The advancement of technologies has made it common to share our daily life and work together with others across the globe. Such an interconnected society requires schools to prepare our kids to be competent in cross-cultural communications and global working environments.
Then, what should the school activities look like? Should we design additional curricula focusing on global issues and or cultural information? What are the effective ways to transform teaching and learning methods to fulfill the requirement?
In exploring the answers through this session, participants will:
A hugely popular session at BLC12 this session will get you busy building and sharing your expertise! Professional networks are brimming with resources and links and it sometimes feels like too much. One of the best ways to narrow the focus is to crowdsource specific content. Networks should not simply be about connecting with fellow educators, we need to activate the huge potential they have and create together.
Learn alongside Tom Barrett who has been spending the last 5 years crowdsourcing resources that support teacher’s professional development as well as inspire engaging learning in the classroom!
- How can I make crowdsourcing a part of how I design materials for teachers and students?
- How do I engage all of my staff to be able to engage in creating resources together?
- How can I filter the vast amount of resources that I see everyday in my online networks? How do I make the most of the resources available?
- What tools can I use to help create resources with other teachers in my district?
Attendees will
- understand how a network can be a powerful tool for co-creation and not just connections;
- reflect on their own creative practices and how crowdsourcing might fit in;
- see real world examples of how crowdsourcing innovations are being applied in sectors beyond the education sector;
- see a range of examples of successfully crowdsourced resources for education.
- take away a range of tools and models to crowdsource unique resources for your classes and schools;
- see crowdsourcing in action
Social Networking services often get the bad rap of 'time-wasters' or distractors. Yet, there are many social networks built upon passion, kindness, transparency, sharing, and collaboration. This session will explore these positive human networks as they apply to educators. Participants will learn how educator networks are transforming practice through the development of Personal Learning Networks. They will learn the most commonly used tools and techniques to support teaching and learning through social media. And, perhaps most importantly, participants will leave with the capability to extend and enhance their learning about this vital topic beyond the duration of the workshop.
The recent explosion of social media and the connections that media allows have the ability to revolutionize classroom learning. Even primary students can be global learners and connect with people and classrooms outside of their building, city or country. We’ll discuss why you would want to do this, curriculum connections and the practicalities of how to make it work in YOUR classroom. You’ll leave with
• A list of tools that help young children to connect
• Ideas for using connections to enrich your curriculum
• Suggestions for choosing an effective blogging tool
• An online handout with the material from the presentation
Presentation Handout
Very few schools have the amount of technical support that they need and one of the most overlooked technical resources schools have is their students! If you have staff who are reluctant with technology, having students work as in class liaisons is a great way to bring the teacher along while empowering the kids. The student learns by teaching and the teacher learns by listening. In this session, we will cover a variety of examples of how this is accomplished where the students, staff and school all benefit.
Our students know a lot about the things they wear, eat and use every day. After all, who pays more attention to the price and characteristics of a new iPod, outfit or shrimp dinner than a teenager? But in our globalized world, many of the basic resources that compose these goods are extracted, refined and processed far away under obscure systems that mask some hard truths. Using vivid reporting by Pulitzer Center journalists, we will explore the untold process that links shrimp, oil, chocolate, gold and other extracted resources to the products we buy at our local stores. You will learn how you can use Pulitzer Center reporting and educational materials to engage your students on these issues, weaving together themes of environmental awareness, workers' rights, human rights, national borders, ethnic migrations, urbanization and government and corporate transparency.
2.0 has been around for awhile. Yet, many of our schools have failed to fully embrace its potential to enhance learning. Our profession is not notorious for rapid response – and it should be! In this session we will explore structures and curricular features and successful examples that schools can implement now!
