{"success":true,"data":[{"ID":458,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1414872285,"CreatorID":2243,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Mentoring Passion","Handle":"mentoring_passion","ShortDescription":"Building mentorship relationships into passion-driven inquiry projects empowers learners of all grades and levels. Learn how an elementary librarian and a high school English teacher connected their student learners, establishing mentors for the inquiry process.","Description":"Passion inspires, it connects, and it empowers learners. This session will focus on how building choice, connections, and mentors into inquiry-based writing assignments can foster student reflection and ownership of learning. As elementary students engaged in passion-based inquiry projects, they connected with high school students completing a similar research project, forging a mentorship connection. Students collaborated to share their research and reflections. In addition to the upper level students mentoring their younger partners, the high school students sought mentor relationships with experts in their field of inquiry, passing that knowledge on to their elementary partners. Students learned with and from one another. Mentors matter.\r\n\r\nParticipants in this session will have an opportunity to see how collaborative 2.0 tools helped both elementary and high school students share their research with real audiences beyond the walls of their classroom. Building in opportunities for students to discover their own mentors and models for writing, connect with experts outside of the classroom, and make choices on how to best share their discoveries empowers students to engage in their written work with a more critical and reflective focus. When students have both purpose and audience for their writing endeavors, magic happens!","Link":["http:\/\/bit.ly\/MentoringPassion","http:\/\/about.me\/jenniferward","http:\/\/christinabrennan.wordpress.com\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Educators will meet in small groups to reflect on how mentorship connections can be built into existing inquiry-based and\/or research projects. Small groups will collaborate to design lesson materials and research possible connections and partners. As groups craft their lesson materials, session participants will work with students and teachers who have previously participated in building mentorship opportunities into student inquiry projects. The session will feature its own mentorship opportunities! Session participants will share their materials via digital tools which will allow for participants to return to session materials well beyond EduCon.","Presenter":["Jennifer Ward","Christina Brennan"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Haverford Township School District"],"PresenterEmail":["ms.jen.ward@gmail.com","christina.m.brennan@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":43,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":2243,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":469,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1414898457,"CreatorID":3801,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Beyond the Hype: Designing Environments That Best Support Student Learning","Handle":"beyond_the_hype--designing_environments_that_best_support_student_learning","ShortDescription":"Learning environments are not shaped by wheels on tables, 1:1 programs, or 3D printers (although they help), they are defined by the learning experiences you design. We will explore how to create environments that empower students to own their own learning.","Description":"For all the tech gizmos you can buy and tables you can put on wheels, learning environments, and in turn the experiences they create, are only as powerful as the culture and curricula that determine how you use them.\r\n\r\nThis conversation will offer attendees the opportunity to identify what is beneath the hype and glitz of educational technology and classroom makeovers. Combining theory and practice, attendees will be exposed to and build upon strategies that will ensure they are able to take advantage of available spatial and technological opportunities while utilizing those resources to best support students owning their own learning*. \r\n\r\n*As defined by the likes of Dylan Wiliam, John Hattie, and TONS of other great minds.","Link":["http:\/\/notosh.com","http:\/\/davidsbill.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Through a series of provocations and activities, attendees will explore each layer of a learning experience and how digital and physical environments can ensure that those experiences best support students so they can define, explore, and build solutions to the problems they seek to answer. \r\n\r\nAttendees will walk away from the session with a series of ideas or considerations that will help them shape their learning environments to best support their students' learning explorations.","Presenter":["David Bill"],"PresenterAffiliation":["NoTosh"],"PresenterEmail":["david@notosh.