Author Your World
Susanna Hapgood, Associate Professor, Literacy, University of Toledo
The purpose of this project is to develop a website environment where learners’ multigenre writing from around the world can be posted and downloaded in various formats that can be read electronically or printed. This project brings together the natural curiosity of learners and the engaging enterprise of authoring texts in a variety of genres while leveraging the capacity of the Internet to allow the creation and exchange of these texts authored by learners of many ages. This work will have the further benefit of showcasing to educators the many ways learners can express their understandings about curricular content in multiple ways via writing that involves the use of different forms and conventions, i.e., multigenre writing.
Playing with Blocks: Using Minecraft and MinecraftEDU in the Classroom
Kathleen Kalata, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Lake Superior State University and Graduate Student at University of Michigan-Flint
How can playing with blocks in class help students learn? This session will demonstrate how to use Minecraft EDU/Minecraft in the classroom can be used to teach basic technology skills, promote computer science careers, improve teamwork and communication skills, and augment student learning. This session will help you learn what it takes to setup your own MinecraftEDU system and create activities that will keep your students engaged!
Right Hemisphere Reading Intervention
Jennifer Hedican, Vice Principal, Learning Support Teacher, VIU Masters of Educational Leadership 2013
Neuroimaging information helps inform this reading intervention method that helps chronic non readers. Come and see the research and the tools used to help students achieve success!
Engagement through Motivation
Mandy Ybarra, science teacher, Woodland Park Academy, Grand Blanc, Michigan
Emojis for learning and other fun activities that include positive reinforcement, from Mandy’s middle-grade science classroom.
Root or Rote? Etymology Pedagogy for Chinese Literacy
Michael A. Fahy, ICS, University of Michigan School of Education
Over the last couple of years we have experimented with a new and unique approach to teaching and learning Chinese writing. In contrast to the conventional drill-and-rote method, our approach is “Etymology Pedagogy.” We explain to students the meanings, structures, and cultural context in the construction of Chinese characters which otherwise appear as a collection of incomprehensible strokes. The preliminary results are very encouraging. We believe there are at least four factors involved in achieving the remarkable performance of students in recall and retention: (1) visual cognition of the characters (2) meaning-enhanced recall and (3) use of motor skills (“embodied learning””) and (4) cultural relevance.
Miss Media: A Networked Learning Initiative
Jennifer E. Killham, Freelance Academic and Instructor at University of Cincinnati
This project presents the iterative design and “post-mortem” related to the implementation of Miss Media, an all-girls technology camp on Game Design, 3D Animation, and Web Development. The project will outline the STEM objectives of the camp, along with why the female focus was chosen as a means enhance young women’s identity with STEM fields. A significant portion of the project will analyze and critique the challenges and opportunities from the 2016 camp, as well as outline the potential improvements for the next iteration of the camp. The presenters will unpack the use of a free online storytelling tool called Twine. Twine was selected by the girls themselves as a means to create interactive, nonlinear stories. The project will include samples of the girl’s interactive stories, including the creation of a game on the (a) bystander effect and (b) gun violence. Further, the presenters are looking for feedback from attendees on their ideas to further engage the girls with the brainstorming, pitching, and prototyping of a game; critical analysis of pre-existing video games, and the camp’s use of virtual panelist of experts from the video game industry.
P.A.C.E. (Performance Athlete Custom Education) @ Navigate (NIDES)
Bill Green: Lead Mentor, Triple Play Athletics; Brittany Hanson: PACE Teacher, Navigate (NIDES)
How can we best support the goals and aspirations of high performance athlete students (Grades 8-12) using flexible learning options in blended and online learning in public education?
From Theory to Reality: Developing a model Center for Social and Emotional Learning
Will Spotts, Assistant Director, Eastern Michigan University Bright Futures 21st Century Community Learning Centers
The Eastern Michigan University Bright Futures network of afterschool programs has been intentionally embedding opportunities for students to develop their social and emotional learning (SEL) using the “Preparing to Thrive” model developed by the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality (CYPQ). To better equip educators (i.e. school day staff, afterschool staff, administrators, policy makers) with the content and skills necessary to implement SEL programs, EMU Institute for the Study of Children, Family and Communities is developing a model Center for Social and Emotional Learning and Education Momentum. The purposes of the Center are to develop professional learning opportunities for educational leaders and front line staff as well as students in teacher preparation programs. This includes learning about the six domains of the Preparing to Thrive SEL model and creating safe spaces (real and virtual) in which practitioners become colleagues and thought partners. The focus of this project will be to take the foundational bits and pieces of thinking we’ve generated and turn that into a higher-level concept of what such a model center could do and develop a plan of action to make it happen.
Inworks: Design thinking for educator learning at CU Denver’s innovation hub
Remi Kalir & Kate Goodman, University of Colorado – Denver
Inworks is a new initiative of the University of Colorado Denver │ Anschutz Medical Campus that draws together faculty, staff and students from across the two campuses, as well as entrepreneurs and leaders from industry, government, education and the community, to address problems of importance to human society. Our mission is to impart skills and habits of mind that allow people to collaboratively create impactful solutions to human problems. Inworks seeks to create innovative solutions to some of the world’s most challenging problems, while in the process creating life-long innovators.
United People of Faith
Leah Robinson, Educational Consultant
United People of Faith is a collaborative project involving parochial schools of different faiths, in which participating students design a hypothetical school from the ground up. Members of each participating school group will be assigned to one of several committees, each charged with planning one aspect of the school (e.g., schedule, required courses), or of school life (e.g., dress, lunch menus, annual banquet). Meanwhile, mentors (university students and/or other “knowledgeable peers”) will portray historical characters with interesting perspectives on matters of faith, as well as administrators, teachers, and community members who engage with the members of the respective committees, with the purpose of supporting and complicating the committee work from new and different angles.
Take the United People of Faith survey
Human Rights Cards
Cissa Wa Numbe, United Nations Association Secretary General, Democratic Republic of the Congo
A custom deck of cards designed to help children in the Congo and elsewhere learn about their own human rights (specifically the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child) in an engaging, playful way. Created in collaboration with iiE staff.
The Collaboration Workbook
Pagan Poggione, Educational Consultant at PuddleWood Consulting, Founding Director & Program Associate at Institute for Innovation in Education
Amanda Dawes, Social Media Officer at Institute for Innovation in Education, Certified Trainer at A World of Difference Institute/Anti-Defamation League
A workbook (under development) designed to provide an overview of collaboration in virtual spaces and provide a way for readers to develop their skills and abilities as members of collaborative groups whether they are teaching, learning or working online. Each chapter will examine an attribute of effective collaboration and include a series of activities designed to increase the collaborative mindset.
To Kill A Mockingbird card game
Sebastian Smiley, 8th grade student, ENTER2 @Navigate NIDES, British Columbia, Canada
A unique card game based on the characters in Harper Lee’s classic novel created as part of a novel study project. Stop by to check out the game and maybe play a few rounds. Sebastian is currently looking for teachers using “To Kill a Mockingbird” in their language arts programs that might be interested in using the game with their students. Game rules can be found on Sebastian’s website.
7th Grade Engineering & Design at Ann Arbor STEAM
Ollie Kupperman, 7th grade student, A2STEAM @ Northside School, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Project-based engineering and robotics activities from Ann Arbor’s K-8 STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) themed school.