Skip to main content

#ISTELive 21 - Day 1

 


Day 1 of ISTELive was fantastic! My brain is on overload, and I'm still trying to process all the learning today. 

The morning started with an amazing talk from Cornelius Minor on the Mainstage. He shared a powerful message about making school and education accessible to ALL students. Here is one of my favorite quotes from his talk:

"Innovating is about more than changing technology. It is about changing systems and ways of doing things."


This was followed by a great talk from Deborah Olatunji in which she advocated for student voice and agency in schools. Her passion is so inspiring! Favorite quote:

"Students have stories to tell. We just need these platforms to help them tell their stories."


Next, I attended a session with Michele Eaton titled "15 Strategies to Engage and Motivate Online Learners." I will pretty much attend ANY session from Michele Eaton. 😁 I loved the idea she shared about having students set goals for themselves as online learners at the start of the year. I think having them identify a potential challenge is especially helpful! 


Next up was "Begin With Connection: Relationship Building Using Google Tools" with Becky Lim and Stephanie Rothstein. They shared so many great ideas for using Google tools to build connections with students! I really loved the story behind CanWeTalkEdu. It looks like a great strategy to empower teachers and students to learn more about themselves and learn how to work effectively in collaborative teams.  



Finally, I wrapped up the day with "Reaction to Real Action – Ideas for Creating Engaging Online Learning Activities" with a great panel: 
I really liked Dr. Courduff's point about the importance of not trying to make videos perfect. Teachers should just self-correct and move on, the same way they would in a face-to-face setting. 

It was an amazing first day! 



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Week of School

We just wrapped up our first week of school! I really enjoyed meeting and getting to know our new 5th grade students! Here are some of the activities we did to start building our classroom culture and learn more about each other: "All About Me" Google Drawing Students learned how to use some of the basic features of Google Drawings by creating a Drawing about themselves. The basic requirements were that they include their name, a picture of themselves, and text/images that describe their personalities or interests. I created an example to give them an idea of what it could look like.  I used this activity last year, and I really enjoyed what my students created. However, I decided this year to give them more time to just play with and explore the tools in Google Drawing. I feel like this really paid off because students were able to discover how to use some of the tools and share with each other instead of just relying on me to show them how to use it.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Virtual EdTech Coaching Sessions

  I'm really enjoying these virtual tech coaching sessions with teachers across our district! Here are some takeaways about coaching virtually: 🤝 Building relationships is still key to effective coaching. I try to look for things a teacher has on their desk or wall that I can see in the camera. This helps start a conversation about something meaningful to the teacher and starts our session on a positive note. ❓ Ask lots of questions rather than jumping in with a solution. I like to ask, "Can you please share your screen and show me how you would typically do/get to ____?" rather than telling them where to click right away. It helps me learn about how they navigate digital tools. 📧 Follow up the conversation with an email. I like to include a short video with a quick tutorial about something specific they talked about during the session. It helps demonstrate that I was actively listening and that I'd love to keep the conversation going and keep working together. What...
Post a Comment
Read more

#ISTELive 21 - Day 3

Day 3 of ISTELive! I started my morning by listening to Leslie Odom, Jr. on the Mainstage. He encouraged leaders to give people permission to fail, described the positive impact of his 5th-grade teacher, and then he sang "Room Where It Happens"! It was an amazing Monday morning! 🤩 Later that morning I had a great time attending "Connect, Create and Collaborate: Edtech Coaches PLN Best Practices and Favorite Tools." I was super excited to  connect with other coaches, learn some new strategies, and hear about some helpful tools! One of the awesome things about ISTELive being virtual is that ALL of the sessions are being recorded. So, I was able to catch up on a session from the weekend called, "A Pandemic's Impact on Online Learning: A Panel." The panel members were  Michele Eaton ,  Diana Gill ,  Dr. Marcus Vu , John Watson, and  Claudio Zavala . They made some great points about choice, student self-efficacy, and the importance of collaboration when s...
Post a Comment
Read more