ISTE 2014 Reflections

Well, it's been a month since returning from ISTE 2014 in Atlanta and it's taken about that long for me to come down from the learning high and have some time to reflect and take it all in. Team Creighton (there were 5 of us this year!) had a great time of learning, listening, discovering, communicating, and even just having some fun.

No matter how many times you attend the conference, it never gets old. There are always so many new things to learn about and new people to meet and make contact with. Here is an overview of our time in Atlanta:

We did several presentations - 4 in all - and attended a lot of great presentations and poster sessions. Lots of great things to share and implement during the coming year.
Learned about lots of new online tools and updates to existing ones.
We met up with old friends, like Dr. Alice Christie, and made new ones - like meeting the developers of our very favorite app - Explain Everything. The developers even came to see our poster presentation where we had examples of student work created in Explain Everything.
We ate lots of good food, went up to the 72nd floor of the Westin Hotel overlooking the city, and attended some vendor sponsored social events.
We were sad to leave but ready for next year! ISTE 2015 here we come.

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Digital Science Fair Projects

At the end of the year, many of our schools hold school wide science fairs. Students plan Science fair project tri-fold display board and implement projects and then present the process and resulting data on tri-fold display boards much like this. One class decided to go green and do away with using display boards. They conducted their experiments and recorded the data but rather than create paper reports they used their iPads. Project Data Graphs The students took pictures and video and created graphs and other visual representations and imported those into the Explain Everything app. During the science fair, students brought their iPads to the school's multipurpose room and presented their projects to attendees right from the iPads. In addition to using digital tools, these students are also developing their listening, speaking, and presentation skills - all vital to college and career readiness.

Holt Interactive Graphic Organizers

Check out these online graphic organizers from Holt: Holt Interactive Graphic Organizers The site has over 30 graphic organizers for a variety of tasks. Each graphic organizer is interactive and can be downloaded onto a computer with Adobe Reader and be filled out right on the computer. There are also Teaching Notes available with tips and lesson ideas for each organizer What we really appreciate is that they also work on the iPads! Using the "Open In" feature in an IOS web browser such as Safari or Chrome, you can import the graphic organizer into the Adobe Reader app and easily fill in the fields. Students can then take a screenshot of the completed graphic organizer to share with their teacher or import into another iPad project.

T. A. G. Strategy

We want our students to reflect on their own work but also to be able to give effective feedback to each other. This is true for writing, conversations, or digital work. It's tough for us as adults and even more difficult for our students - no matter the grade level. As we have started using Seesaw ( https://web.seesaw.me/ ) and its student Comment feature, I've seen lots of "I like ..." and "That's cool" comments. Not very meaningful. I recently came across this simple strategy called T.A.G: Tell, Ask, Give. An easy to remember acronym and a good way to get students started in making effective comments. I've seen several variations but like these descriptors for the acronym: Tell - something you learned or was meaningful ("like" if they are specific about what they like) Ask - a question Give - a compliment or recommendation (depending upon the purpose for the comment) Download a pdf here . Here are some additional ...

Suzanne's Ed Tech Reflections

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