ACTE CONFERENCE REFLECTION

The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) offers multiple professional development opportunities, such as conferences. Transformed our notion of what students need to be prepared for their future- a combination of technical knowledge & skills from career field, academic knowledge & skills, & 21st century skills such as communication & technology.

What insights does this reveal for our team?
There is indeed a demand for a curriculum that connects to real life experiences and potential career, and thematic instruction that ties into real-life careers/scenarios in order to create an authentic learning experience that maximizes students’ learning. As a TIIP team, we can supply those tools and resources.

How might this collaborative understanding matter to other educators and our students?
This collaborative understanding matters to teachers because they need resources to create lessons which are student-centered, and it matters to students because it will offer them the opportunity to engage in relevant and meaningful learning experiences.

ADAPTIVE SCHOOLS INSTITUTE and TEXT REFLECTION

We attended the Adaptive Schools foundational leadership training as a team to develop common language for effective groups. The learning has helped us focus on our strategies for collaboration through strategies, tools, and concepts. We engaged in constructive learning to create and sustain our Professional Learning Community.


What insight does this reveal for our team?
As teachers who collaborate with various stakeholders in myriad settings, we realize that we need time to attend to the “how” of what we do on a daily basis. Our meetings have had greater focus because we share a common language regarding effective meeting structures. The Adaptive Schools text has been invaluable for helping us review and refine our strategies toolboxes.
 

How might this collaborative understanding matter to other educators and our students?
Skillful teaching is integral to a skillful meeting. Honoring what participants bring to the table and crafting engaged participant outcomes for collaboration has tremendous implications for teaching and learning in and out of classrooms.

COGNITIVE COACHING CONFERENCE and TEXT REFLECTION

Cognitive Coaching has many levels of trainings to meet the needs of the participants. Mylene has been attending advanced sessions and co-facilitating foundational seminars, Our learning has helped us focus on our strategies for inquiry through skillful listening, deliberate paraphrases, and precise questions.
 

What insight does this reveal for our team?
As teachers who ask questions throughout the day, we have many opportunities to practice the verbal and non-verbal skills. We also know that we need time and space to practice with each other to refine the process of pausing, paraphrasing, pausing, and inquiring. The Cognitive Coaching text, learning guides, and maps have provided us with research-based structures to expand thinking.
 

How might this collaborative understanding matter to other educators and our students?
Questions abound in classrooms through texts, assessments, activities, etc. The more we model open-ended questions and time for students to think about their responses, the greater their responses in complexity. A gradual release method supports the transition to student-generated questions and their development of self-directedness for inquiry.
 

CUE CONFERENCE REFLECTION

Computer Using Educators (CUE) Conferences provide differentiated, hands-on learning for instructional technology. Each of us attended different workshops at this conference based upon individual interest and relevance to content area, although our overall goal was to discover ways in which technology might enable collaboration. Through workshops attended including "If Socrates Had the Internet," "Above and Beyond the 4Cs (Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Critical Thinking)," and "Digital Storytelling" we discovered new websites, applications, and strategies for integrating technology within content curriculum to enhance daily instruction.

What insight does this reveal for our team?
This experience gives us specific examples for how to use technology to make learning more engaging and tied to real-life experiences and interests. As teacher leaders, we are able to see the implications for sharing lessons with members of our SLC and to engage in collaborative lesson planning. We have also been introduced to a number of resources that can make connections across and between school sites using sites like Edmodo, My Big Campus, and Twitter.

How might this collaborative understanding matter to other educators and our students?
Our hope is to create a greater awareness and understanding of how to strengthen student engagement and promote inquiry through technology as a means of connecting to thematic learning. we are inspired by the possibilities presented for extending learning beyond the classroom using discussion tools on the sites listed above. We see positive implications for reaching ELL students and students with disabilities that make traditional classroom learning challenging. The "flipped" classroom also appeals to a certain "cool" factor for our students--using YouTube, Twitter, and iMovie on mobile devices taps into technology our students already use but encourages academically appropriate digital citizenship.

Perhaps our most important learning from this conference is the realization that function should dictate form. There are many flashy and free digital resources for students. The challenge comes in figuring out when to use each tool. Twitter may be a fantastic forum for recording a "back channel" commentary feed during a Socratic Seminar, but may not serve as a tool for collaborating on longer writing assignments. Appropriateness and intention should guide how and why we use technology as educators.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. What are you learning about our team?
2. What are you noticing about teams with which you work?
3. What might be some implications of this section of our project for classroom practices?