March Updates

March is Women's History Month! We also celebrate Music in Our Schools Month, National Nutrition Month, and the First Day of Spring. Check out the Thinglink below for this month's Tech Tip Calendar, upcoming PD dates, and other useful resources!

February Updates

It's hard to believe that February is already here! I look forward to getting to see everyone in person again this month! #lovemyteachers

Our Transform Session this month will start with a quick look at what the AdvancED External Review team will be looking for regarding technology use in the classroom. Next, we will be collaborating with the goal of transforming some of your favorite lessons, activities, and/or projects. You will need your laptop or iPad (with Google Slides app). It would also be helpful to bring along a favorite lesson idea, activity or project to transform and share with other teachers across our district. I'll bring some delicious treats and tech badges along with some ideas for transforming your lessons!

Check out the Thinglink below for this month's Tech Tip Calendar, upcoming PD dates, and other useful resources!

December Updates

Our Transform Session for December is based on the results from the survey last month and focuses on presentation tools for students and teachers. Teachers will be given an opportunity to explore Keynote, Prezi, FlowVella, Haiku Deck, Google Slides, Nearpod, ClassFlow, Pear Deck, Canva and/or Buncee with the goal of choosing one to create a quick sample. Please see below for upcoming PD dates and other great resources!




Don't forget about our 2nd Annual Tech the Halls Contest this month. You'll earn an adorable tech badge just for participating, and last year's winners took home some great prizes! Let those creative juices start flowing and get inspired by watching the video linked above.

November Updates

As November approaches and first quarter comes to an end, I feel like things are beginning to settle down. So many wonderful things are happening in our classrooms each day, and it is amazing to see what students are researching and creating as I walk down the hallways. It is also exciting for me to be able to get into classrooms to work with students and teachers where the magic happens!

Our Transform Session for November is focused on assessment and study tools for upcoming exams. Teachers will be given an opportunity to explore Google Forms with Flubaroo, Socrative, GradeCam/ZipGrade, Charades, Kahoot!, and Flashcards by NKO with the goal of creating something to use with students.

For other excellent resources and updates, please checkout the Thinglink below!

October Updates

It is hard to believe that October is already here! Our team of iPad experts, technicians, and instructional technologists worked hard throughout September to get the Approved Apps Compliance Policy fully functional at all of Anderson One's schools. Students are now only allowed to download apps from the school's catalog of approved apps, and we are able to identify and correct students who download "unapproved" apps. Thank you to everyone for your patience and teamwork!

In order to share some updates and resources with all of my teachers, I created the Thinglink below:



Though we are currently experiencing some problems with the wifi speed in our buildings, I know that the team from Technology Support Services is currently working to correct the problem. Despite the frustration of these issues, it is amazing to see all of the awesome things our teachers and students are doing and creating with iPads. Creation Apps that do not require wifi (PicCollage, Popplet, Skitch, Venn, Canva, Puppet Edu, My Talking Avatar, Chatterpix, Book Creator, Notability, etc.) are working exceptionally well right now. Check out the Flipboard below!

View my Flipboard Magazine.

In addition to the October Transform Session: Navigating the Road Ahead, I encourage teachers to check out the two Lead and Learn Technology Sessions being led by our own iTeachers this month.

I'm also looking forward to another Digital Playground Session with the iTeachers at Powdersville Elementary on Tuesday, October 20th! This month we are planning to invite students to share their favorite tech tools and apps, like our own little Apptoberfest event. 

Upstate Technology Conference 2015

Each summer, Greenville County Schools hosts UTC at Wade Hampton High. This was my third year attending, and I enjoyed presenting with others from Anderson One and making some new contacts over the course of our two days at #2015UTC. It was also exciting to meet some of my Tweeps in person! Here is a quick look at what was shared during my sessions...

Turning the Tables
Flipping the idea of an expert panel, in this session our Anderson One Instructional Tech team provided a list of questions and issues for the room to discuss. As a facilitator of this session, I left with a lot of new ideas and friends to follow. The small group setting, with a handful of people sharing each day, encouraged an authentic and interactive discussion in which everyone was able to participate!




