Beyond Dewey: Using the School Library to Foster Innovation and Exploration
Join our ITEC Fall 2023 Conference Featured Speaker, Josh Stumpenhort, as we explore how school libraries are using innovative approaches to foster creativity, collaboration, critical thinking skills and literacy among students.
We'll examine maker spaces, media centers and other initiatives that are taking place in school libraries across the country, discussing how they can promote active learning, interdisciplinary collaboration and inspire students to explore new areas of interest.
Josh will provide practical tips on turning your library into a dynamic, interactive space that promotes innovation, exploration and literacy.
Curipod is an effective tool to help create interactive lessons that you can use in your classroom live with students. It works like a simple slide deck but where you can have interactive elements such as a poll, word cloud, open ended question, personalized feedback (beat), or drawings. You can import slides from Google Slides or PowerPoint, or start from scratch. You can even use their AI tool to create a whole slide deck to build upon with information about your topic already included.
Curipod could be used to collect feedback from students, conduct an exit ticket, facilitate a brain break, or even embed formative checks throughout a direct instruction lesson. You can run through your slides on your screen, while the interactive components are displayed on the students screens. Students can use their real name but have a nickname shown, allowing you to see who answered with what while keeping that information safe from other students. This is a great way to add some interactive elements into any lesson.
Registration is now open for Iowa’s Computer Science Professional Development Week to be held in-person June 12 through June 16 on the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls, Iowa!
The week will begin with a kickoff event on the evening of Sunday, June 11, with professional development happening throughout the week of June 12 through 16, 2023!
In addition to great learning opportunities, what else is covered in registration?*
Stipends: $150/day Monday through Friday (Sunday not included)
Lodging: UNI dorm suites available Sunday through Thursday night
Food: Breakfast & lunch
*NOTE: Registration links included in the embedded Dashboard.
School/District:Cedar Falls Community School District
Years Served:I've taught 18 years. 12 years as a 2nd grade teacher, and 6 years as a coach.
Favorite Tech Moment:One that jumps out is when we first had Google Expeditions I was doing an expedition to the North Pole with 1st graders and that expedition featured Santa's house, workshop, the reindeer stables, the North Pole post office, etc. It was my first time running the expeditions by myself as a coach and it was the students first experience, as well as that classroom teacher. When the kids saw Santa's house the literal SCREAMS of delight/awe/wonderment filled that classroom and echoed into the halls. The classroom teacher started crying seeing just how excited her kids were from seeing all of these magical places and it was a moment using Tech that I won't forget.
Tip for other educators:Almost everything will work if you unplug from it for a few minutes, including yourself.- Anne Lamott
Colleague Comments: Luke is a phenomenal tech coach. He travels between four elementary buildings and often times in one day. He pushes teachers to try new technology ideas while keeping the curriculum at the forefront of the decisions. When I tell students Mr. Wagner is going to join us for an activity in the library, there are audible cheers. He brings a fantastic positive attitude with students and staff but pushes them to solve problems and think differently.
Luke has also presented at many technology conferences (local, regional, and national). He likes to share his knowledge and learning with other educators so they can keep pushing and growing students in their buildings too.
Know a colleague who deserves some recognition for the incredible work they are doing to support students and staff with technology in a digital learning environment? Consider giving that colleague a "Shout Out!" and help ITEC recognize rockstar Iowa educators!
Google Docs are a much beloved and utilized tool in the classroom! And the new dropdowns make it an even more versatile tool!
Dropdowns are menus that appear when you click on a box, allowing you to choose an option from a list. The dropdown feature in Google Docs can be great way to track productivity, but they can also be leveraged to support students in a variety of ways:
Productivity: There are a variety of pre-populated dropdown options that allow for easy project management! Students can select "Project status" or "Review status" to reinforce executive functioning skills.
Reinforcing vocabulary & literacy skills: Dropdowns can be used to help reinforce vocabulary. Teachers can create custom dropdowns that include essential vocabulary and can be used in Close reading passages or sentences.
Social-Emotional Check-ins: In addition to text, dropdowns can include emojis. Emojis can be a great way to quickly reinforce self-regulation and reflection for students, as well as giving teachers a glimpse into how students are feeling.
Quick Grading: Create rubrics and use dropdowns to quickly provide feedback to students!
Check out some additional ideas for using Dropdowns in Google Docs from Kasey Bell (Shake Up Learning)!
Empowering Student Learning: Teacher Feedback with Pear Deck
We know that feedback is an extremely important part of the learning process! Not only is it important to celebrate student success, but it’s also important to clarify information and to provide additional scaffolds or considerations to help deepen students’ understanding!
We are excited to share with you the powerful ways you can provide feedback during and after lessons with Pear Deck.
During lessons, you can use Pear Deck's interactive tools to give real-time feedback to your students. In both “Instructor-Paced” and “Student-Paced” activities, teachers can click on the “Leave Feedback” option to leave comments!
After lessons, you can use Pear Deck's analytics tools to review student responses and provide personalized feedback. With features like "Session History" and "Student Takeaways," you can see how each student performed and provide feedback on their specific strengths and areas for improvement.
By providing feedback both during and after lessons with Pear Deck, you can help your students stay engaged, improve their understanding of the material and reach their full potential.
Check out the video to learn more about how you can level up your Pear Deck feedback game!
