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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Post CPA Teacher Colleague Conference and the Great #ECOO13 Conference... thoughts

The past two weeks have been busy:

Friday, Oct 18th at the lovely Royal York Hotel 

I had the pleasure of presenting the Flipped Accounting Classroom to approximately 50 of my Accounting Teacher Colleagues from around the province.  It was a lot of fun.  What I learned from that experience is that Accounting Teachers Rock and make for a great audience.  They were very interested and had many questions.  I will put a link to my dropbox presentation here for those who want to take a look at it.  Presentation Slides

Also, Jennifer Diebolt, Senior Liaison Officer with CPA, asked me to return for the second conference scheduled for Nov 1st.  Unfortunately, I am not available and have agreed to make a video for that.  I have done it and will post it here in this blog soon.  I want them all to have a chance to see it there first!!  After all, I made it for them!!

October 24th-25th, #ECOO13 Conference in Niagara

Again, I had the great pleasure of presenting on the Flipped Classroom at this amazing conference.  This is the second year I have attended and presented.  I had the honour of presenting with my amazing colleagues @MathManAnusic, @Courtin44, @SimonaM1000 and @MathRocks47.  (I'm @LadyFitzee for those who do not know).  We presented the PDSB's journey to the flipped classroom and although we only had 45 mins, we were able to give a good diverse high level overview of different approached to flipping, advice to get started, as well as, the wonderful support the PDSB provides to teachers like us willing to try new things.  Here is a link to that presentation (you will notice some overlap to the above one I posted) #ECOO13 Presentation

Although presenting was amazing, I took away a bunch of great things away from the conference that I tweeted out.  My favourite thoughts were as follows:

  • "There are people who do things... and there are people who attack people who do things"  (We need to get more students to be the ones "doing" not "attacking.
  • "Every kid needs to be talked to EACH day about what they can do with their technology"  (At CPSS, we have started Digital Citizenship Days - stay tuned for that... I will blog about it and share lessons)
  • "When you hit "like" you are signing the petition for LIFE! - Don't give it away easily"  (Kids need to be taught and cautioned that they could really get into trouble with the "like" button.  Don't "like" other peoples bad decisions)
  • "Teach students to "let it hang" until it hangs them! Don't say a thing..... "  (If students are attacked on line.... teach them to ignore and not attack back.. this is KEY)
  • "Are you bringing people up or tearing people down? LIFT PEOPLE UP!! - Dont' Drive by - Get beat up too!"  (Support those who need it.... even if it means you too, will get hurt protecting or standing up for another sole who really needs the PUBLIC support.  Private support is not helpful... stand up PUBLICLY.)
  • "Kids get in trouble when they THINK they have a secret life"  (Kids need to understand that NOTHING is SECRET in the Digital World.... They need to build themselves a positive brand)
  • Have students "google alert" themselves to manage their digital footprint. (They might be surprised what they see about themselves)
  • Tell Kids "Don't create the armament that will bring you down in the future - Bank the good stuff" (Again, students need to start building a positive brand)
  • "Research from Stanford says NO ONE is a MULTI-TASKER.. we are FAST SWITCHERS"  (We think we are, but our attention is not great... something is NOT ATTENDED TOO)
  • Kids go fast! 110 social decisions per minute. It's not virtual if it can effect your real life. It's one life.  (They really need to think before hitting "send', "share", "like", "post", etc.)
  • Our mistakes aren't googleable but the ones of our kids are. They are building a digital legacy.  (We were so lucky as teens.  We made mistakes that only few people saw.. now when kids make mistakes the whole world can see and it CAN affect them for LIFE)
  • "Kids should be creators not consumers of on-line content"  (Teach them to build, share, teach, be creative... again, build positive digital footprint)
  • In ten years my cutting edge devices will be a joke to the next generation... Needs to be about the teaching not the device.   (One of my favourites.  This high tech MacBook Pro that I'm typing this on will be a complete joke to our kids when they are our age..... so true... what will it be like, in even 5 or 10 years?)
  • Both and reinforced the power of kids teaching kids via technology.  (I have already started with my own kids at home.... create, share and post the good helpful stuff to society.)
  • Remember when the tech at school was way better than the tech at home?! Not the case anymore. A def motivation for BYOD  (We really need to embrace technology and what power it gives students at their fingertips- Use it in your class)
  • No one showed up today thinking. " oh thank god there is electricity here". "Wifi will soon follow"  (Funny, but true.... wifi will be EVERYWHERE soon.. and we will EXPECT it... some of us already do...)
  • "Education can change a family's destiny in just one generation" Jaime Casap. Too true  
  • The Technasium and Flipnasium at Rick Hansen SS provide for a great way to allow teachers to learn in a SAFE Environment.  See my awesome colleagues @jrichea's BLOG and @jimmyblackwood 's blog.  
Finally, Last Minute Thoughts to improve my classroom still....(PLC related)
  • I'm starting a Gr 12 peer tutoring program for my 11 Accounting.  12's on spare, will come in and help me support my students in 11 who are struggling.  I look forward to this.  I've already contacted several parents about this and they are on-board and excited that we are going to try to provide even more support to their kids.
  • I learned from my buddy @MathManAnusic a trick that I can't believe I didn't think of..... I'm going to take up my test via video.  I always hate taking up tests, because so many who did well - it is a waste of their time (they think), the ones who struggled.. need more one-on-one.. so I will do that going forward.
  • I will also make mini-videos on little topics.  Example: in Grade 11 accounting so many kids struggle with the "solving for variables in equations" math issue. (Not really accounting, but it comes up several times).  I am going to make really short video's about this for them too!!
  • I will also try to make more videos with me in it and using different technology i.e. my document camera.
Cheers, until next time!