Who Owns The Learning?” Follow Up Session

Alan November, International Leader in Education Technology

Strand: Innovative Learning, Grade level: All, Subject area: All

This in a one hour follow up session of Alan’s keynote presentation earlier this morning.

Digital Book Trailers

Amanda Bond, Librarian and Ayse Ozgun, Fourth grade teacher, both at the Istanbul International Community School

Strand: Digital Learning, Grade level

In this workshop teachers will be invited to explore, evaluate and create digital book trailers and their use in building literacy for students.

Using Web-Based Simulations/Animations To Enhance Learning In Your Chemistry Classroom

Lowell Thomson, DP Chemistry Teacher at the American International School of Bucharest

Strand: Digital Learning, Grade level: Grade 9-12, Subject area: Chemistry/Science

IB requires your Group IV Science PSOW to include simulations. Learn how one teacher incorporates simulations and animations into various aspects of the IB Chemistry syllabus. Websites will be shared, along with handouts that guide the students and push their thinking skills. Simulations cover topics such as equilibrium, titrations, molecular modeling and redox. Bring your laptop and explore the simulations/animations during the presentation. Share your own ideas in an open discussion at the conclusion of the presentation.

Transforming Schools Through Peer Observation” (2 hours Institute)

Fran Prolman, Prolman is an independent consultant in Great Falls, VA, a Senior Consultant with Research for Better Teaching, and Vice President for Training for the Center for Arts in Basic Curriculum.

Strand: Innovative Learning???, Grade level: All, Subject area: All

This practical, interactive and immediately applicable workshop will highlight the following:

• Various models of peer observation
• The key attitudes and skill sets for effective peer observation,
• Skills for designing coaching questions and framing and facilitating non-judgmental conversations based upon data.

Case studies, video analysis, role playing, and reflective practice will be highlighted.

Paperless Assessment

By Petr Mára Apple Distinguished Educator

Strand: Innovative Learning, Grade level: All, Subject area: All

Petr will take you through the workflow of distributing and collecting all kinds of media from iPads, assessing the work there and then and sending it back to the student with in-depth feedback. The easiest marking with the greatest results.

Building Trusting Learning Environments for Innovation / (2 hours institute)

Micah Fierstein, Assistant Professor in Educational Leadership Studies at West Virginia University

Strand: Innovative Learning, Grade level: All, Subject area: All

Building Trusting Learning Environments for Innovation

This workshop is one of the three institutes Micah is presenting concerning Transformation through Collaboration: Building Leadership Capacity for Systemic Change. The goal of these three conference institutes is for participants to discover and practice tools/frameworks that challenge educators to build their capacity to think and act in new ways. A different set of learning frameworks will be explored in each institute. The goal of each institute will be to help prevent others from falling inadvertently into the swamp of constrained possibilities. “Insanity is doing the same thing and hoping for a different result.” – Albert Einstein.

The Institute Building Trusting Learning Environments for Innovation, participants will be introduced to, and experience, cognitive tools/frameworks that promote deep listening, dialogue, and mutual learning. The quality of the relationships one builds with students in a classroom or with colleagues in schools deeply influences the quality of his or her thinking. The capacity to innovate is directly impacted by the collective capacity to create trust and think deeply. Playful and engaging activities will be the learning design for this institute. Participants will leave with practical information and practices that they can use with colleagues and students in their home schools.

Bringing Khan Academy To Your School (2-hour session: presentation, Q&A, and hands-on engagement with the site)

Elizabeth Slavitt is a team member of Khan Academy and her task is School Implementations

Strand: Innovative Learning, Grade level: All, Subject area: All

** Note: the first hour of this session will be the same as the 1-hour Creating personalized classrooms session; people who attend the 1-hour session may want to skip the first hour of this session and just come for the hands-on portion. Bring a laptop or tablet with wifi**

Khan Academy is a nonprofit organization with a mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Khanacademy.org features more than 3,500 videos on a range of educational topics (including math, science, economics, medicine, engineering, and art history), interactive math exercises with step-by-step hints, and real-time reports that help teachers keep a pulse on each student's needs. Over the past few years, Khan Academy has worked closely with a group of schools to determine how the site can be used effectively in the classroom; there are now more than 20,000 classrooms using the site and about six million unique users per month. For the first hour of this session, find out more about the resources available for students and teachers on Khan Academy, and learn about some specific examples of schools that have used Khan Academy to create more personalized learning environments. In the second hour, check out the site for yourself and engage with guided worksheets to begin planning how you could bring Khan Academy to your school.

