#CSDFebInst -- Turn Your Spark Into a Fire!

Last Friday's institute day was so much fun for me because I got to see my friends and colleagues share with everyone some of the cool ways they make learning engaging and meaningful for students. I got to see the teachers in this district work together across grade levels, buildings, and disciplines -- this is better than any vertical articulation meeting we could plan, in my opinion! I got to talk with teachers as they left breakout sessions about the new things they wanted to try and ask me to help them. Finally, as I've been reading your feedback from the day, I feel so grateful for the overwhelmingly positive feedback -- and no one has said that they day was a waste of time. That is my primary goal: to make sure that our institute day is not a waste of anyone's precious time!

As I tried to say at the end of the day Friday, I hope you've got a spark that will start to burn brightly. Share that spark -- with your students, with your co-workers. Friday is over and done, but the excitement and the learning doesn't have to be. Here's how to keep the momentum going:

• Share your feedback to make next year's institute even better. What did you like? What could be done better? Complete the survey if you didn't do it on Friday.
• When you use something from the institute day, share it on Twitter! Use the hashtags #CSDFebInst and #ChannahonPride. Maybe you can even tag the person who shared this idea with you in the Tweet.
• Share your ideas and enthusiasm at the Dotstorming page. Then give props to the posts you agree with or think deserve some recognition.
• Go back to look at the resources from the institute day. They are all available by going to the schedule on the institute day website. You can look at all the resources -- including the ones from the sessions you didn't get to attend but wanted to. Don't limit yourself to only the ideas you picked up in the sessions you attended.
• If you have a group of teachers in your building who would like a presenter to come talk with you, let me know. I can work on trying to find a way to get those people over to your building for a team meeting or grade level meeting before or after school. We have terrific teachers in this district, and tapping into their expertise costs nothing to the district. Why bother paying for outside experts when they are right here with us!
• Get in touch with me or even Jeremy to come to your class to try some of the new things you want to do. Neither of us likes being cooped up in our offices; we really want to be there in the classrooms with you and your kids trying out new tools and seeing what happens.
• Share a comment on this post about your take aways from the day. The power of that institute day comes from using and sharing what you learned.

Cool Tool Alert -- Dotstorming

Have you ever been to a professional development event of been in a class where you do an activity that involves walking the room, reading statements on big pieces of paper, then voting on or evaluating those those statements by using stickers? It can be a great way to get kids up and moving around the classroom and interacting with their peers, for sure! But there can be limitations -- if you have a really big class and it's hard to move around comfortably, or you don't have enough stickers for kids, or you have some kids who are a little shy and don't want to do something quite so public. In those cases, you can use Dotstorming!

Dotstorming is the online version of the classroom walk-around and using stickers. Create a free account (allows you up to 5 dotstorming boards), share the link to your board with your students, let them post items (or YOU can post items), then let them "vote" by using dots!

Check out this nice tutorial for how to use Dotstorming and get some ideas for how to use it in your classroom:

Now give it a try yourself! What do YOU think of Dotstorming? Click here to vote!

#CSDFebInst is Almost Here!

We are just a little over a week away from our February institute day! I hope you are excited as I am to learn from our very own coworkers! I just wanted to be sure to share some information with you about that day so you are ready to rock and roll!

The day starts here at Channahon Jr. High at 8:00 in the multi-purpose room. We will end at 1:30. There is no plan for a lunch break. There will be breakfast items for the start of the day, and there will be snacks for everyone during the course of the day.

The general schedule will be to start with opening presentations, then move to smaller breakout sessions, then finish with a closing session. There will be breaks between the breakout sessions to grab a snack, hit the bathroom, stretch your legs, and talk with your friends and colleagues.

Please bring your laptop with you. Better yet -- grab a Chromebook from your school! They've got great battery life that will last you for the whole institute day! Never used a Chromebook before? No worries! There will be plenty of people around who have and will be able to show you the ropes (but you'll likely be able to figure it out yourself -- trust me!).

You can find everything you want to know about the institute day at the website dedicated solely to this epic event: bit.ly/csdfebinst. There, you will be able to see all the presenters, their topics, and links to sessions descriptions and resources for every session. This is great because you will have access to the information presented for all the sessions, including the ones you don't get the chance to attend!

You do not need to sign up for any of the breakout sessions EXCEPT for the BreakouEDU sessions. The sign up links for those are on the schedule. If you haven't experienced a BreakoutEDU, I encourage you to sign up for one -- they are a great, fun brain workout! You'll be inspired to find ways to use it in your classroom -- I guarantee it! All regular breakout sessions are "vote with your feet" as Jeremy says, which means just go to the session of your choice!

One session not on the schedule yet (but will be soon) is a session on how to use WeVideo. This is an awesome creative tool that can be used in so many ways. This session, just as an FYI, will be moderated by Erin Bettenhausen BUT will actually be led by 8th graders from CJHS.

You will also get the chance to see the 3D printers in action next week. They will be on display and printing. We will have students here from Three Rivers School to talk about the 3D printers and how they have used them in their classes.

You are ENCOURAGED during ALL sessions to share your ideas, insights, and inspirations via Twitter! Use the hashtag #CSDFebInst as well as #ChannahonPride in your Tweets. To make it easy, you will see a link on the home page of the institute day website that says, "Tweet using the hashtag"; that link will directly open up Twitter for you and automatically add the hashtag. If you don't have a Twitter account -- don't worry! You've got a week to get one set up :-) All the presenters have shared their Twitter handles on their session resources pages, so please be sure to mention them in your Tweets! It's so much fun to get that notification that someone mentioned you on Twitter :-)

Got questions about next Friday? I've got answers! Feel free to email me your questions or share them as a comment on this post.

Until next Friday, please take a look at the schedule and sessions and start to plan your day. Also consider Tweeting out your plans and excitement for the day, using the hashtag and the names of the presenters you are planning to see!

Allies, Not Adversaries

One of the common concerns people have with infusing education with technology is a misunderstanding about how the technology can be a vital learning tool. Have you ever heard anyone say, "I didn't have a computer/iPad/email/cell phone/internet access when I was in school, and I learned plenty!" That argument can be hard to win. How can we assure all educational stakeholders that technology is an excellent and necessary tool for learning? In particular, parents are the most concerned. They want to make sure their kids are safe while using online tools, that they're not being over-exposed with screen time, or that expensive technology isn't just a toy.

Here's a nice post about how to help parents understand the value of technology in the classroom. It really comes down to involvement and transparency. If we can involve parents in the way technology is used in the classroom, they understand how it's used and see the value in it. If we let them see how it benefits their children, they see value in it.

What excites me is that after reading the post, I realized that so many of the teachers in this district already do many of the things listed! I encourage you to review the ideas in the post, keep doing the things you're already doing, and continue to implement others! Maybe you don't have a class website but would like one. Great idea! Talk to em and I can show you how to very quickly and easily make a website with the new version of Google Sites! Have you been using Google Classroom this year? If so, maybe next year you can invite parents to join your Google Classroom so they can see more closely the work their kids are doing! The more we share and involve, the more support and understanding there is!