out: http://q2l.org/
Book - Brain Based Teaching, Teaching with the Brain in Mind, Jensen, Eric. 2005. http://www.jensenlearning.com/index2.php Buy on Amazon
Check out the Freedom Writers -
1:15 - FIND Food - every place is packed in the Terminal Marketplace so I found a WAWA and grabbed a couple of wraps for Cam and I and we sat in the ISTE Central Lounge. Cam stays and I go...
2pm - Multimedia Authoring Tools - Well, I ran over here so I could here about PowerPoint. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I'm outta here....
2:15 - Coaching Best Practices...Coaches have been providing support and opportunity for technology growth in schools across Pennsylvania. In this session, school leaders share best practices in coaching from various perspectives.Maybe I can pull some ideas from here, on how to improve "coaching" in our district. email contact email@example.com
Instructional Technology person speaks about how she spent all of her time fixing things, but when classrooms of the future (pa listserv) started it changed her experience. .... TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR LISTSERVS!
We need to do PD on UDL and Project Based Learning.
This is great - confirmation of how much time it takes to be a tech coach. If you agree to help a teacher with a project, you need to make sure you have the HOURS of time available to prep and work on that project... Other coaches speak to the importance of reading, research and own PD - so you can be able to help when people ask!
She says, "she answers questions almost 24/7" - I know that is important. People don't need help just during the school day - Much of my job is done at night and on the weekends. It is very rare that I "check out...." Glad I am not alone.
Resources: http://visalia.k12.ca.us/techcoach/ | http://www.auburnschools.org/ahs/lehayes/ | Job Description of Coach in PA |
There needs to be a shared vision - Superintendent, Assist. Superintendent, Principals, SPED, and teachers...
3pm - Time for a Quick stop at the Student Posters and then off to the Alan November presentation
3:45 - Where the heck is Cam - eating up bandwith somewhere on my iPAd...
Digital Learning Farm: Students as Contributors PACC Grand Ballroom B
Student shows Jing as a way to make math tutorials....and make things for "mathdream" app...
Kudos to Stephanie Karabaic - with your summer reading program - the online book club! Alan November highlights how students are motivated when you create a learning environment that they can reflect in and that is open and voluntary. They will out perform your expectations, they will outperform others in regards to their engagement in summer reading. Yahoo, 21st century learning... Do you think you can get the author to join you on a Skype session or book chat? Ask!!!!
Primary Pad for young children - similar to Google Docs for little ones...?
Math instruction - different students taking notes on a WIKI or BLOG so you can share and contribute...authentic learning.
Alan repeated a lot of information from previous sessions, somewhat dissapointing.
Exhibit Hall - A visit to a few vendors...
5:00-6:15 - Birds of a Feather IPAD IPOD IPHONE APPS - a great session with excellent resources... http://www.iear.org/
It has been quite a day... lots of running. We stopped at some additional posters sessions but mostly got handouts, posters are very crowded it is difficult to engage. If you are there first you can get the presentation but it is hard to walk into the middle of it. I recommend if you are going to do a Poster, to plan it well... make sure you have everything clearly defined in attractive posters behind you, that you have a computer display set up to show examples, handouts, with contact information and websites, etc. Make it easy for people to take a snapshot, a video, or simply grab a handout...and don't forget the QRT...codes.
Quick dinner and then to bed. One more day...where does the time go? I already cannot wait for the next ISTE conference!