The first week of what might just be the best school year yet, has come to a close. Why will this one be the best yet? Tools Our Teachers received a full Toolkit of assessment strategies, questioning ideas, change idealogy , and learning activities for the school year in our successful and meaningful 2 day Professional Learning Conference. Topics In our Grade Level Currlculum Planning Day, all EISD Elementary Teachers met by grade level and were treated to a Shabby-Chic theme to integrate new Everyday Math digital tools with the existing ones, and to explore how the new math TEKS are replacing the old ones. Check out the Shabby-Chic Thinglink created by our own Amy Tillman. Inspiration Our awesome WHS Chap Band makes our convocation a much anticipated yearly tradition. The Fine Arts Center is packed with every employee in the district including the Superintendent, School Board members, teachers, custodians, bus drivers, nutrition workers, technology services, and more. Excitement built as we waited for the WHS marching band to come marching down the aisles. We looked for the familiar faces of our elementary students, now matured into high schoolers. The familiar songs fill the auditorium to cheering and clapping. This years exceptionally thought-provoking and inspirational speaker was Dr. John Draper, who challenged us to tell the stories of our students and what's going on in our schools to everyone. Hugs/Anticipation The highly anticipated Meet the Teacher Morning finally arrived and the principal, Jennifer Dusek, had a hug, greeting, handshake and personal welcome for every family as they walked into our school. Excitement The first day was full of excitement as students reunited with old friends, and started a brand new year. The Kindergartners and their parents bravely parted and the students embarked on their adventure of a highly acclaimed EISD education. Creativity The Fifth Graders, who are comfortable and accomplished with their school routine and technology were tasked on the first day to create a visual that represents them and their goals for the year. They could use anything on their iPads that they choose. I will be posting some of these soon. The teachers used a bright and cheery slide show reminding them of the responsible iPad use guidelines they had practiced the year before. On the second day of school they finished their creations and introduced themselves to the class with them. Among the apps they used were Keynote, Screen Chomp, and Explain Everything. Planning On the third day of school, I met with grade levels and we talked about technology, planned iPad Orientations, looked at contracts, and scheduled my visits to classrooms. Practicality On the fourth day of school, two classes of second graders explained to me how they SOARed with their iPads last year, and how they plan to continue SOARing this year. SOAR is our Positive Behavior Acronym that we say and live every day: "I will be Safe, On Task, have an Awesome Attitude, and be Respectful to myself and others every day." They washed their hands, got their iPads and carried them in an iHug. Then we set our floating home button and personalized our iPads. On the fifth day of school, two more classes of second graders talked about SOARing with their iPads, and were issued their iPads. All 4 second grade classes were very glad to have iPads again and were delighted to discover some new apps, and revisit some familiar ones. And now.... Everybody is enjoying a 3 day weekend.
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#EanesPLC This hashtag sums up the first 2 days of the school year for Eanes ISD: Eanes Professional Learning Conference. And what a learning conference it was!! We heard from some of the foremost educational thinkers in the nation: Dr. Thomas Guskey Dr. Anthony Muhammad Dr. Thomas May Diane Laufenberg We will he processing and applying what we learned in these 2 days over the course of the school year. This conference was brilliantly structured to allow us to hear from many of the same speakers, some in large group settings, some in smaller groups by levels we teach. This was so important because we now have common vocabulary and shared concepts as we work for change this year. I saw the topics as foundation information to begin engineering significant change in the way we do school in the future at Eanes. Some of the broad topics we covered were: Grading School Culture Questioning Communication and conversation Student centered inquiry based learning Practical assessment tools and strategies As I reflect back and start putting the pieces together, I see the big picture of what the brilliant designers of this professional learning conference wanted us to experience. Our district has generated something called the W.H.E.E.L It grew from a year of school and community focus groups working together to clarify and define exactly what the goals of educating our children are. To develop a program that accomplishes this, we need to change the way we do school here. The ideas, concepts, and conversations that the Eanes PLC has stimulated will help generate this critical change in thinking. I can't begin to cover all of the important aha moments and truths presented over the last 2 days, because I am still processing all of it. But, the Storify that I created of the Tweets from the #EanesPLC does a pretty great job. It's pretty huge, so if you don't see the final post by Cathy Yenca dated 2 hours ago, after clicking through all the read more boxes, this Weebly may not have embedded all of it. You can click the Storify link at the top left to view the complete story. It runs chronologically from the beginning to the end. What a Conference!! In the past I have thought that waiting, and collecting all of my thoughts and resources before posting about a conference would provide a good summary of it. But it hasn't yet worked...I wait too long and loose the excitement, or forget where all of my resources are, or just get caught up in other things. So this post is titled First Blush, because it's the immediate, day after, thoughts, resources and reflections on ISTE 2013. I'm sure more deeper thoughts and connections will emerge later, but I want to capture and reflect on these now. A very important take away from this conference is the expansion of my Personal Learning Network (PLN) as a result of meeting people, learning from them, and adding new folks that I learn from on Twitter, the Web and Pinterest. If you search the #iste13 hashtag, you'll find many posts, resources, ideas and links from the conference. Debbie Smith has created an awesome Listly List of ISTE13 Resources, click here to check it out. Sessions Invent to Learn Gary Stager's Invent to Learn Hands on Workshop: This was a day of DIY and Making and Learning and Collaborating and Fun, not to mention a continual flow of good food. This is