Building Learning Communities

MA and Iowa have been linked through the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council in both states and despite the differences there are many similar challenges: how to work with K-12, Higher Education, Business and Industry and Legislators. Reinventing unnecessarily wastes valuable and scarce intellectual and other resources.
Come and learn about: Leadership, Planning, Models for STEM Development

* Student Self-Assessment
* Preparing Teachers to give a Range of Quality Feedback
* Professional Development leading to Successful Systemic Change
* Leader as Role Mode

“Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig." - Marcus Aurelius
Active teachers are always digging; always learning more about themselves and the surrounding world. In an active classroom, the teacher becomes a true role model, making his/her own learning visible to students. This is perhaps a new mode of education that involves deep trust, curiosity, and openness.

In this session, we will share different methods that teachers use to fill their own ""wellsprings of Good"", using curiosity as a guide. Examples include Harvard Project Zero's ""Out of Eden Learn"" module, and Project VOICE Spoken Word poetry. Teachers who are writers, artists, philosophers and researchers will share various techniques for nurturing personal passions (including creative writing, photography, historical research, etc.), incorporating personal practices into teaching practices. We will also discuss ways to use an online global community (the modern PLN!) for collaborative inspiration and support, as we look to build a network of like-minded, creative, collaborative educators worldwide. Bring your ideas, and get ready to share and form your own global passion network in this session!

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and dedicated people can change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has. -Margaret Mead

At Thomas A Edison CTE High School, we strive to incorporate our technical and vocational skills into our academic classes. It is the goal of our workshop to explain how the CTE classes we taken inspired us to use the skills that we have acquired to advance the world. From every conference we’ve done to every position paper we’ve written we have learned and experienced so much, and it made us think that we could do something about the problems we see in the world. Because of the passion and desire that our class has for making a difference, we have put actions to our words. Our class sponsors the Human Enlightenment Centre, a girls vocational school in Pakistan that suffers from regular lapses in electrical supply.  In an effort to help, our class has combined our shop skills and created a solar panel battery charger to alleviate the issue.  We are designing a human rights museum in our high school to expose the problems that our class is trying to resolve. In addition our class is also producing a textbook on Apple iBooks that future classes will use as a continuously evolving textbook.

Changing the world cannot start without changing ourselves. It is our hope that the big challenges of the future can be met by the small steps we make today. We know that we can be the change we want to see in the world, as Gandhi once told us to be. We chose a song called "Heroes" as our anthem, not because we each think we are, but because we have learned that all it takes to be heroes is that one small step that can change tomorrow for everyone.

What are your students thinking and how do you know? Alan November asks ‘Are there opportunities for students to make their thinking visible?' At the International School of Amsterdam a culture of thinking is embedded into our philosophy, programme and curriculum. We want students to think about thinking and therefore we embrace the opportunities that technology provides to facilitate.
Join us to explore how we use a range of technology tools with primary aged students to make thinking visible. See how self and peer reflection is an integral part of learning in our classes. We will share our experiences with screen-casting, movie-making, book-making, mind mapping, digital portfolios and collaborative projects across a range of curriculum areas. Some of the tools we have used include: Book Creator, Explain Everything/DoodleCast Pro, iMovie, Adobe Voice, Padlet, Poplet and Voicethread amongst others.

After the students give their presentation, they will stay to answer questions in order to give everyone who wants to know more about their inspiring project a chance to talk to the team.

One beauty of global learning is that it can take on so many forms, where one size does not fit all. This benefit also can pose challenges, like where to start, or how to make it meaningful? Join best-selling author of acclaimed Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World and The Global Education Toolkit for Elementary Learners, and school advisor/mentor, Homa Tavangar, in an exploration of how to connect global perspectives and tools to passions and interests (of teachers as well as students) to fuel effective 21st Century learning. Learn simple, fun approaches proven to help build a global mindset among corporate executives, that are even more effective the younger the student. Participants should come away with inspiration to sustain their efforts for bringing the world home – even if they’ve never owned a passport.

More and more students are being asked to connect with the global community. How well are they prepared to do so? Community starts in the classroom but can build to include other students, educators, experts in the field, and more. This session will show how to build a strong learning network for students starting with community building in the classroom and extending to collaborations across the globe using today's most popular digital collaboration tools. This session will feature video, student work samples & digital platforms for creating and fostering a student learning network. Participants will learn how to build a connected classroom where students have audience, voice & relevance in their work.

