ITTIP Monthly Newsletter
October 2012
Monthly Megabite ITTIP Launches New Website
Up-Coming Events Oct 6th, Digispired ii: Student Academy 13th, & (9am-3pm) - Longwood 27th University, Virginia State University, & Southern Virginia Higher Education Center Oct 17th SVRTC Meeting (10am) Nottoway High School Auditorium
ITTIP is proud to announce the launch of their new website. Although the URL has remained the same (http://www.ittip.org), the navigation through the contents has been revised, as well as the look itself. The Projects page will give an overview of all the current professional development opportunities that ITTIP is offering, as well as the projects that are underway — as some of them are covered over the course of a year or years. It will also give you links to previous projects the Institute has been a part of.
What to find in this month’s Megabite: Page 1 New Website Launch Page 2 ELHSS: Online
Another tab that will be useful to educators, is Learning Resources. Here you will find links to everything from our Moodle courses to learning tutorials, YouTube Channel and more! Please note that some of these page links are still under construction.
Page 2 Snow Creek Elementary
You will also find tabs for information about us, ITTIP news, and contacts. Please do not hesitate to add our webpage link to your school or division website. Help your teachers learn about the various opportunities ITTIP offers educators and students to promote life long learners.
Page 3 First SVRTC Meeting
Page 2 Global Conference
Enabling Today’s Teachers to Educate Tomorrow’s Leaders 1
ITTIP Monthly Newsletter
October 2012
Engaged Learning in History and Social Science (ELHSS) - Graduate Credit Course ITTIP’s staff, Dr. Mano Talaiver , Paula Klonowski Leach and Stephanie Playton are currently teaching an online class for grade 4-6 history teachers as part of the continuing activities from the SCHEV funded ELHSS grant. This class is being taught as a three credit graduate course on Moodle. There are a total of 24 participants from the counties of Chesterfield, Nottoway, Brunswick, Hopewell, Cumberland and Mecklenburg. They are currently broken into two separate online cohorts. The focus of this class is to examine and evaluate emerging technology tools for supporting 21st century learning in social studies (history and social science) classrooms. Teacher participants will produce unit plans for instructional implementation based on understanding by design framework, inquiry based engaged learning, and the 21st century skills framework.
ITTIP Visits Snow Creek Elementary On September 25th ITTIP’s staff, Bill Wilson and Stephanie Playton, had the pleasure of visiting Snow Creek Elementary School in Franklin County. During their visit they were able to record and observe three classrooms (two 4th grade and one 5th grade) and interview four teachers (Laurie Young and Janice Vice—4th grade, Martha Warner, 5th grade, and Miriah Eienmann—Math Specialist). Two of the classrooms were doing a mathematics lesson using manipulative, while the third classroom was doing a STEM lesson. Miriah Eisenmann, is responsible for making this experience happen. Miriah had previously been a participant of ITTIP’s CoMPD program and was able to share her learning with teachers from her school. She then set up the opportunity for ITTIP to observe and record these classrooms implementing the newly learned strategies. Continued on page 3
Above: Laurie Young challenges her students to solve math problems using multiple strategies.
Global Education ITTIP takes Technology Conference Around the World The Global Education Conference is a world-wide collaborative community involving students, educators, and organizations at all levels. This year, they are doing their third annual free week-long online conference event Monday, November 12th through Friday, November 16th. You will need to create a free login previous to the conference in order to access it: http:// www.globaleducationconference.com/ Last year’s conference featured 340 general sessions and 18 keynote addresses from all over the world with over 10,000 participant logins. The conference is presented online using the Blackboard Collaborate platform. The conference is still seeking presenters with ideas, examples, and projects related to connecting educators and classrooms with a strong emphasis on promoting global awareness, fostering global competency, and inspiring action towards solving real–world problems. Through this event, attendees will challenge themselves and others to become more active citizens of the world. They are currently accepting proposals until October 15th. As a participant of the conference, you are encouraged to learn, question, create, and engage in meaningful, authentic opportunities within a global context!. You can learn more about the 2012 conference by visiting their website or viewing their Prezi. 2
ITTIP Monthly Newsletter
Snow Creek Elementary (continued from page 2)
October 2012
First SVRTC Meeting
The first two classrooms observed showed how the teachers used base ten block manipulatives to teach children how to multiply. This learning opportunity helped to address multiple learning styles and students were also able to assist their peers in collaborative groups. Both teachers, Laurie Young and Janice Vice, did an excellent job of implementing this lesson in their classrooms. The student learning observed was very positive.
The Southern Virginia Regional Technology Consortium (SVRTC) held its first meeting of the 2012-13 year on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 at the Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center. Members voted Christie Clarke from Dinwiddie County as the new co-chairman to replace Anita Harris. Christie will serve along with Liz Jamerson from Cumberland County. The SVRTC will change the meeting location from the Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center to Nottoway High School mini auditorium for the October 17th meeting. The November 20th meeting will be held at the Keysville’s Heartland Business Park.
The STEM lesson that was observed was in Martha Warner’s 5th grade science classroom. During her interview she mentioned that the focus of her school year was to make sure to integrate SOL 5.1, the Nature of Science, throughout the school year, and not just as a stand alone standard.
At the meeting, ITTIP shared that there will be a monthly newsletter published that will be sent out to members informing them of upcoming professional development opportunities and other items of interest. Dr. Talaiver reported that Longwood is requiring ITTIP to do assessment planning which gave an opportunity to revisit ITTIP’s mission and goals. Ms. Klonowski Leach showcased the revised ITTIP website which will allow members to easily navigate to find information on current projects. The site will also include links to the Institute’s YouTube channel and tutorials along with other instructional items to provide resources for teachers. Ms. Playton informed members that she taught (10) Dinwiddie middle school girls how to design using the Lilypad Arduino. The girls were excited to create using a computing aspect. The learning was then extended to both boys and girls while working with (65) Digispired ii students using the Lilypad Arduino board. Each Digispired students was given a Lilypad kit and will complete a project by October 27th. Ms. Klonowski Leach additionally reported on the summer’s professional development with the VA STEM CoNNECT partnership with (6) other institutions that was held in Dinwiddie with (17) teachers in attendance. Ms. Playton informed members on the INSPIRS professional development including two cohorts this summer with a total of (13) teachers in attendance. They will be recruiting for a third cohort. Mr. Wilson reported that the ITTIP and SVRTC has acquired 5 new HD LifeSize video conferencing systems that can be delivered to school divisions participating in ITTIP delivered professional development. Mr. Wilson also reported that ITTIP now has web conferencing capability provided through Adobe Connect allowing for up to 100 participants per session.
Above: Martha Warner tests one of the egg drop containers designed by her students.
During her observed lesson, she had her students designing and redesigning an egg drop container, a big component of the engineering design process. They worked in small groups to purchase items for their container and find out the economic related components to their design (mathematics) . They also used iPads (technology) to record group brainstorming and collaboration, as well as for recording them testing their designs in relation to force, energy and motion— a review of SOL 4.2 (science). You could clearly see the engagement, learning, and excitement in this lesson for the students. As a result of this visit, the Institute will be creating video reflections and descriptions of the lessons. These will be posted with the unveiling of an online project that is currently under construction.
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