Professional development workshops led by leading edge educators.
Join us on Wednesday, March 2nd for an exciting series of professional development workshops led by some of the most innovative and creative professionals we know. Choose the workshop that intrigues you from each of the following blocks.
Workshop Block I: 1:30-3:30pm
Penning the Hits: An Introduction to Commercial Songwriting.
This introduction to the profession and techniques of commercial songwriting will show you another way to help students understand that writing is a skill that takes time, knowledge, and practice. When we hear a popular song on the radio, we rarely think of the writers who crafted the music we’re listening to. When diving in to this often-overlooked world of men and women who earn a living as songwriters, we see that writing, in many different forms, can be studied, practiced, and perfected. The ability to demonstrate this to students through the songs they listen to every day allows educators to better connect their students with the concept of writing while taking away some of the difficult mysterious struggle that many people feel when putting a pen to paper. When a student understands the basic concepts of writing a commercial song, they understand the same concepts that can be applied to novels, poems, essays, and more. Enjoy the chance to explore this topic with Mr. Christopher DeLisle, a graduate of Belmont University’s Mike Curb College of Music Business Songwriting Program in Nashville, TN, and published commercial songwriter, studio musician, music producer, and stage performer.
Presenter: Christopher DeLisle, Coordinator of Residence Life, Florida Keys Community College
Micro-centers, Un-centers, and Centrifuges: Re-inventing the Writing Center for your Changing World.
When you hear the word “writing center,” do you imagine a big room in a university filled with students and tutors working on term papers? That’s just one form, and we’ll explore how the basic writing center principles of interdisciplinary work and peer mentoring can be applied to contexts from elementary classrooms to online communities and business incubators. We’ll brainstorm about spontaneous “pop-up” centers, language-learning centers , free-verse centers, and more! Join us in reinventing the writing center as a powerful tool for improving writing in every kind of institution.
Presenters:
Hilary Parmentier, Dept. Chair: English, Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts, Florida Keys Community College, Florida.
Bob Barnett, Dean: School of Education and Human Services, University of Michgian-Flint, Michigan.
Oh The Places You’ll Go: Using Technology to Explore the History of the Keys.
In 1513, Ponce de Leon left Spain to journey to the New World. While his goal was to discover the mysterious “Fountain of Youth,” he stumbled upon a chain of islands which in the 1800s became a part of the state of Florida. The Keys have always been an ideal getaway destination, with beautiful scenery and amazing history. As we discuss the rich history of the Keys, we will employ diverse digital presentation tools, apps and programs to share diverse presentation strategies and graphic organizers. Our goal is to allow for a first hand experience of these amazing places and to document your personal exploration of the keys via Team “Scavengerhunting” through Periscope technology.
Required:
Smart Phone with Twitter App (create a Twitter handle if you do not yet have one) and Periscope App downloaded (Periscope works with your Twitter account). If participants would like to follow along with the presentation or experiment with some of the presentation ideas they should bring a laptop too.
Presenters:
Amanda Dawes, Dean of Technology Integration/ Social Sciences Educator, Donna Klein Jewish Academy, Florida.
Nick Belotto, Social Sciences Educator, Donna Klein Jewish Academy, Florida.
Workshop Block II: 4:00-6:00pm
Blending Future Forward: Leading Disruptive Innovation & Change in Education.
Innovative leadership is crucial at every level from teacher teams to superintendents, and for every kind of organization from small nonprofit through school districts and universities. For the past few years, Navigate – one of British Columbia’s largest distributed learning schools – has been implementing a series of innovative new blended learning programs that are blurring the distinction between online and traditional instruction and receiving international acclaim for their work. The eCademy of New Technologies, Engineering and Robotics(ENTER and ENTER 2), the Fine Arts eCademy (FAE), Secondary iClass, and Independent Learning Centres, all act as innovations that are disruptive and challenging to the accepted norms of learning and instructional delivery. In this interactive session, participants will gain insights on instructional leadership, blended learning, and the importance of disruptive innovation, and use these insights to create roadmaps for leading disruptive innovation within their own school or organization.
Article/Video Links:
CANeLEARN iNACL Announcement
BCPVPA Adminfo Article (Feb. 2015 Pages 4-8)
Blended @ Navigate: Our Journey In Disruptive Innovation
ENTER & E2: 21st Century Learning
Fine Arts eCademy: Festival of Colour Performance
Presenter:
Jeff Stewart, District Principal: Distributed Learning Comox Valley School District (SD 71), British Columbia, Canada
“Click Here!” Internet Safety: “How to Tech but not Infect”
Social engineering, email phishing, data breaches. You’ve heard the terms and read the horror stories. Improve your awareness and assist your students in the technological age. Why is online safety relevant and what can you do to protect yourself, your classroom and your students? Prepare your students to live in a reality where technology is changing rapidly and where data collection is a growing area of concern. This workshop will explore common tactics used by individuals and organizations to “trick” you into providing personal information and compromise online safety. Learn tips and tools that you can use in your everyday life and in your classroom to keep you, your your students, your devices and your online environment secure.
Presenter:
Pete Poggione, Director of Information Technology: Mattawan Consolidated School, Michigan.
Digital Pedagogy: Migrating Classroom Artifacts into the Digital Realm.
How can instructors create rich dynamic interactive content to enhance concepts in classes? This workshop will focus on the idea of a paperless classroom. Many teachers today are tasked with the job of creating a dynamic classroom experience both in a face-to-face setting and online, but it can be confusing trying to figure out what will work best for you and your students. This workshop will not only demonstrate how to create a dynamic learning environment, but participants will get a chance to try it out for themselves, using authoring software like eXe, Hotpotatoes, OpenCast, Xerte, Captivate, Camtasia, and Examview.
Participants will learn how to use e-learning content packages with a full-featured learning management system (LMS) such as Moodle, Blackboard, and Canvas to create dynamic interactive modules that can replace traditional worksheets and activities. Thanks to e-learning technical standards like SCORM and IMS, the activities and resources created will work with any modern LMS. Content covered will include online assessment and activity based assignments.
Presenter: Chad Parmentier, Instructional Designer/instructor at Sigsbee Charter School, Florida.