As part of the Rebel U 2012 evaluation, participants were asked to complete the following sentence, "If you were at Rebel U 2012, you would have learned, witnessed, or experienced..." (similar to the question Scott McLeod posed on his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant). We received many responses that really spoke to the learning experience that teachers encountered during the day. We had also asked our teachers this question last year and it evoked such great responses that we had to ask again this year!
So... if you had attended Godfrey-Lee Public Schools' Rebel U 2012, you would have learned, witnessed, or experienced...
Teachers learning, instructing and engaged.
Some enthusiastic educators helping each other with awesome tools.
I always learn so much at Rebel U, even when I'm presenting. I think that this training is something that every district should have at the beginning of the year.
All the tools you need in order to be successful integrating technology into your everyday work at Godfrey-Lee.
Experienced how project based learning can be used to increase engagement.
Teachers collaborating to create an educational experience for the students that will allow them to be successful.
A rekindling of the collaborative nature and energy of the staff in the Godfrey-Lee district.
That we are a top class school with top shelf staff.
Major opportunities for students to learn guided by teachers.
You would have learned about the technology available to help you and your students have an amazing and productive year.
Collaboration, excitement, and a drive to learn how to be a better teacher.
Home made lottery tickets!
How to successfully incorporate technology into every aspect of your teaching and learning!
Some interesting tools to use for student engagement and streamlining what you do on the administrative side.
How to think out of the box when using apps in the classroom.
Many teachers who are passionate about their jobs and are willing to share their wealth of knowledge.
A day of rigorous learning.
How technology can help our students learn in a way that is exciting to them and how we, as teachers, can use technology to save time, money and stress.
Knowledgeable and enthusiastic presenters sharing ideas and resources while the staff enjoyed learning in the sessions they had chosen.
Hundreds of new ways to use the latest technology in your classroom!
A wonderful chance to share with colleagues from other buildings. It made you feel like a strong united district.
The epitome of educators sharing knowledge. Rebel U is an awesome way to kick off the school year to get teachers motivated to incorporate new technology ideas in their classrooms.
A plethora of useful strategies and tools that can be adapted to fit each teachers' and students' style and needs.
Godfrey-Lee teachers are passionate and dedicated to their profession and want to help each other to move up!!
New, quality techniques, resources, and ideas to help improve your teaching and your district's policies that would ultimately lead to better student learning.
An organized, informative, tech filled day that is NOT A WASTE of time! :)
With it being my first Rebel U, I felt like I was "properly" baptized as a Rebel now, thanks for such a great start of the year.
A teaching staff working together to learn and make themselves more prepared for the upcoming school year.
I enjoyed everything. Dan Townsend's presentation made me cry three times. So let me just say, "I believe."
Something new and exciting in professional development - innovative and fresh!
Teachers and other staff members sharing their ideas, experiences, and knowledge with other peers and colleagues to enhance the learning experience of our students.
Many fun and worth while sessions. It is OK to be a beginner at Rebel U. The instructors are there to teach and to help you make your classroom a more viable place of learning.
Doesn't it make you wish all technology professional development was like Godfrey-Lee's Rebel U?
This year marked the third year for Rebel U. As our district continues to grow and add different technology devices and resources, it is vital that we provide our teachers with relevant professional development that supports the use of technology in their classroom. Each year, we ask teachers to complete an evaluation at the end of Rebel U. We use the information gathered from this evaluation to improve weaknesses, continue the areas that were deemed important or positive, and make each event entertaining and filled with relevant learning.
Our theme for this year was "weLearn." We know that there is not a one-size-fits-all model to using technology, and how we approach using technology (whether it be for professional/personal use, or with students) will look different for each person. Different knowledge bases, comfort levels and intended uses all play a factor in implementation. Regardless of how it is used, at some point, we had to learn how to use different kinds of technologies. We wanted to focus on how we can use what we know to help others and inspire others to try new things. We heard many comments from teachers about things they learned throughout the day that they couldn't wait to start using in their classroom.