The recent explosion of social media and the connections that media allows have the ability to revolutionize classroom learning. Even primary students can be global learners and connect with people and classrooms outside of their building, city or country. We’ll discuss why you would want to do this, curriculum connections and the practicalities of how to make it work in YOUR classroom. You’ll leave with
• A list of tools that help young children to connect
• Ideas for using connections to enrich your curriculum
• Suggestions for choosing an effective blogging tool
• An online handout with the material from the presentation
Presentation Handout
With hundreds of thousands of apps it can be overwhelming to know which apps to download for your class. In this workshop, we’ll give you some of the essential tips for searching for apps for your classroom and share some of our favorites that will help you and your students create really awesome stuff! Come with your favorites, too, and build a collaborative list of good resources that we'll share with all. This will be a FUN and interactive workshop!
Tools such as classroom blogging, Skype calls and collaborative projects allow young learners to connect and learn from children who live far away. In addition, their classroom teachers can develop relationships that support their own learning. Come discover how you can connect and develop a classroom environment that spans time zones and empowers learners.
Attendees will become familiar with
Expanding learning opportunities by connecting classrooms
Tools to communicate, connect and learn.
Addressing specific Common Core standards.
The payoffs and the trade offs and what makes it work"
What are your questions or accomplishments for letting genuine inquiry lead student learning? An inquiry-based, collaborative workshop to explore effective ways for secondary teachers to incorporate open-ended, student-led inquiry effectively and creatively to unleash deeper learning. Inquiry is central to curriculum in an IB World School. Come for ideas from our classrooms, student and teacher resources, plus good online networks to tap into a community of inquiring teachers. We will create and post shared resources and ideas from the session.
Need help getting started with technology integration in your classroom? In a world filled with BYOD, apps and “100 best” lists, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Join Mike and Garth as we discuss the three essential tools for technology integration. No matter what the device, subject or experience level, you can use these three tools to go from beginner to teacher-leader. GoogleDocs, Skype and student-created blogs are the essential technology tools needed to create your classroom window-to-the-world. Just three tools, that’s it! We promise no lists, rapid fire explanations or a myriad of downloads. We will discuss the philosophy and practicality of each tool through real-world examples. Actual teachers, actual success stories and a common sense approach to technology will allow you to leave this session ready to tackle technology in the new school year.
The recent explosion of social media and the connections that media allows have the ability to revolutionize classroom learning. Even primary students can be global learners and connect with people and classrooms outside of their building, city or country. We’ll discuss why you would want to do this, curriculum connections and the practicalities of how to make it work in YOUR classroom. You’ll leave with
• A list of tools that help young children to connect
• Ideas for using connections to enrich your curriculum
• Suggestions for choosing an effective blogging tool
• An online handout with the material from the presentation
Presentation Handout
Are you interested in using your twitter account as a communication tool with your students? Come see how a geometry teacher uses Twitter to engage her students in and outside the classroom in 140 characters or less. We will explore how a learning community has been created between the teacher and students through tweets, hashtags, and student created resources that are being shared through Twitter. Not only will you see the teacher’s perspective on managing a classroom Twitter account, but also student and parent testimonials.
Views from a number of school leaders in US/UK/France/Russia/ Netherlands attending BLC (Superintendents, school principals, STEM teachers, GTEC project leaders and GTEC Ambassadors from the US, Russia, UK, France, Netherlands). A discussion of the challenges from the variety perspectives of educators from different educational systems (re: implementing Global STEM education programs) and about how we can realistically develop collaborative programs across geographies and cultures. While Global collaboration in STEM sounds like the perfect answer to developing student and teacher skills, this is still not so easy to implement in our schools (in US and around the world). Participants will learn more about different challenges in the various educational systems and how develop appropriate collaborative programs for different schools and countries. The legendary Dr. Charlie Pellerin (NASA Hubble Telescope) (and a GTEC Advisor) will be joining us via Skype & speak about NASA 4D system and our collaborative efforts bringing it to the educators around the world with GTEC team. GTEC team members and teachers & students from global school partners will be co-presenting these sessions.