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":45,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":3801,"AdditionalComments":"Hi, y'all! Hope you're doing well. Hopefully I'll see ya in Philly! \r\n\r\nThanks for all your hard work in making Educon THE edu conference. \r\n\r\ndb","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":418,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1412964540,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"How teachers can redesign their schools","Handle":"how_teachers_can_redesign_their_schools","ShortDescription":"This conversation will seek to provide a space to share best practices, resources & student reflection from Kensington CAPA's teacher led instructional redesign, in order to cultivate ideas & designs for teachers who desire to make positive change at their schools.","Description":"Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School is a high needs, neighborhood public high school in Philadelphia, that serves a disproportionately high number of Emotional Support, Special Education, & English Language Learning students. KCAPA teachers have undertaken a redesign of their school, with a focus on reading, writing & research. In order to support this redesign, this group of teachers made the commitment to overhauling their curriculum, and adopting a 1:1 Chromebook model. \r\n\r\nOur conversation will detail the three stages of our initiative: Developing a Vision, Pre-Rollout & Iteration. The conversation will seek to provide a space to discuss, generate and share best practices and resources for teachers who are keen to undertake similar teacher-led initiatives at their schools. This includes working with administration, instructional technology resources, and issues to consider when redesigning.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"This conversation's purpose is to share best practices & student reflection, in order to instill in teachers the resolve to make instructional change at their schools.\r\n\r\nOur conversation will begin with a poll about types of change teachers want to make at their school. After the poll has been collected, we will ask teachers who chose the same instructional or school based categories to form groups. \r\n\r\nEach group will be given chart paper & will have a student from KCAPA paired with them. The conversation will focus on 3 stages \u2013 Developing a Vision, Pre-Rollout & Iteration. Going through each stage sequentially, we will share best practices and hurdles\/successes that we faced. Then, we will ask groups to develop & think deeply about how these stages might look concerning their shared focus. In so much, groups will be asked to envision hurdles & develop questions about each stage, in order to share them with the large group & discussion facilitators, so that potential solutions can be generated.","Presenter":["Andrew Biros","Montgomery Ogden","Charlie McGeehan","Erin Feerick","Charles O'connor","Ismael Jiminez","and Honor Furtek"],"PresenterAffiliation":["School District of Philadelphia"],"PresenterEmail":["Andrew.Biros@gmail.com","joshuakleiman@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":46,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":431,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1414340205,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Teaching STEM with Fiction","Handle":"teaching_stem_with_fiction","ShortDescription":"Has an ecosystem ever been presented more memorably than in Richard Adams\u2019 novel Watership Down? Stories are humanity\u2019s most enduring form of knowledge and have a vital place in STEM learning. Join in creating a library of fiction for teaching STEM, a pioneering resource of material and practice!","Description":"Has the balance and interdependence of an ecosystem ever been presented with more memorable clarity than in Richard Adams\u2019 novel Watership Down? The Common Core asks teachers to distinguish between literary texts and informational texts, but is there really always a difference? \r\n\r\nStories are the most effective, enduring form of information exchange humanity has ever employed and there\u2019s no reason the power of fiction should be kept out of STEM learning. When presented through literary passages, plots and metaphors, STEM material becomes more approachable by a wider spectrum of learners. Future scientists and engineers learn to communicate their expert understandings through accessible, narrative models rather than technical jargon. Art and science openly fortify and vitalize one another.\r\n\r\nStep across those departmental boundaries and share that literary anecdote you use to present a logical principle! What\u2019s that movie scene you show to illustrate a math concept? Which novel must be the guidebook for some deep science exploration? With literacy now recognized as a component of all learning, we need to share our discoveries, enthusiasms and even our vague inklings of the fiction texts that fertilize STEM.\r\n\r\nIn this conversation we will pool our literary-scientific insights and inspirations and then explore and analyze the titles by discipline, genre and narrative principle. The resulting bibliography of STEM fiction can then be used to schematize and better understand the modes, capabilities and likely sources of fiction for the study of STEM. Join in creating this pioneering resource of both material and practice!","Link":["http:\/\/www.storycode.info"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"This topic is in such an undeveloped state exactly because there has never been a space to have the conversation. In the event that broad and forward thinking teachers are not overflowing with contributions to the conversation, a framework such as the one below could be gently put in place.