Some of the highlights from this year:
Keynote: This year we added a keynote address to the schedule. Our keynote was presented by our District Media and Technology Supervisor, Daniel Townsend.
Amazing Donations: We had many businesses and organizations that donated items, supplies or food to support our professional development event. To see a full list of all of our sponsors, please check out Sponsors page.
Photo Booth: In efforts of trying to combat the "My brain is starting to fill because of all of the learning and awesome food I just ate" feeling, we set up a photo booth for teachers to stop in and take a picture after lunch before heading back to their afternoon sessions. We had some very energetic teachers stop by and took some great pictures. To see the full gallery of pictures, check our our Photo Booth album.
"Lottery" Tickets: Our Tech & Media Team put together some custom scratch-off "lottery" tickets to give away incentive prizes. We wanted a fun way to engage people in the learning taking place in their sessions so it wasn't a "sit-and-get" kind of professional development day. Presenters gave these away in their sessions and our teachers were so excited when they had a winning ticket.
What did our teachers think of Rebel U?
To see more pictures from our day, please check out our photo album.
If you wish to keep up with our on-going effort to provide relevant and meaningful professional development for our teachers, please "Like" our Facebook page!
Each year, we provide a training for our teachers involved in our 1:1 Learning Initiative program. As we are in the process of moving away from using netbooks as district-provided devices and instead using Apple devices (MacBook Pros for teachers and MacBook Airs for students), this year we provided separate trainings for our teachers. For the 2012-2013 school year, our 6th and 7th grade students will be utilizing Dell netbooks and 8th grade and several high school teachers will have carts of MacBook Airs.
The first part of our summer training was developed by myself (Sarah Wood) and Kelly McGee for 6th and 7th grade teachers. In our continued effort to design our training to meet the needs of our teachers and students, we designed everything in our training so that we were modeling ideas and techniques and engaging our teachers in the training instead of having them passively sit and listen to us talk. Due to the many activities going on this summer, we had a small group of 4 teachers, which allowed for many open discussions and fun learning.
All documentation, links and resources for the training can be found here. Below are some highlights of the training.
Day 1: (Agenda found here)
As we planned the training, we wanted to build on the training from last year as well as provide effective training and learning for the participating teachers. As trainers, we hoped to provide some unique learning experiences that would help the teachers understand the role of the teacher as a facilitator in the PBL learning environment as well as use technology as a tool in this process (not the focus of the process).
PBL Review We started out the day with some discussion about the teachers' preparation for the 2011-2012 school year based on the training from last year, their experiences, and ways we move forward based on their experiences. As trainers, we learned that many of the teachers could recall activities from last year's training and that they often referenced the materials we posted online for the training. We wanted to point this fact out to the teachers because this is the type of environment we want to build for our students - a place where learning is fun and the information sticks because of the teaching environment.
After our discussion, we started out by reviewing the 7 Essentials for Project Based Learning article from last year. To put a fun twist on looking at an article, we had numbers hidden in balloons that corresponded to one of the "essentials" stated in the article. We told teachers to figure out a way to pop the balloons to find out their essential element that they would research further. We asked each teacher to read the article (focusing on their essential element) and then answer the following questions:
What does your essential element mean to you?
What does your essential element mean to students?
What is an example of your essential element?
We asked them to share their findings in a creative way. We had a few videos, a graphic organizer and a Google Presentation (findings are listed in the Day 1 Agenda).
Bridge Building Activity
All documentation, links and resources for this activity can be found here. Below are some highlights of the activity.
As we were planning the training, we wanted to focus on the things that we have heard from teachers throughout the year as things they struggled with as they worked through building a PBL learning environment. One thing we noticed and heard from teachers was understanding their role as a facilitator in the learning process. Some struggle with how to let go of the "teacher at the front" while others struggled with what to do after they have let go (as well as those in between).
