Extended Sessions
Select one for Friday & one for Saturday
Ana María Gach
Curating Your Classroom through Social Media (ES MS)
Just like curators, teachers are people who deal with an insane amount of content, knowledge, and events that occur in their classrooms, but want to share it in meaningful ways that will connect and spark interest with various groups of people such as parents, students, administration and, of course, colleagues. In a world where everyone communicates and shares through social media, why not bring social media into your classroom to share what’s happening in your students’ world AND, in doing do, provide a genuine learning experience for your students to understand the power and reach of social media? Learn More…
Julie Lindsay
Whole school approaches to classroom connections: from local to global
In a world where ‘fake news’ challenges our perspective on global issues and threatens intercultural understanding astute global educators are able to forge meaningful relationships beyond the classroom for real-world connections and deeper learning. How can we design local to global classroom connections so that students connect with peers and others for rich life-changing experiences, develop work-related skills with online technologies and adopt new globally competent modes for lifelong learning?
In this session participants will work together to explore, share and better understand connected learning, online global collaborative learning modes along with associated technologies and curriculum approaches. Learn More…
Tico Oms
Creating a Culture of Care
Relationships matter. It seems self-evident that student relationships developed in and around the school have a lot to do with how effectively students learn. Unfortunately, teachers too often discount building healthy relationships with students due to the time pressure of covering course content. When teachers overly focus on test scores, content coverage, making judgements on student learning, and addressing student behaviour only when it is bad, students’ chances of success decrease. The same can be said of relationships between adults. When administration does not focus on building caring, trusting relationships with teachers, or only addresses it peripherally, teacher performance also suffers.
This session will address ways schools can create a culture of care: care between administration and teachers, teachers with each other, teachers with students, and students with each other. We will study ways successful administrators and teachers have created warm, trusting, caring learning communities that support joy, well-being, and academic success. Learn More…
Jordan Benedict
Peer Observations to Build a Culture of Data-Informed Practice (WS)
In this session, we will do a walk though of Learning2 to collect data which we will then analyse and visualise. What will we find? What will our data tell us? How can we use this learning in our own schools? How might we use data, and the stories it tells, to effect change?
We are surrounded by data from terabytes of quantitative data such as demographic information, standardized test results, enrollment figures, electronic gradebooks to masses of qualitative data from our classrooms and interactions with our students. However:
- Do you find collecting, organising and analysing data frustrating and time consuming?
- Do we have time to critically look at data as a way to change our practice or do we rely intuition and experience?
- How frequently do we collaborate with colleagues to invent and test solutions through use of data and reflective practice?
- What can we do as a whole school to move towards a culture of data informed practice?
This is where classroom walk-throughs, protocols, and data visualizations come in. Walkthroughs can happen at any grade, protocols ensure all voices are heard, and graphical displays of data create access points into exploration by all. If we truly want to be data-driven, we need to focus on analysis techniques that inspire creative problem solving by entire teams. Learn More..
Lisa Fung-Kee-Fung
Launching Your Students' Learning: Who are we Learning for? (MS HS)
“Why are we learning this?” How many times have you heard this question from students? What was your response? Mine was, “Well, you never know when you will need it,” or, “Well just think, you are now more knowledgeable and less likely to be fooled by someone.” But our students are right to ask: why are we learning this content? Why do we have to wait until some point in the future to apply this information?
Using the Launch Cycle by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani this session will inspire the application of content and skills through a focus on the client to show the purpose of students’ learning now/today(?). This design thinking framework will show the value of bringing clients into the classroom so students can see the relevance of all those learning objectives. Imagine if, Art students applied their knowledge of ceramics to design lamps for teachers to enhance the environment of their classrooms? Imagine if, AP English Language students were told to come up with a “New Thing” that would make the world a better place? And imagine if, Science students engineered models for Elementary students to show them the relationships between the Sun, Earth, and Moon? Imagine if this was possible? It is.
Anyone can design and build a model or put together a project or written assignment, but if that model, project or assignment does not have a user or an authentic audience, it will end up in storage. By applying their learning to a client, students’ mindsets begin to shift from the grade to the user, and before they know it, their creativity starts flowing and their confidence in their ability starts increasing because they see the purpose for and impact of their learning. Learn More..
Nici Foote
Why is the A in STEAM so Important?
Years of research show that the Arts are closely linked to almost everything that we as educators and parents say we want for our children and demand from our schools. But how does this link to the reality of our current curriculum needs?
STEAM is an educational approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics to guide inquiry, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making. The Arts in STEAM is driven through creativity, innovation, design principles and reasoning as well as the concepts of form and function that connect us to everything we touch and feel as we go about our daily lives. Georgette Yakman emphasises the idea that ‘STEAM Education puts the “Who and Why” of Humanities and Arts into the “What and How” in the field of STEM education’. She maintains that the value of STEAM is not to focus on a subject as a singular discipline but rather to guide learners to ‘adopt a disciplinary fusion of learning’ and the use of ‘interdisciplinary thinking to solve practical problems’. The idea that the STEM ‘subjects’ be merged with the arts is not new. Leonardo Di Vinci championed this in the Renaissance period saying, ‘Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses – especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else’. Learn More..