\r\n\r\n1) Arrival Activity (10 minutes): contribute to a projected Google sheet...\r\nCol. 1: fiction work you\u2019ve used to model a STEM principle\/behavior\/concept\r\n            Example: Flatland for dramatizing 2 and 3 dimensional spaces\r\nCol. 2: a \u201crich text\u201d, a work of fiction you believe could be worth reading in its \r\n            entirety for a particular STEM exploration\r\n            Example: Moby Dick for marine biology and ecology\r\nCol. 3: a work of fiction you love\/hope to use in some way to teach STEM\r\n            Example: The Maltese Falcon for ...?\r\n\r\n2) Present (3 minutes):\r\n- image, Scratch\u2019s fundamental theatrical metaphor\r\n- drama: one of humanity\u2019s oldest forms of teaching\r\n- the power of metaphor, the power of stories\r\n\r\n3) Share Col. 1: fiction participants have used to model STEM material \r\n- Participants vote for the works of fiction they most want to hear about.\r\n- Individual contributors explain their practice. Others comment.\r\n- Note taker visibly records conversation on a new projected sheet:\r\n                Title \/ STEM Topic \/ Use \/ Notes\r\n\r\n4) Share Col. 2: \u201crich texts\u201d for teaching STEM\r\n- Proceed as above with titles and information added to the same sheet.\r\n\r\n5) Create Schema: organizing & understanding how texts support STEM\r\n- Participants suggest important top level elements of our texts, such as STEM areas to which a text applies, genre of text, mode in which the text is employed, etc.\r\n- Note taker records suggestions on projected word processing document.\r\n- Participants suggest methods of organizing our texts, such as lists and matrices  (e.g.: mechanical vs biological, applied vs theoretical).\r\n- Note taker presents suggested schema on projected slideshow document.\r\n- Share hypotheses drawn from various schema.\r\n- Note taker records suggestions on projected word processing document.\r\n\r\n6) Share Col. 3: using our favorite fiction to teach STEM\r\n- Participants brainstorm inspirations\/suggestions for using beloved fiction.\r\n\r\n7) Thanks much! Decide where & how to house and update our bibliography.","Presenter":["Lev Fruchter"],"PresenterAffiliation":["NEST+m","NYC DoE"],"PresenterEmail":["levfruchter@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":51,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":"Thanks for your consideration! - Lev","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":427,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1414101191,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"From Anxiety to Joy: Discussing the Emotional and Technological Anatomy of 21st Century Collaboration","Handle":"from_anxiety_to_joy--discussing_the_emotional_and_technological_anatomy_of_21st_century_collaboration","ShortDescription":"Technology provides possibilities to collaborate, but standing in the way of successful collaboration is a tremendous amount of ungrounded fear and anxiety that no one wants to name. We would like to stage a conversation that addresses  the emotional anatomy of collaborating in a 21st century digital learning space.","Description":"Our conversation explores how new technologies present promising opportunities for educators at different schools to learn the meaning of collaboration. Growing from a shared interest to try something \u201cnew,\u201d three teachers at different schools experimented to understand the organic but deliberate aspects of collaboration made possible by technology. We want to share that experience to invite participants to reflect intentionally on the emotional demands made by such projects on teachers and students. Modeling what we were learning about collaboration, both technologically and emotionally, students engaged in unexpected conversations, demonstrated knowledge through multiple media, and inspired critical thinking in all involved, demonstrating the relationship between teaching practices and student habits of mind. Students were empowered to formulate questions for real audiences, to understand through practice the relationship between purpose, audience, and word, and to analyze, create, and synthesize ideas through multiple modes of communication, all on the social space of the internet. What makes our prospective conversation unique is that we want to get others to talk about the elephant in the room - namely, what it feels like to take such risks. Standing in the way of successful collaboration is a tremendous amount of ungrounded fear and anxiety that no one wants to name, and that\u2019s a conversation we want to explore. What did it feel like to collaborate? What did it feel like to yield to others? What were the anxieties? What were the joys? How do we get past such anxiety to connect to collaborative communities of joy?","Link":["http:\/\/dubliners2013.blogspot.com\/; http:\/\/wereadr3.blogspot.com\/; https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0B2IkraEAu1OfMUtJNUFzRnhiQUU\/view?usp=sharing"],"Audience":["High School"],"Practice":"After