Friday, March 18, 2016

ICE Conference 2016: Cloudy with a Chance of Feedback


During the last week of February, thirteen teachers from York were able to attend the ICE Conference.  The ICE Conference is an annual gathering for educators from across the state who want to share and learn more about how technology and innovative teaching can be used to help their students learn.  Throughout this week, teachers who attended the conference will be sharing a bit of what they learned at the conference.  

Katie & I (Jill) also had the privilege of presenting at the conference.  We talked about how to provide digital feedback as part of your workflow.  Check out our presentation here!




ICE Conference 2016: Katie Diebold


The ICE conference is definitely one of my favorite professional learning opportunities of the year.  One of my favorite things about ICE is the presenter resources sections & crowd-sourced notes.  If I wasn’t able to attend a session, I can view both of those resources from the ICE 2016 website.   Even if you were unable to attend ICE, you can check out all of the great resources here.

One of the best sessions I attended over the two days was The Ultimate Photobomb presenter by Candace Marcotte.  The biggest takeaway from the session was the storyboard she shared.  It really outlines the process of video editing and scaffolds the process really well.  I made a couple of tweaks to the original.  Feel free to make a copy of it and use it with your students!  
We all know our students love media in every form.  Candace presented some really interesting ways photo and video can be used to engage students and help them learn.  There are a lot of great ideas in her session resource.  My three takeaways from the Ultimate Photobomb Session are:

  1. Student -created “hashtag style” videos, like the Falon/Timberlake example below, to reinforce vocabulary.
  2. Having students create animated GIFs to demonstrate a process or cycle.
  3. The idea of using Dubsmash videos with students.  I have to admit that I don’t fully know what this looks like, but it sounds fun!



Thursday, March 17, 2016

ICE Conference 2016: Jill Heaton



During the last week of February, thirteen teachers from York were able to attend the ICE Conference.  The ICE Conference is an annual gathering for educators from across the state who want to share and learn more about how technology and innovative teaching can be used to help their students learn.  Throughout this week, teachers who attended the conference will be sharing a bit of what they learned at the conference.  

Here were a few tips and highlights that I (Jill) took away from the conference:

  • The QFT (Question Formulation Technique) is really catching on.  I first learned about it in January from Mike & Ryan's session at our #YorkShares16 institute day, but it was mentioned in at least 3 different sessions I attended at ICE.  It is a powerful way to structure student inquiry and engage students.
  • If I was still in the classroom, I'd be all about trying out this way to combine flipped, differentiated, and mastery learning. The flow chart had me geeking out.
  • York teachers are doing so many great things with technology, and in many ways we're ahead of the curve.  While I was there, I was thinking of the many teachers here who could have led sessions at ICE about the innovative things they're doing in their classrooms.  I can't wait to see you presenting next year!

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

ICE Conference 2016: Jessica Weldon


During the last week of February, thirteen teachers from York were able to attend the ICE Conference.  The ICE Conference is an annual gathering for educators from across the state who want to share and learn more about how technology and innovative teaching can be used to help their students learn.  Throughout this week, teachers who attended the conference will be sharing a bit of what they learned at the conference.  

Today we'll be hearing from Jessica Weldon, Department Chair of Research & Social Science and AP Econ (Macro and Micro) teacher.  


"I learned about EdPuzzle which will allow you to create short assessments with any digital video clip and it will allow you to access your students' results.

I also learned about thinking about a culture of change and innovation must be honored by leadership. It was an inspiration talk about the culture of change in leadership is developed through focus, change and community. Embrace ideas, don't say no, say how, and narrow the focus for all educators as much as possible so that we can do the good work we want to do."

If you want to learn more about these things, talk to Jess or an ITC!

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

ICE Conference 2016, Veena Kaniyaly

During the last week of February, thirteen teachers from York were able to attend the ICE Conference.  The ICE Conference is an annual gathering for educators from across the state who want to share and learn more about how technology and innovative teaching can be used to help their students learn.  Throughout this week, teachers who attended the conference will be sharing a bit of what they learned at the conference.  

In this post, we'll be hearing from Veena Kaniyaly, a biology teacher:


"For common craft videos [and other types of student-created videos], one presenter shared a great outline for a storyboard which we will definitely be using in Biology.


 

The keynote speaker on Friday (Tom Murray) was awesome. I started following him on Twitter. One thing he talked about was learning spaces which I never gave that much importance to. If a learning space is appealing, kids would want to be there! (DUH! So simple). He also talked about learning equity and doing what we can to make sure students have access to internet. For York, I know several students that don't have access to Internet at home. What can we do as a school to better serve these underrepresented populations?"

If you want to learn more about these things, talk to Veena or an ITC!

Monday, March 14, 2016

ICE Conference 2016: Erica Drumm


During the last week of February, thirteen teachers from York were able to attend the ICE Conference.  The ICE Conference is an annual gathering for educators from across the state who want to share and learn more about how technology and innovative teaching can be used to help their students learn.  Throughout this week, teachers who attended the conference will be sharing a bit of what they learned at the conference.  

Today we'll be hearing from Erica Drumm, our librarian extraordinaire.



I walked away from the day with a philosophical boost and a few helpful tools. One helpful tool came from one of the vendors, Scholastic. Here's what they shared:


Among some other resources, this site from Scholastic has some great images to foster brainstorming for creative writing. Click on memoir, fiction, poetry, or humor then Brainstorm.


Memoir Brainstorming Example:


Short Fiction Brainstorming Example:


Poetry Brainstorming Example:


It's a great resource for students who lack inspiration.

If you want to learn more about these things, talk to Erica or an ITC!

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

ICE Conference 2016: Kristin Bartholomew

During the last week of February, thirteen teachers from York were able to attend the ICE Conference.  The ICE Conference is an annual gathering for educators from across the state who want to share and learn more about how technology and innovative teaching can be used to help their students learn.  Throughout this week, teachers who attended the conference will be sharing a bit of what they learned at the conference.  

In this post, we'll be hearing from Kristin Bartholomew, the pioneering TSI teacher who keeps our students' Chromebooks working smoothly:


"I tend to end up with a single focus when I attend these types of conferences, and since my TSI students are responding so much to class awards and having things on the wall below their photos, I focused on the big surge in gamification in the classroom.

First of all, there is a LOT of front loading that goes on before getting a great system going in the classroom. I thought about doing some sort of March Madness, but with mini awards going to students with self-made badges on the wall for various things (3 screens repaired in a period, fixing a CB without doing anything "magic touch", etc.) Since it is already March and I'm not ready to do this, I'm thinking we can kick it off as just the last 2 weeks. I've already started making badges.

The best session, which was more of a challenge and I'd still have to see how to use it, was the BreakoutEdu session. A box sat on the table with 5 locks on it and riddles and puzzles had to be solved to get them open in a 30 minute time frame (My group did it in 31). The puzzles were a mix of paper clues (like translating hieroglyphics) to clues with YouTube links where a clue was in a video that then led to a math equation to solve. The idea was that the learning process is more important than the end result (think grades).  Once the box was open it was empty! It was a great way of driving home the point that all class lessons should work the same way where the process can be greater than the product. It would be a cool final project for TSI, but I have to figure out how to create puzzles that would be engaging and relevant enough. Stay tuned!"

If you want to learn more about these things, talk to Kristin or an ITC!