To provide a learning opportunity that was meant to spark discussion, we had the teachers build a bridge. The catch to this activity was that they were given minimal direction and the activity leaders (trainers), provided "guidance" that changed the course of the activity. The purpose was to put the teachers in the role of the student and we would facilitate the activity. To read more about the activity, click here.
As facilitators, it was interesting to watch the interaction and listen to the dialogue after the activity about what worked and what didn't work.
Ice Cream Activity
All documentation, links and resources for this activity can be found here. Below are some highlights of the activity.
After lunch we wanted to engage the teachers in an activity to get everyone's minds thinking about curriculum connections. We planned for everyone to make their own ice cream using some simple ingredients. Using directions found from Indian River Schools' web site, each teacher made their own ice cream (we also had some toppings to make it taste a little more exciting). While everyone was shaking their bags to make their ice cream, we talked about how an activity such as this could be used in the classroom as an introduction to a lesson/unit. We also discussed possible curriculum connections that could be made with this particular activity. A short activity like this seemed to be something feasible for teachers to do with their students on one of our Early-Release Fridays. To read more about the activity, click here.
Curriculum Planning
After our ice cream activity, we started selecting standards that we would be working on developing a lesson/unit plan for Day 2. Each teacher was asked to pick one or two of their standards they would like to work on the following day - we suggested standards that they would like to add a fresh twist to or something that they have not taught before. We told them that if they were working on a standard that they have previously taught, we would like them to plan something completely new and different from what they have done before, this time using some of the elements we had discussed in developing a PBL lesson/unit.
Day 2: (Agenda found here)
Our Day 2 began with a recap of Day 1 and an overview of what we were going to be working on for the day. To get everyone thinking about standards and planning, we shared a tool with everyone that could be helpful in developing driving questions. In the blog post, "How to create driving questions for my projects?" found on the BIE blog, the author discussed how the TubricTM could be used for teacher professional development or for helping students create their own driving questions. The teachers found this to be a good tool for helping them organize their thoughts and could definitely see students using it for supporting their learning. The video below demonstrates the Tubric.
Curriculum Planning
The remainder of the day was spent planning PBL lessons and units using the information we had learned throughout our training last year and this year. As our training last year introduced the teachers to many different web tools and resources, this year the focus was not on learning about new tools or resources, but the implementation of them. As trainers, it was exciting to see that including these tools in their discussions and planning had become more natural and they seemed more comfortable using them.
We started working on an unit for the 6th grade team. The science teacher decided she wanted to work on her standard that addressed plate tectonics. The math teacher was trying to work in her standard with histograms, but as a group, we were struggling to make a relevant connection between the standards. As we researched, talked, and brainstormed ideas, we were able to come up with a project that not only incorporated all subject areas, but also fit in with their service learning project. The teachers decided to use the study of plate tectonics as a starting point for looking at things globally and the effects of the environment can impact people around the world. The teachers were going to try and contact some local organizations and make first aid/survival kits for people impacted by forces of nature and donate them to the Red Cross. The start of their plan can be found here.
The 7th grade teachers had previously discussed their service learning project and also decided to use that as a way of building a cross-curricular PBL unit. After helping the 6th grade plan their unit and gathering their own ideas for their unit, the 7th grade planning went a little faster and allowed them to start mapping out their year with project goals and deadlines. The 7th grade team plans on starting "Rebel C.A.R.E.S.", which will help students understand how environmental issues are connected to one another as well as to their lives. Their plan has many components that will be carried our over the course of the school year. The start of their plan can be found here.
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Each year, we hope to build and grow our program by building a knowledge-base for our teachers, who can in turn, share with their students. As we continue to focus on using the devices as support tools in the learning environment, we strive in providing our teachers with the necessary support for implementing their ideas and utilizing the tools and resources available to them to the best of their ability. Our devices are simply tools in providing students and teachers access to a wide knowledge-base, and our curriculum and collaboration allows us to effectively utilize these tools.