Mindfulness is the current "hot topic", highlighted in education websites worldwide. Adopted by corporations such as Google and Microsoft, used by Olympic athletes, and seen as a benefit for performance artists and musicians, mindfulness is not a new concept, yet it is generating deep interest, as a recent boost in published scientific research points to great benefits in attention, focus, health, and even happiness. What classroom doesn't benefit from joyful students who are truly engaged in the process of learning? The benefits of mindfulness in schools are myriad, yet the first steps involve educators digging deeply into the theories and practices of mindfulness, in order to understand it better and feel confident about the strategies being useful and practical. This interactive, highly entertaining session will give an overview of the history and development of what is now called the "mindfulness movement", and an explanation of findings in the area of cognitive science and learning with regard to mindfulness, compassion, and empathy. A basic introduction to a personal mindfulness practice, plus techniques for practically applying mindfulness in the classroom, will also be a part of this session.

Between the first screen, the movie screen, and the fourth screen in your pocket were two others. They have dramatically changed the ways in which we work, learn, play, and live together. Increasingly, our online lives breed a lack of inhibition not seen offline while simultaneously the phones most kids have in their pockets make all spaces learning spaces and potentially shift learning times to any time.

This session will model conversations educators can take back to their schools about cultivating empathy and empowerment in our students to combat a host of social issues around student use of social media. Participants will leave with a wealth of powerful visual material and discussion starters they can use in their schools with their students. We’ll share ideas to effectively lead these sort of difficult conversations and share resources we can easily access anywhere any time.

Global STEM Classroom ™ and how to start a global collaboration program in your school (STEM, STEAM and more) - all "how to's", "do's" and "don’ts “and all "nuts and bolts", based on our experience running the Global STEM Classroom ™ programs with US, UK, France, Russia, Mexico, Netherlands and Ukraine

As the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris or the #BlackLivesMatter movement made global headlines, schools and communities around the world have experienced their own microcosm of cultural shifts and soul-searching on their own home turf. This interactive multi-media experience will create a safe environment to demonstrate how easily we build judgment and misperceive differences, then how to expand our view to be more comfortable with discomfort, recognize opportunities to have meaningful discussions about diverse worldviews, and offer practical ways to build empathy – for ourselves and our students. Viewing the world through the diverse lenses we’ll experience can help foster a culture of empathy and inclusion at school, and create transformative global learning experiences. As we strengthen our “global lens” we will enhance school climate, inclusion and social-emotional learning, which can translate into more meaningful, substantive, and creative academic learning. This session can help start that journey.

We live in an age where everything is recorded digitally – in pictures, video, and text – live as it happens; it's the end of the age of legends. "Selfie", according to the Oxford dictionary, is the word of the year 2013. Often the selfies our students are sharing aren't putting their best digital foot forward. As teachers, how can we help our students leave digital footprints they can be proud of? Is only sharing your "best stuff" such a good idea? How do we address the issue of digital ethics across the curriculum and in our classrooms?

In this session we will share some practical suggestions for a digital ethics policy in your classroom, share resources you can use with your students to have meaningful conversations about making ethical and responsible choices online, and share concrete practical suggestions you can use in your class tomorrow to help your students create digital footprints that will pass The Grandparent Test (it's not what you think it is).

Please download the i-nigma QR-Code Reader and Phonto apps before the workshop (available on both the iOS App Store and Google Play Store) and bring your fully charged mobile device.

Do you hear the word ‘Twitter’ and assume it’s a fun app for following the latest gossip and trends? That’s what I used to think too. Over the past two years, Twitter has transformed my classroom into a global learning environment where my first graders regularly communicate with students from around the world. Twitter is much more than just a social networking tool. It is truly the gateway to connecting your students with other classrooms from across town and across the planet! In this session, you will find out how tweeting in your classroom can open up a world of collaborative projects and incredible connections for your students, no matter their grade level.
Participants will learn how to:
• Create a class Twitter page
• Search for other classes and experts to follow
• Make connections that lead to collaborative projects
• Use hashtags to help you research and organize
information
• Participate in Twitter chats with other educators
• Build a personal learning network