InnEdCO 2017 -- Keynote Speaker

Building Blocks for the Future of Schools
-Dr. Scott McLeod (Dangerously Irrelevant)

Amazing vs Normal
Kids doing amazing things outside of school:
-Student blogging about school lunches
-Students creating video tutorials on video games

How do we give students the opportunities to do amazing things?

Formal learning vs Learning outside of school (often far more engaging and meaningful)
-How do we begin to give students voice/choice in what they learn?
-Project-based learning -- Genus Hour projects
-Engagement is the key - How do we increase engagement in our classrooms so kids aren't bored out of their minds?
     **Coming from a person who didn't care for school growing up - the most important thing we can do is increase student engagement**

4 Big Shifts:
-Higher level thinking -- moving away from regurgitating facts to solving problems
-Student agency -- student have voice/choice
-Authentic work -- real world application within the larger community
-Technology infusion -- technology allows for the 1st 3 shifts (above) to happen in innovative ways

Helpful resources:
http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/resources/3-big-shifts-8-building-blocks-and-some-guiding-questions
http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2013/08/7-building-blocks-for-the-future-of-schools.html
http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/resources/trudacot 
http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2017/03/where-do-we-set-the-bar.html

Literacy and Personalized Learning ISTE2016

My last session of another amazing day at ISTE2016:

Creating Passionate Literacy Environments Through Personalized Learning in Meeting Hall 504

Presenter: Pernille Ripp

-moving away from "teacher knows best & knows everything"
-"50% of HS students bored EVERYDAY" -- Gallup surveys support this (44% bored)
-most kids don't want to read or write -- we should be asking why not? How could we do better?
-26% of adults haven't read a book in 12 months
-enjoyment = engagement; How do we bring enjoyment back to reading/writing?

5 tenets of choice:
1) choice in engagement
2) product
3) setting
4) timeline
5) assessment

-Whole class novels -- Why do we make kids read at a certain pace? Why does every student in the class have to read a chapter a night? If they finish the book in a day, how do we challenge them? If students abandon the book, is it their fault or ours?
-It's a kid's right to abandon a book, BUT if they continually abandon books, they don't know who they are as readers and writers. Do we provide opportunities for students to understand themselves as readers/writers?

Google for Teachers

Another Google post!

Here's an interesting list of the 25 ways Google can make you a better teacher. Hmmm. By better, I think they mean more efficient, organized, and more engaging. Great resource!

Student Engagement

In this article from Edutopia, The 8 Minutes That Matter Most, it outlines the importance of the first four minutes and the last four minutes for student engagement. It also gives a few good ideas to begin class, end class, and most importantly, to keep it engaging.

Best Ways to Use Tech

Emerging EdTech released their list of the best ways to engage students using educational technology.  In the article, "10 of the Most Engaging Uses of Instructional Technology," their list and explanations include:
1) Interactive Collaboration
2) Gathering Feedback from Students
3) Embedding Questions in Video
4) Active Learning -- where students are learning by working through a problem/project
5) Social Learning --  students learning form one another
6) Using Tech to Help to Ensure Engagement with Digital Content -- discussion forums
7) Student Created Presentations
8) Project Based Learning
9) Digital Makerspaces
10) Flipping your Classroom