Teaching & Learning Conference

Educational conferences are a great way to become inspired, renew passion, learn new skills, and connect with others in your Professional Learning Network. 

I am grateful that I am able to attend the North Carolina School Library Media Association's Conference each year. Our school district even pays for the fees. I was also able to attend the American Association of School Libraries National Conference back in 2009 when it was held in Charlotte, NC. I've been fortunate enough to attend a few conferences hosted by the North Carolina Technology In Education Society.

I have learned that many teachers are not able to attend conferences. Our school system decided to hold its own mini-conference each August. Three years ago our school system invited all teachers to apply to teach at the district's annual Teaching & Learning Conference. This will be my third year teaching at it.  Here are my resources from those conferences. I hope you gain something from them!

Free Tech Tools for Teachers (2014)

SciGirls - STEAM for Boys AND Girls (2015)

1 Year, 2 Teachers, $10K in Free Materials (2016)

The Basics of a Twitter Chat

Why Twitter?  

Twitter is the happening place for educators. It’s full of great ideas!

Why an edchat?  

It helps me grow so I’m helping my kids more.

Tips:

• Introduce yourself at the beginning of the chat.

Ex. Hello! Tonya Fletcher, Media Coordinator, Franklin Elementary #SCSEdChat

• Answer a question like this:

A1 Student voice means students having options, students having opportunities to lead direction of instruction; personalized ed #SCSEdChat

• Tweets are limited to 144 characters.  

• Remember, everything you say in a tweet is public. I try to keep it positive.  You are able to private message a follower (friend), but be sure you are in the Message box.

• Abbreviations are used a lot.  Ss stands for students, Ts stands for Teachers, etc.

• You can go use the Search box to search for tweets for your chat (ex. #teacherfriends).

• There is a “Top” feed and a “Live” feed.  The live feed shows you all tweets as they happen.  If you are just popping in to read, favorite, or retweet something, the Top feed includes the most popular tweets.

Chats go very quickly.  I’m not always as fast as everyone else.  It can be hard to keep up.  You don’t have to answer all of the questions. It does help to know what the questions will be, but that's not always possible. Interact with other people during the chat.

Before you leave, follow at least five new people.  Grow your Professional Learning Network. I used to worry about “keeping up” with so many tweets if I followed lots of people.  Try not to worry about that!

We are #BetterTogether!

EPIC Academy

EPIC Academy: Game Inspired Professional Development.  What's that, you say?  PD that I can do from the comfort of my living room?  I can earn CEUs for having a Pinterest board?  For tweeting?  I can compete against others by earning XP (experience points)?  Count me in.

Lucas Gillispie is the force behind this. He's our system's Director of Academic and Digital Learning. He's also got a lengthy resume of some cooler sounding titles, like international speaker and winner of a Virtual Excellence Award. He blogs at EduRealms.com. (Sidenote - I attended his session on MinecraftEdu at NCSLMA way back in 2012. Who knew he'd be in our Central Office a couple of years later?)

EPIC really has been a game changer for me.  It is what got me hooked on Twitter as an educator.  It's why I started blogging. It is how I've been exposed to some high quality thought-provoking content online (ex. Ted Talks.) For each quest there's usually a reflective component or a performance based task, such as creating content for your lessons using Google Apps. Other topics include Skype, coding, augmented reality, and SAMR.

All in all, I'm proud of how far I've come this past year or so.  I feel like the Imagination Chapter and EPIC experiences have made me a lot braver. I am certainly more open to taking more risks. And thanks to Twitter, it's easier to find opportunities like the Finch Robot Loan Program.
 
Go check EPIC out.  Sign up and tell him Tonya sent you.

PS Check out my cool banner!

21st Century Learning

The Surry County Schools Educational Foundation raises funds for mini-grants, STEMmersion experiences for educators, and endowments. The Foundation held a dinner in May to thank its major supporters. 

My colleague Shaunda York and I were able to share some of the 21st century learning our kids are doing. 

All in all, it was a very exciting night and I'm so glad we were able to spotlight our students!

21st Century Learning Presentation

News Article 

Summer Reading Activities

Franklin’s Summer Reading Project

Top Ten Things to Do this Summer

1. Read, Read, Read! Enjoy your free books!

2. Use your Reading Calendars.  Color in a block whenever you complete that activity.  Complete 30 activities from the whole summer and you will receive some cool prizes in August. (You do not have to do the activity on the specific date for it to count.)

June     English Spanish
July       English Spanish
August  English Spanish

3. Visit our Little Free Library in front of the office.

4. Go to the Mount Airy Public Library’s Summer Reading programs. These are held every Thursday June 23-July 28 at 2pm. The first one will be HUGE!

5. Join us at our Comic Con Jr event on Tuesday, June 28 from 3:30-4:30pm. Dress as a favorite character, receive a free comic book, and have fun making some comic creations. There will be prizes!

6. Come out to our Garden Morning Monday, July 18 from 8:00-9:30 AM. You will love the free books we have.

7. Read an ebook. The public library has a great selection!

8. Explore digital resources like PebbleGo and TrueFlix.

9. Keep a journal.

10. Snap a photo of you reading in a special place – maybe you are on a trip or maybe you have a favorite spot.  Send those as a message to our facebook page or email them to fletchert@surry.k12.nc.us. 

Memorial Day Group eBook

Thanks to Shannon Miller our school was able to participate in the Winter Around the World global ebook project. She started a public Google Slide and invited schools to participate.  More than 250 schools did! 

The next group ebook she hosted was Celebrations Around the World. We made a Padlet about how we celebrate our birthdays (after researching birthday customs around the world).

We are currently researching Memorial Day. Today one of my classes suggested that we talk to someone online about the holiday. I decided to create a Google Slide and invite other schools to add pages.  Fingers crossed we get some responses! 

tinyurl.com/2016memday

IO Blocks from Guidecraft

We had the fortunate opportunity to try out IO Blocks from Guidecraft. This was my first time hosting a Tryazon party. We give these blocks two thumbs up!

When we first opened the container of the blocks, my middle school son joined my younger son and started building with him. I was amazed because he has outgrown the playing with blocks stage. Even he thought these blocks were cool.

I've never seen any other blocks like these. There are 12 unique shapes and six colors of blocks that interlock. I was impressed with the feel of the blocks. They are soft-touch plastic. The kit came with a set of cards that show you which blocks are used in each creation. Overall the kids were split on building by looking at the creativity cards and creating their own designs.

I could see these used in a classroom, a makerspace, a daycare, and at home. Teachers could use them for puzzles, engineering, and teaching concepts like symmetry.

There is an augmented reality app but I had trouble loading it on my phone. I can't wait to try that again. 

Overall I was very pleased with these blocks and would recommend them to a friend or colleague. They are available online from sites like Amazon, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, and Guidecraft.

Happy Building!