Dennis Yarmouth Hign School, S.Yarmouth, US http://dy-regional.k12.ma.us/dennis-yarmouth-regional-high-school
Finham Park Math & Computing High School in Coventry, UK http://www.finhampark.co.uk/
Schkola Lycei Vtoraia Schola High School in Moscow, Russia http://www.sch2.ru/
Het 4E Gymnasium in Amsterdam, Netherlands http://www.het4egymnasium.nl/
Rene-Cassin High School, Ballan-Mire, France http://clg-rene-cassin-ballan-mire.tice.ac-orleans-tours.fr/eva/
"Young learners are active, curious and motivated. Their learning environment should be filled with concrete and hands-on opportunities that engage them and inspire learning. Just as wooden blocks, Unifix cubes and water colors are tools used to explore and develop concepts, digital tools, such as netbooks, iPads, Roamer Robots, video cameras and interactive whiteboards can also enhance the learning in a primary classroom. Learn how digital tools support a learning environment that motivates students to be active, independent and reflective learners.
Attendees will:
Look inside a technology rich kindergarten classroom
Hear student reflections about their learning
Gain techniques for setting up and managing the learning environment
Have an opportunity to discuss and ask questions.
"
Are you interested in using your twitter account as a communication tool with your students? Come see how a geometry teacher uses Twitter to engage her students in and outside the classroom in 140 characters or less. We will explore how a learning community has been created between the teacher and students through tweets, hashtags, and student created resources that are being shared through Twitter. Not only will you see the teacher’s perspective on managing a classroom Twitter account, but also student and parent testimonials.
The research on comprehension instruction indicates that active readers who think as they read
use a variety of strategies-they ask questions, determine importance, synthesize information
and connect what they are learning to what they already know. These same strategies are
essential for students to turn information into knowledge when using technology. Designed for
educators who desire to move beyond device specific or single-purpose, skill-focused apps, this
session will focus on how a limited number of tools can transform learning as students become
inspired by audience and authentic feedback, connect with classrooms and experts around the
globe, and create projects previously unimaginable. The session will:
marry best practice instructional strategies with current digital tools and practices
address social media, digital publishing, student creation, reflection and cross-grade,
cross-school, cross-global collaboration
offer specifics in supporting students to read with a critical eye and a skeptical stance as
they navigate and evaluate digitalsources
provide a variety of ways to help their students engage in research and investigation
that spark local, as well as global learning,right from their own classrooms
Monte Vista was the world's first adopter of iPads, placing them in the classroom the day of their sale, in April 2010, and has continued with a current 1:1 program for all students, 6th through 12th grade, teachers, administrators and a large part of the support staff. We have hosted visitors from states across the country, as well as representatives from Canada, New Zealand, Australia, China and Japan. We have also hosted 5 iPad conferences, with 2 more to come in this school year. This session will be a story of that journey, from its beginning to the present, with an honest evaluation of our successes and failures, and the leadership that has kept us going forward. The purpose of the session is to give schools who are considering an iPad program some valuable insights to help launch their own programs.
Our students know a lot about the things they wear, eat and use every day. After all, who pays more attention to the price and characteristics of a new iPod, outfit or shrimp dinner than a teenager? But in our globalized world, many of the basic resources that compose these goods are extracted, refined and processed far away under obscure systems that mask some hard truths. Using vivid reporting by Pulitzer Center journalists, we will explore the untold process that links shrimp, oil, chocolate, gold and other extracted resources to the products we buy at our local stores. You will learn how you can use Pulitzer Center reporting and educational materials to engage your students on these issues, weaving together themes of environmental awareness, workers' rights, human rights, national borders, ethnic migrations, urbanization and government and corporate transparency.
Imagine if students, thirty miles apart, could collaborate on their own digital textbook. Now image students receive no grades for their work. Imagery, podcasts, text, PowerPoints, hyperlinks and more all created by students and shared with the world. In this presentation we will focus on how we built a 21st century learning environment between two school districts via a living digital textbook. We will explain how to collaborate on a common curriculum that engages and empowers students to collaborate, communicate and disseminate their story of world history using Skype, GoogleDocs and Wikispaces. Our students’ efforts over the past seven years have resulted in the creation of a digital textbook; several years before Apple’s iAuthor. Engaged with curriculum, motivated by a desire to understand the world in which they live and leaving digital footprints worth following.