sharing a very short version of our story, we will generate conversation by pairing up groups to share ideas based on situational questions we distribute, and our discussion starters would be based on scenarios where we (in our previous collaborative experience) encountered challenges or difficulties emotionally speaking. Groups would discuss the question, and an appointed person from each discussion circle would then share their \"best\" ideas\/responses on a google doc we'll have set up for everyone. (The google doc will also contain links to our web resources from our previous collaborative projects, and the google doc will be permanent so attendees can reference it later.) After each discussion starter, we'll share a little about how we responded to such challenges in our own experience as well. Some of the issues we would want to discuss would be (1) how do we get colleagues to collaborate? (2) where are the boundaries when collaborating via media and web 2.0 technologies? (3) what do we do when we cross into an \u201cout-of-boundary\u201d area? (4) how do we improve each other\u2019s ideas without criticizing the other? (5) how does one handle moments of professional jealousy that no one wants to talk about? (6) when do we yield to others? (7) who owns what in a completely collaborative endeavor? (8) what are the joys to be experienced when overcoming such hurdles? (9) what kind of similar demands do we make on our students? To inspire as much sharing as possible, we\u2019ll be providing details from our story that give specificity and context to these emotionally difficult questions. We\u2019d also like to skype in a student to share their perspective on the experience.\r\n\r\nHere's an audio clip (w\/ images) of us talking together: https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0B2IkraEAu1OfMUtJNUFzRnhiQUU\/view?usp=sharing","Presenter":["Jared Colley","Joel Garza"],"PresenterAffiliation":["The Oakridge School","Greenhill School"],"PresenterEmail":["jcolley@theoakridgeschool.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":53,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":"Please take a listen to a sample of this conversation in the form of a podcast we made and set to some images and video:\r\nhttps:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0B2IkraEAu1OfMUtJNUFzRnhiQUU\/view?usp=sharing\r\n(This was a draft of what we put together for K12 Online this year)","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":439,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1414620087,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Forget FBLA...We're Creating Social Entrepreneurs Today","Handle":"forget_fbla...we-re_creating_social_entrepreneurs_today","ShortDescription":"Our conversation will address the missing yet essential elements of most schools\u2019 curricular programs:  innovation and social justice.  We\u2019ll discuss how the two can be combined in a Social Entrepreneurs class in which students merge their own passions with a need in their community to develop a student-run business.","Description":"Our conversation will explore the journey students would take in a Social Entrepreneurs class, an authentic problem-based course. Students in the course will learn about themselves as members of an organization, about themselves as collaborators, and about their learning styles.  This course is not theoretical; students will translate their ideas into a working business model beyond the classroom.  Ultimately, students in this course will become part of an educated, ethical, and empathetic classroom community.\r\n\r\nParticipants in our conversation will follow the scope of the course by engaging in self-reflection and by identifying our passions.  From there we will marry our passions with a social justice need in our communities.  Next we will organize into functional teams and engage in early stages of the design thinking process such as research and empathy.  We can fast-pace the simulation by plunging into the final element of the course and the latter components of design thinking as we iterate business plans for our student-run business.\r\n\r\nWe will conclude the conversation by discussing ways to bring this type of course into our schools, the challenges such a course presents, and the benefits of this type of offering for students.","Link":["http:\/\/www.mmreesescott.com","http:\/\/joeystarnes.blogspot.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We will deliver surveys for the self-reflection and passion identification via Google Forms.  From there we will capture participants\u2019 work via Google Docs or Padlet and will share our resources through a Smore page.","Presenter":["Melissa Scott","Joey Starnes","Shannan Schuster","Lisa Williams","Karen Davis"],"PresenterAffiliation":["The Children's School","Flint Hill School","Friends' Central School","Saint David's School"],"PresenterEmail":["melissas@thechildrensschool.com","mmreesescott@gmail.com","jstarnes@flinthill.org","sschuster@friendscentral.org","lwilliams@flinthill.org","ksdavisteacher@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":54,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4}],"conditions":{"Status":"Accepted","ConferenceID":4,"ScheduleLocationID":3},"total":6,"limit":false,"offset":false}