This blog post is coming much later than I would’ve like! I have actually been in Los Angeles for the past week with my dance team so I was unable to post immediately after the conference. Nevertheless here are my thoughts from the jam-packed weekend EnInnovation Summit!

 

The summit was a two day tech conference that offered strategies and tools to use in th K-12 classroom. To begin the weekend opened with a keynote speech from the ever-inspiring Chris Hadfield

 

 

 

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Session 1: Assessing Differently

• I attended this session with the hopes of learning new techniques for assessing students learning (and I was not disappointed!)

• We discussed

  • how teachers should be listening to the questions that students have

  • how is technology affecting the learning for the students

  • MSAC (Ministers Student Advisory Council) http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/students/speakup/msac.html

  • student learning should be the constant change

  • keeping the same system we need to learn how to flip it and make everything around us help the students learn

  • to have daily activities to foster growth mindset

  • that formative proof is the best proof that you can give the parents

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Session 2: Innovators Mindset

Derek Hodenizer

www.derekrhodenizer.ca look for prezi/podcast/resources

• We learned that the innovators Mindset is:

  • student centered

  • the need  to have an investment in the teacher to serve the students

  • developing teacher talent

  • fear vs. discovery: can’t be in both at the same time

  • as you get used to the speed of how things are changing you wont be as scared

  • sometimes taking a leap and building your wings on the way down

  • all about reflecting and sharing with others

  • always learning from your failure and changing what you do

 

If you want to learn more, look up George Couros for further information! http://georgecouros.ca/blog/

 

 

Podcasts To Check Out:

• edspirations

• Paul McGuire

• Hardcore History

 

 

 

Session 3: Everything is Awesome- LEGO Math

• We learned some interesting ways to integrate LEGO into the math classroom:

  • A LEGO kit “more to math”

  • Students can create their own figurines with the Lego pieces, have to put them on the graph to collect data

  • Working with patterns, they can attach and show their reasoning, less risk that things will move around while they’re working

  • Can use the bumps on the LEGO to practice skip counting

  • Different attributes associated with LEGO: colour, shape, size etc.

  • Can create different sorting rules for what can go on the plate

 

 

 

 

Session 4: Google Earth Engine, Time Lapse

• This session was a lot of hands on planning with Google Earth and Time Lapse, both are excellent tools to check out and can easily be integrated into the social studies curriculum! Google Earth lets you see pictures from any location around the world, whereas Time Lapse will show you what one location looks like from years ago up until now. We also looked at Google Expeditions, which is essentially a virtual field trip that you can take students on in the classroom.

• I would suggest downloading these features to your lap top and Chrome book and have a look at all of their features and how you could integrate them into your classroom!

 

 At the end of day one there was a Demo Slam where educators had a very short amount of time to sell the crowd on an item of their choice, it could be an app or even just a tip about technology in general! Here is a list of resources from the Demo Slam:

• What in the world

• Google postit notes

• Team.fast123.ca

• Google Photos

• Sound Trap

• Story Spheres

• Padlet.com

• See saw – blogging app for kids

• Google Draw

• Draw and Tell

 

 

Session 5: Assessment that Matters-Elementary

Kim Meldrum led this session, she wrote a very informative book on assessment and how we as educators can enhance assessment in the classroom in an effective way. Check out her blog if you have a chance! kimmeldrum.com/ 

 

Here are a few key points from her session:

• 1 to 1 initiatives

• Padlet: interactive whiteboard/ can use as an exit ticket

  • Ask them a question at the end and brain storm on it and share what they’ve learned

  • Assessment tool for the teacher

• Four c’s

• Marriage between analog and digital

 

Assessment FOR Learning

• process formative

• learning how a student attempts a task

 

Assessment AS Learning

• reflective practice

• creating independent learners

 

Assessment OF Learning

• report card

• summative

 

• Can use Google docs to share student work/ share button

• On Google docs when Google read and write is one you can go to file and look at revision history

 

 

Session 6: WIG UP

• wigup.tv

• username: mundo

• password: mundo 

• While I Grow Up

• Grade 4-9

• Allow students to be creative and add a component to the school experience

• Kids can navigate through platform of videos

• Allow students to start thinking about careers while they grow up

• Discover students talents

• “discover who you are”

• Watch the videos and ask the students what area in life do you feel in the zone?

• Most powerful tool to learn about the six Cs

  • Communication

  • Collab

  • Critical thinking

  • Creating

  • Curating

 

During the Session 7 time I was actually able to make it to two different ones that I wanted to see. Key points are outlined for both:

 

Session 7: Infographics in the Classroom

• During this session we learned about what an infograph is and how we can use them in the classroom. The presenters gave us a critical tool to create infographics with and how we can use them in a variety of subjects.

• The site piktochart is great to create infographs and helps students demonstrate their learning in different manners

 

 

Session 7: Choose your own Adventure

• During this session we looked at how you can use Google Forms to create interactive Choose your own Adventure challenges to let students have choice in their learning. Students can add files or links to the Google forms and learn how to create their own!

 

 

Session 8: Making as a Mindset

• how to have a makerspace in the English language arts class

• when children are interested in a topic their reading level increases

• ** motivation matters for reading level

• exploring through making

• tinkering, crafting, rebuilding

• Dougherty - ted talk

• Maker empowerment: I can fix it, I don’t know how but I will

• Agencybydesign.org

• Little Bits: modular components to understand electricity

• Makey Makey: Peripheral device, hook up to computer and conductive materials

 

  Useful Sites/Apps From the Weekend

• Ed puzzle (extension in chrome, good for making quizzes from videos)

• Hapara

• Google Classroom

• Lets Recap

• Explain Everything (like a white board on an iPad)

• Seesaw (student digital portfolios)

• Build with Chrome: don’t have to install

• LEGO Designer

 

 

Thanks for checking out my post, I already cant wait for the next EdInnovation Summit. Hope to see you there! 

 

 

Sincerly 

Miss. Walter

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