As we approach the end of another school year, the Tech Team would like to remind you of our annual updates to district devices. In order to keep our devices fresh and up-to-date, we will be applying many important updates over the summer break.
Save anyfavorites and bookmarksto your home directory (My Documents) Folder or use a social bookmarking tool such as Delicious or Diigo to save them online.
Make sure all items on your desktop are saved in your home directory.
If you have any unique programs installed on your computer, please note that you may have to re-install them when you return in the fall.
All district-owned laptops and netbooks will need to be turned in by the end of June for essential updates.
If you have anything saved on the shared drive, please back it up to an alternate location as it will be cleared - the Shared Drives are only temporary holding places and content stored on them is not backed up on district servers.
Register for Rebel U if you have not done so already. If you do not register before the end of the school year, you will need to register the day of and will have limited session options.
Please let us know if you have any questions regarding any of these items, we are happy to help!
And for your viewing enjoyment - a promo video for Rebel U (link to video can be found here).
For our newsletter this month, we decided to create a short animated video. As we can't share links in a video, short descriptions of the video segments (including links) are listed below the video.
Note: For our video newsletter this month, we used GoAnimate to create our video. If you are unable to view the video below, please click here.
Dan Townsend, District Technology Coordinator
As educators, it is difficult sometimes to spend a large amount of time searching the web for tools that you can use in the classroom. Apple’s App Store does a great job at delivering educational apps in a simple to use interface. What if you don’t have an Apple Device though, Edshelf is a great alternative for you either way.
“Edshelf is a directory of websites, mobile apps, and desktop software that are rated & reviewed by educators, for educators. They decrease the friction of using and procuring effective technology into the classroom.”
Some apps have prices associated with them but there are tons of free apps and sites organized for your classroom use. Check it out and see if it works for you. You can even filter by grade level, subject or platform. Go ahead...find tools... and share the ones you like with colleagues!
Sarah Wood, Technology & Media Integration Specialist
Like I mentioned in the last newsletter, I would like to share some of the features of the 21 Things for Students program. One thing that can be helpful for you and students is social bookmarking, or in other words, saving your bookmarks online instead of to a specific computer. Tools such as Delicious or Diigo can help you keep your bookmarks organized and allow your students to access teacher-selected websites easily.
Also, if you haven't signed up for Rebel U yet, please do so very soon. Spots are filling up quickly. Registration should be completed by the middle of May.
Kelly McGee, District Media Specialist & Technology Integration Support
Check out my online picture book at tinyurl.com/mediaguru1 using www.storybird.com. I've created recommendations for action/suspense books for middle and high school students. These are books, that I'm positive if you pick up and read the first couple of chapters, you'll have to finish!
Jason Faasse, Audio/Visual Technician
A good pair of headphones or a quality headset is hard to come by, that is why this weeks edition of the AV item of the month is featuring both! With the increasing amount of laptops, netbooks, and other devices in our district we are able to create more learning opportunities by allowing students to listen to things on the web. Headphones and headsets would eliminate the possibility of disrupting others while students are learning online. *If you are interested in getting new headphones, please contact your building administrator*
Our Technology & Media Team receives many questions about the status of projects, how to use specific resources and tools, and for things such as recommendations for technology purchases. In efforts of trying to keep everyone in the district on the same page with what we are doing, our team decided to create a short monthly newsletter that contains updates, tips and resources for staff in our district.
It is our hope to provide our monthly newsletter in different formats to show you different tools and hopefully give you ideas for things you can do in your classroom or with your students. Our first newsletter was made using an online comic generator, was saved as a .pdf, and then uploaded to Issuu to create an interactive "magazine-style" newsletter.
If you are unable to see the newsletter below, please click here.
Please feel free to leave a comment for us and share what you think!
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