Cyber And Other Bullying Prevention And Support For Students (2 hours Institute)

Jerald Newberry is currently the Executive Director of the National Education Association’s Health Information Network

Strand: Innovative Learning, Grade level: All, Subject area: All

Participants will examine cyber bullying and other forms of bullying in schools as well as the results of these behaviors. In small groups, participants will identify steps that can be taken to prevent these behaviors by school personnel, students as well as by parents. Participants will leave with skills and activities that they can share with colleagues once they return to their home schools.

Flexible Learning Environments (2 hours Institute)

David Epstein, AIA, LEED™ AP, is a principal at TruexCullins, an architecture and interior design firm in Burlington, Vermont

Strand: Innovative Learning, Grade level: All, Subject area: All

Good schools today offer many pathways to learning. Students learn in a variety of settings: alone, in groups, by doing projects, with movement or skits; each mode playing to different learner’s strengths. In combination with rapid technological change, it is no wonder educational facilities must provide flexible and adaptable learning environments. From furniture to design to construction, this session will provide an overview of the exciting possibilities and potential issues you may face when exploring these concepts at your school. We will look at examples of both built projects and design examples and may just rearrange the furniture before we are done!

Service Learning: Engaging, Relevant, Real (2 hours Institute)

Cathryn Berger Kaye is president of CBK Associates and ABCD Books

Strand: Collaborative Learning, Grade level: All, Subject area: All

Service learning—a powerful teaching strategy—creates a conducive environment for developing transferable skills and knowledge, high engagement, and relevance that gives meaning and purpose to school for teachers as well as students. Teachers continually describe how their students go beyond required assignments with service learning. The process allows students to reveal hidden talents, apply themselves in ways that stretch their intellect, retain what they have learned, and transfer skills and knowledge to new situations. In this interactive session, find out what’s new in service learning to get started or advance your knowledge and effectiveness.

Polarity Management: Using Conflict As A Resource (3 hours Institute)

Carolyn McKanders, is Co-Director of the Center for Adaptive Schools

Strand: Collaborative Learning, Grade level: All, Subject area: All

The Polarity Management framework and the underlying principles provide a practical set of resources for dealing with all polarities in life. Polarities are ongoing, chronic issues, which are both unavoidable and unsolvable. Attempting to address them through customary problem-solving only makes things worse. These situations are not problems to solve; they are polarities which require effective management. Leaders, departments, teams, and organizations become more effective as they learn to distinguish between the two and deal productively with both. Through this work, they can consciously use diversity and divergent thinking as resources for developing high performing cultures that promote community and productivity.

Polarity Management increases in value as an issue or a system increases in terms of:

• Complexity – by permitting a view of both the forest and the trees;
• Change – by converting resistance to change into a resource for stability and change;
• Conflict – by developing “Both/And” thinking, creating “Win/Win” outcomes;
• Diversity – by respecting, utilizing, and celebrating differences.

Seminar Outcomes:

• Understanding Polarity Management™
• Exploring applications in educational settings
• Practicing identifying and mapping polarities
• Exploring using Polarity Management principles and tools to help mediate self and others toward balance and “getting unstuck”

This is a closed session.

Social Graces in a Social World – Orchestrating a Positive Web Presence

Jim Urquhart, director of the Anglo-American School of Sofia

Strand: Digital Learning, Grade Level: All, Subject area: Technology

Treat others as you wish to be treated …The Golden Rule is relevant to our student’s and colleagues’ lives more than ever before. The distinction between our “real” world and “virtual” world is more than blurred – one could easily argue they may be one in the same. This one-hour session will generate discussion and some helpful hints with respect to social graces in our societies increasingly public life. The intended audience for this session is educators with limited to moderate fluency around the joys and challenges of our online world.