Documenting the Journey with Flipboard
In this solo session, I shared how I combined Twitter and Flipboard to create a "Year in Review" magazine to document and highlight the amazing things happening with 1:1 technology in my area during the 2014-2015 school year. Check out the resources in the Thinglink below:




Flipping Out in Math
My good friend Melissa Wilcox and I shared some helpful tools and tips for flipping instruction in elementary and middle school Math. There was also time to share some excellent Math resources. Feel free to interact with the Thinglink here!



Discover. Transform. Excel. @ PD
Reflecting on our first year going 1:1 with iPads, our Anderson One Instructional Technology team shared the variety of professional development opportunities we've offered to support or teachers and administrators. Looking at our presentation, I am so proud of the things our team accomplished this year, and I look forward to creating new and exciting learning opportunities for Anderson One teachers next year!

Transform 2015

Each year, Anderson One hosts two-days of professional development for teachers and administrators from within our school district to end the school year. One of the coolest things about this event is that nearly all of the presentations and course offerings were led by teachers and administrators from within our own district! As part of the Instructional Technology team, I had the opportunity to be directly involved in planning this event, and I'm excited to share some of the great things we were able to put together.

A Quick Look...

Teachers used #a1digitalinnovation to tweet about #Transform2015 throughout our conference, and I used Flipboard to pull together photos and tweets.

View my Flipboard Magazine.

Technado

Based on an idea inspired by The Daring Librarian, our team of Instructional Technologists put together a session in which we presented 60 Apps in less than 60 Minutes. Each of us selected and shared 20 apps for teachers followed by a fun "Brain Break" to get everyone up and moving. Because of the volume and pace of information, we made sure to share the link to our presentation: Technado 2015 Slides. Feedback from this fast-paced session was excellent!

Weapons of Math Instruction

As a veteran sixth grade Math teacher, I am always pumped to put together PD sessions focused on Math instruction. For this Weapons of Math Instruction Session, I pulled together 8 stations with activities and resources for Middle School Math teachers and invited attendees to self-select stations and the length of time spent at each one. Teachers worked collaboratively and shared with one another in groups and via Padlet. 

Innovator's Lounge

Our team came up with the Innovator's Lounge as a way to allow teachers a time and space for spontaneous collaboration during the conference. As a facilitator in the Innovator's Lounge, it was encouraging to see how this time was used to put learning into action!

App Gallery

Instead of a traditional vendor hall, we decided to ask our A1 iTeachers to help us create information stations for 36 educational apps to put on display in the gym. Teachers were then able to drop in and peruse the tables, scan QR codes, pick up donated swag, and gather ideas at their leisure. Our iStudents were on hand to answer questions and provide feedback as teachers visited the stations. 

 

Tech Gadget Table

For my App Gallery table, I pulled together a Collection of Tech Gadgets to share. This was a "hands-on" station where teachers could play with a variety of my favorite gadgets. Though many of these were pulled from my own tool bag, I was also able to get donations from several companies and to borrow gadgets from students and colleagues. 

AppMazing Race

Over the course of the two-day event, we had several groups of teachers working to complete the AppMazing Race, a list of ten creation-based challenges. Click here for details. This was a fun way to encourage teachers to experiment with many of the creation apps that we would like to see students using the in the classroom! During our closing session, we were able to show the final submissions on the "big screen" before we announced the winning team. Click here to see the winning entry. 

Family Feud

The closing session of Transform 2015 featured our own version of the Family Feud based on a similar session done at ISTE and posted online. To put this together, our team sent out a Google Survey and gathered these responses. Next, the presentation was created using SMART Notebook, and our "host" Todd Binnicker was selected and trained. Finally, two teams of participants (Elementary vs. Secondary) were selected, and we were ready to go. The final show was HILARIOUS and an excellent way to end!