Online learning will become a normal feature of high school experience before we know it but, unlike at the university level, it is still quite new for secondary schools. Come learn of our experience with offering online courses for several years as part of the IB Diploma Programme in an IB World School. Perspectives from students, online teachers and the school administration about the challenges, problems, promise and excitement of being part of global digital classrooms. Please come to share your experience with online learning of any kind or to learn more about effective online learning for high school kids.
Imagine if students, thirty miles apart, could collaborate on their own digital textbook. Now image students receive no grades for their work. Imagery, podcasts, text, PowerPoints, hyperlinks and more all created by students and shared with the world. In this presentation we will focus on how we built a 21st century learning environment between two school districts via a living digital textbook. We will explain how to collaborate on a common curriculum that engages and empowers students to collaborate, communicate and disseminate their story of world history using Skype, GoogleDocs and Wikispaces. Our students’ efforts over the past seven years have resulted in the creation of a digital textbook; several years before Apple’s iAuthor. Engaged with curriculum, motivated by a desire to understand the world in which they live and leaving digital footprints worth following.
The U.S. Fund for UNICEF is the voice for UNICEF in the United States, working for the survival of children around the world through fundraising, education and advocacy. For more than 60 years, UNICEF has been the world’s leader for children saving more young lives than any other humanitarian organization. This session will educate attendees on UNICEF's global impact through the concept of “global citizenship”, specifically as someone who understands global interconnectedness, respects and values diversity, has the ability to challenge inequalities and takes action in a way that is personally meaningful. Attendees will also be engaged with specifics around the U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s global impact, domestic campaigns and the TeachUNICEF global education resource.
This session will be presented by GTEC international team and the US school administrators, teachers and students. We will explore what really works and what does not from the perspective of the students and the teachers. The effectiveness of the existing web-based collaboration tools for a virtual community, student teamwork in STEM education and the acquisition of 21st century skills and mapping of the GTEC STEM programs to the National Standards will be discussed. We will provide recommendations for the US and international educational community on the applicability of these tools for educational collaborative projects - both from the students’ and the teachers’ perspectives. We will discuss the opportunities that virtual labs provide for developing global STEM teamwork classroom programs and offer examples of professional collaborative tools. We will also review the perspective of STEM employment & workforce development professionals (re: STEM skills & workforce readiness). The participants of innovative and rigorous Global STEM program will share their experience in joint international projects implemented under the GTEC umbrella. 8th and 9th graders of Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School worked with schools in UK, France and Russia on various GTEC STEM projects such as NASA space exploration, astronomy investigations, world-wide clean water research, and methods of data visualization and etc.
Dennis Yarmouth Hign School, S.Yarmouth, US http://dy-regional.k12.ma.us/dennis-yarmouth-regional-high-school
Finham Park Math & Computing High School in Coventry, UK http://www.finhampark.co.uk/
Schkola Lycei Vtoraia Schola High School in Moscow, Russia http://www.sch2.ru/
Het 4E Gymnasium in Amsterdam, Netherlands http://www.het4egymnasium.nl/
Rene-Cassin High School, Ballan-Mire, France http://clg-rene-cassin-ballan-mire.tice.ac-orleans-tours.fr/eva/
The U.S. Fund for UNICEF is the voice for UNICEF in the United States, working for the survival of children around the world through fundraising, education and advocacy. For more than 60 years, UNICEF has been the world’s leader for children saving more young lives than any other humanitarian organization. This session will educate attendees on UNICEF's global impact through the concept of “global citizenship”, specifically as someone who understands global interconnectedness, respects and values diversity, has the ability to challenge inequalities and takes action in a way that is personally meaningful. Attendees will also be engaged with specifics around the U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s global impact, domestic campaigns and the TeachUNICEF global education resource.