Jeff Utecht
Honing research skills in the age of falsified news & echo chambers (MS, HS)
“Schools should teach young people about how to identify ‘fake news’”, says the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s education director, Andreas Schleicher, in a recent BBC news article. “Exposing fake news, being aware that there is something like fake news, that there is something that is not necessarily true, that you have to question, think critically – that’s a very important task.”
Being able to tell what is true from what is not requires critical judgement. This session will focus on the skills that every student needs to have for researching on the internet in today’s era of social media and falsified news. Learn More..
Kim Cofino
Helping parents to understand how technology empowers learning (WS)
In our technology-rich schools, we are often focused on ensuring that we have the right tools so that teachers and students can use technology effectively in the classroom. We spend plenty of professional development time and funds on training teachers to transform learning for their students. On top of all that, in many of our schools, we employ coaches to help teachers continue to develop their skills with technology. However, many schools still struggle to help parents understand why students (and teachers) are spending so much time with technology.
Developing a parent education program, specifically around technology and learning, can help build a sense of community within the school, support teachers and schools in their efforts to transform learning, and create a network of positive and engaged parents who will advocate for the school’s technology goals. Learn More..
David Collett
An Honest Look Towards a Better Philosophy of EdTech
Much has been made of how technology is changing the way students learn. But how do we separate the signal from the noise? Building on an understanding of the behavioral and cognitive-constructivist educational theories made famous over the last century, as a group, we will work through a philosophical approach in dissecting how technology affects learning and promotes effective teaching. Through hands-on, practical activities such as simulating the challenges of multitasking in the student learning environment, and testing our own cognitive capacities in the seemingly mundane task of touch typing, we will unpack what is known about educational best practices and apply it to our use of technology in the classroom. This will culminate in a redefinition of the classroom itself and increased clarity about what works, what doesn’t, and why. From boosting engagement, to peeling back the implications of student learning in an online world, this workshop will be a participant driven critical analysis of the IT infused learning environment of today. Learn More..
Jennifer Simon
Using immersive technologies to bring the ‘real world’ into your classroom (WS)
As educators we aim to provide students with the tools to prepare them for the future. One of the ways we do that is through authentic experiences rooted in the real world; however, the ‘real world’ we expose them to is mostly limited by budget, time and resources.
What if you could break through these limitations without ever leaving the classroom? What if your students could:
- swim with sharks 35 meters under the ocean’s surface to understanding of ecosystems or climate control
- explore elemental characteristics and their chemical reactions to safely prepare students for science labs
- follow a Syrian child through her daily life in a refugee camp to elicit deeper empathy and exposure to displaced citizens during conflict
Patrick Phillips
Harmonise Literacy and Technology (ES)
How our students immerse in text and writing has evolved, highlighting the need to integrate technology in literacy lessons so that students can develop the skills and knowledge required to effectively communicate and create content in a digital world.
In this session we will explore many strategies, apps and tools to develop exciting new learning opportunities.
We will get hands on with BookCreator, Puppet Pals and other literacy tools. You will create your own special effects story using Green Screen technology and we will attempt a Mystery Hangout/Skype with the intention of improving informational literacy from using maps and organising data. Learn More…
Clint Hamada
Will it Blend? Combining Online & In-person Learning Experiences (WS)
A common misconception about blended learning is that it only suited for certain subjects. While the “flipped classroom” approach popularized by Khan Academy is certainly well-suited to math classes, this is not the only model of blended learning out there!
By exploring the underlying pedagogy and design of effective blended learning environments, this extended session aims to help teachers across all subject areas identify how they can bring effective blended learning experiences into their classrooms. This session will be both practical and collaborative, with participants working in small groups to create personalized action plans for implementing these environments in their classroom or perhaps even school! Learn More..
Nathaniel Atherton
Designing Spaces for Learning (WS)
The spaces we live and learn in act on all our senses and affect us subconsciously. We need to better understanding our physical environments and their impacts so they can be leveraged for deeper learning.
Return to your school armed with with a designers eye, prepared to look at your teaching space through a new lense that will allow you to invigorate learning. Learn More..
Tricia Friedman
Innovation Strand
For the past decade Learning2 has aimed to leverage schools as change agents for the world. This aspiration comes from seeing what we can do with time, connections, and a willingness to take risks. The Innovation Strand is an opportunity for you to galvanize the support, expertise, and critical thinking of the Learning2 community as you work towards addressing a relevant need for your school this year.
Our learning will span across both extended sessions. The Innovation Strand asks you to think about a focus that you want to address for your school. No matter what you are troubleshooting, defining, upgrading, or just about to embark on, this session will better equip you for that journey. As a community we will work through a toolkit for change. This toolkit will extend beyond the session and will lay the groundwork for a continued conversation in the months to come.
*This session requires you to invest both of your extended session appointments with us. The return on that investment is for you to return to your campus with a clearer course of action and a continued map of future feedback conversations.