Constructivism on so many levels: constructing knowledge through making, constructing things for the fun of it... I learned from some very patient friends how to create a circuit on a greeting card. that lights up. Some very enthusiastic entrepreneurs created a prototype for a food trailer for next year's iPadpalooza. Did you know that candy can be a keyboard? Did you know that you can wear computers? Here are a few photos, but be sure to check out Gary Stager's Website for more on the Maker Movement. Also, here is a Listly List that Marianna Husain has created to curate the Maker Movement resources. We received his Invent to Learn Book Teach Different On Monday morning 8:00 am, we presented Teach Different 1-1 iPad Immersion in Elementary School. We were a bit nervous to be presenting to a full session of 140 people, with a line of many that they had to turn away. But once we started interacting with the crowd, we began to relax and have a great time. The attendees were very engaged and asked great questions through our Today's Meet Back Channel. And Janet did a great job of keeping up with it. The link to the pdf of the chat is on the website at the top, as are all the links and resources. Kathy Schrock 10 Resources for PBL by Howie Diblasi Professional Development Closing Keynote: Adam Bellow- You're Invited to Change the World Click here for the link to his blog. Adam was funny, inspiring, and thought provoking . Here are some phrases that rang true: Technology is the great equalizer, and our main purpose is to use it to help our students believe that what they do matters. Surround yourself with a PLN (professional learning network) where others don’t always agree with you. Get out of the echo chamber. Innovation happens when you intersect fear and bravery. Don't standardize creativity, don't control it, Unleash it! It's vital that we teach students to create not consume. Respecting failure helps you embrace curiosity. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. The secret of change is to focus your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new-Socrates. You are a teacher, you are a hero, you are a Jedi. Exhibit Hall and Poster Sessions I visited the Exhibit Hall a few times and the different Poster Sessions many times. The poster sessions were a gold mine each time I went. The first thing we wanted to check out in the Exhibit Hall was furniture for more collaborative classrooms. Summertime in Eanes ISD means a lot of Professional Development opportunities. Teachers can choose from a variety of activities taught by our own teachers who are experts on so many things. The Elementary Ed Techs held their first day of Teach Different today for teachers grades K-2. Judging by the Today's Meet conversation, every one learned something new. As did all of us, as we worked with these creative teachers. It's time for the annual 5th grade Rocket Launch!! Students build their rockets and design them with great concentration. The rockets are displayed in the hall and the school votes on the rockets that are the: most colorful most patriotic most creative best in show The students launch their rockets with electric launchers; and, with the help of parents, most of them are actually recovered. This year, students in grades 2-5 used their iPads for the Rocket Vote. A Google Form, created by our own Lorrie Salome, was linked to the Student Resources page of our website for easy access, and voting was faster and easier than ever. We have had 1-1 iPads in our elementary schools for about 8 months. During that time we have learned so much about the positive impact that 1-1 iPads can have on student engagement and learning. And we look forward to learning more and diving deeper next year. One of the things we have learned is that we can't learn or know all of the apps ahead of time. Teachers are excited to try new apps and projects and activities with their students using iPads; and often a lesson idea pops up spontaneously-in the hall, over lunch, etc. In those instances, I make arrangements to go into their class and teach, or help with the activity, as soon as possible. However...knowing apps ahead of time isn't really a problem, because we shouldn't be teaching apps anyway. In student centered and inquiry based learning environments, we are all learning together. There is no sage on the stage. The brillinat Ed Techs in my district have discovered quite a few ways to structure the learning or introduction of apps so that students are learning from each other. My good friend and Eanes EdTech, Debbie Smith (@dsmitheisd) recently worked with 1st grade teacher extraordinaire, Jennifer Wolff, to implement a train-the-trainer model. A small group of students were trained by Debbie on how to use Scribble Press. They then taught their table how to use it for publishing a book on an animal they had researched. Check out her post about this! Here at Valley View, I have used a type of crowd-sourcing model to help students become familiar with apps before diving into the project or assignment. This has proven successful in all grades. First they explore the apps in small groups. They are encouraged to talk about and share what they are discovering and show each other. After they have explored for about 15 minutes with their groups, I have a representative from each group come to the projection station and share a feature that they think is fun, neat, cool, important, or little-known. I explain at the beginning that the groups that wait till after everyone else has shared will have more of a challenge finding something that hasn't been seen yet. There are usually a few groups that love this challenge and will purposefully wait to be last. |
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Then they wrote their poems.
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The graphic organizational feature of the Popplet app helped the students elaborate on their ideas and create beautiful Earth Day poems.
Several of the Third Grade students were featured in our Wednesday Morning Announcements video.
Here's the 2 minute clip of the students reading their poetry.
Hi, I'm Margie Brown, an Educational Technologist at Valley View Elementary School in Eanes ISD. I love working with students and teachers and discovering new digital tips and tricks everyday!
As the Educational Technologist on this campus, I am responsible for facilitating the integration of technology into the instructional program by supporting teachers, librarians, and Instructional Partners. Our district believes that this position is essential in establishing a digital age learning culture by supporting, training, coaching and mentoring staff. In addition, I am also involved in program planning and implementation of all district initiatives that pertain to technology integration.
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